Economist Intelligence Unit has a new report, Foresight 2020: Economic, industry and corporate trends that attempts to answer a part of this question. You can download it for free at their site.
Three of the major findings are:
Globalisation. ‘Emerging markets, China and India in particular, will take a larger slice of the world economy. Non-OECD markets will account for a higher share of revenue growth between now and 2020 than OECD economies..”
Demographics. “ The favourable demographic profile of the US will help to spur growth; ageing populations in Europe will inhibit it. Industries will target more products and services at ageing populations, from investment advice to low-cost, functional cars.”
Atomisation. “Network technologies and globalisation will enable firms to better use the world as their supply base for talent and materials. Processes, firms, customers and supply chains will fragment as companies expand overseas. As a result, effective collaboration will become more important. The boundaries between different functions, organisations and even industries will blur.”
To me, this supports an increasing importance of collaborative commerce through virtual means. Tools like blogs and wikis will help facitiate this change.
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