Throughout the coming year, predictors of doom paint a picture of the carcasses of once high-flying starts-ups stretched end-to-end encircling the globe. But that’s not going to happen. Some will go under, but many more "point-and-clicks" and "bricks-and-mortar" will converge as business strategists piece together the corporation of the future.
Successful companies will be those that form partnerships between old and new economy businesses, and those able to respond to changing markets even as they grow and turn their attention to the practical aspects of managing a business.
People, Productivity, Profitability, and Catering to Core Customers. As the dust settles, those expecting to survive through the next decade and beyond will turn their attention to the business at hand. Priorities in the coming year will include hiring and retaining employees, ensuring continued development of core competencies through ongoing education and training and managing the growing workplace generation gap.
Look for Continued Labor Shortages and an Aging Workforce Good people are hard to find. Good, skilled people are nearly impossible to find. Hiring and retaining workers will be the single greatest challenge employers will face in the next year.
Marketing Matters More Than Ever, But it’s Getting Harder to Be Heard Equal effort will be devoted to developing marketing strategies that successfully address the needs of an extraordinarily diverse and increasingly global marketplace. Conventional wisdom holds that there is no such thing as a global consumer, and therefore no such thing as a global brand.
One-to-one marketing evolved to serve these fragmented markets. Rather than be all things to all people, companies could learn more about each individual customer and sell them exactly what they want when they want it. In this way companies would build customer share and not market share, they would sell more goods or services to fewer customers. The end result would be a lower cost of customer acquisition and higher profits. It works for some products but not for all. This next year will be about companies finding what works for them.
Opportunity and Permission Marketing Still Gaining Ground Opportunity marketing will continue to be the strategic approach for many companies. Opportunity marketing is billboards on barges in the San Francisco Bay viewed by captive commuters with little to occupy them as they creep along in traffic. Opportunity marketing is placing stickers on fruit, playing video ads in ATM machines, or emblazoning logos on space ships, hot air balloons and grain silos. It also is placing messages on restroom walls, examining room doors in doctor’s offices and airplane video monitors as well as filling up the empty seconds between dialing a phone number and making the connection.
Permission marketing is still a popular
