Trend Spotting

I love to learn and firmly believe that this continual learning really does enrich my life. I’m also a compulsive ‘snipper’ – I have lots of articles, notes etc. that I have snipped out of magazines over the years – so much harder now with so many articles on-line…

I was going through some old cuttings at the weekend and found on written about Adjiedj Bakas in Jan 2007. He was the CEO of Dexter in Holland at the time and is a world renown expert on trend spotting and future insight and trends that will be coming around the corner. He now heads up Bakas. www.bakas.com

The profile included a few of his trend spotting thoughts on the future as he saw it 5 years ago. Here are his predictions:

1. “We’ll see salaries rise – it will be a bit more difficult to find good people at reasonable prices”. Salaries did indeed rocket – everywhere and we are now seeing the balance restored. And certainly in the last few years it’s been difficult to recruit really good people – a trend that I see continuing.
2. “We’ll see more nationalism, regionalism & protectionism from Western Europe and the US” Exactly what has happened and it’s continuing still!
3. “Be aware that we will have new groups of clients with different tastes” One of the most vital things a company must do is continually review what their customers want and assess when a new market is about to start. As BRICs countries gain wealth they become greater purchasers, the key though is what will they buy and why?
4. “The chocolate market is booming …. because the Chinese have started to eat it!” and I must have single handedly contributed to the growth of chocolate!
5. “…older people are coming back into the labour market because they are bored” Retirees are looking at a much longer retirement period and they want so much more from life – they also need money (pensions aren't paying as much now) but more than that they really want to work, be challenged, valued and paid!
6. “I actually see a lot of smaller businesses becoming more creative and innovative…. coalitions and partnerships to make a new product or service” The rise of the SME continues, globally and in the UK we now live under a coalition government. but in business collaboration grows and 2+2 does make 22 where partnerships and collaborations exist.

So, what for the next 5 years…. Trend Office Bakas at www.bakas.com may just have the insight that you need!