Upheavals

The new battlefield

Yesterday I told a group of delegates during a keynote that, in my opinion, we all faced a new battlefield.

As the internet changes how we do business, economies shrink, margins fall and more and more competitors converge on smaller and smaller territories, the new battleground I suggested is not each piece of business or even having the knowledge to do that business.

The new battleground is the much longer game of trust. It’s about who people choose to have a relationship with, and why they choose to continue having that relationship. And in that sense, it may well prove to be a greater equaliser between competing direct and intermediated models than cynics might give it credit for.

Value each relationship as if it were your last, I suggested yesterday, because if you don’t, one day you’ll be right.

Nice to see my opinion confirmed, at least in part today, reading what Eric Beinhocker, Ian Davis, and Lenny Mendonca from McKinsey & Company have identified in Harvard Business Review as the 10 trends to watch.

Strains on natural resources

A damper on globalization

The loss of trust in business

The growing role of government

Investment in quantitative decision tools

Shifting patterns of global consumption

The economic rise of Asia

Industry structure upheaval

Technological innovation

Price instability.

Any surprises for you here? What’s on your radar?

POSTED: Saturday, 15 August 2009

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