Don't Forget
Thursday
August 19, 1999
Trends That Will
Effect Your
Future!
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· Businesses will become on-to-one
enterprises and develop systems to
capture what they learn about a single
shopper across all delivery channels-in
stores, through catalogs and online-and personalizing their response to
individual customer interactions.
· The most successlul companies in the consumer direct channel will
be those
that cultivate learning relationships with
their best customers.
24-7 Economy
Globalization and technology are
creating a 24-7 economy -24 hours
a day, seven days a week. For most of
us, 9 to 5 is meaningless as a work
schedule, even industries where hourly
or shift work has been the norm.
Competition will insure continued
expansion of the workday. As a result, commutes will start earlier and last
longer.
Time starved low-income families will outsource family chores from grocery
shopping to children's car pools. More
families will engage in "split-shift"
parenting in an effort to raise children
and stay on the career path.
It's becoming increasingly apparent
that people can only lunction on over-
drive for so long. While 24-7 economy
will not change, what will change is how
we man-age it. Organizations will adapt
to a split-shift work-place, allowing
workers to divide their day any way they
like as long as they devote core hours to
their job. Debate over the work/life balance will be resolved in favor of
life as more burned-out employees leave high-stress
jobs in favor of time with family. But until then, there is enormous opportunity
for entrepreneurs who can help individuals buy time.
The Educated Consumer
The booming economy and the internet are converging to
create a curious paradox: Consumers' urge to splurge is growing even as they
develop an "I-got-it-cheaper-than-you" mentality. This schism will hold
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over the next few years as shoppers search
for the best products they can af-ford at the
lowest possible prices.
For many consumers, the booming
economy translates into an opportunity to
have the best their money or credit can buy,
raising concern that an economic slump
would cast a great many house-holds into
serious fmancial trouble. Meanwhile, some
earners in the top one percent tend to buy
modestly for their in-come bracket, thereby
creating this curi-ous consumer paradox
that will continue well into the next decade,
forcing produc-ers and sellers to careflilly
monitor con-sumer segrnents to ensure
continued sales.
Shell May Be Losing Patience
Shell may be losing patience with its
refining and marketing joint venture partnership
with Texaco.
The Equilon, Motiva and Equiva JV
companies are well beyond targets for cost-
cutting and profitability and Shell's top brass
are extremely disappointed. Financial perfor-
mance has not met goals and operations and
all three JV firms have been called sluggish
and slow.
As a result, Shell's chairman, Steve Miller,
says that each of the operations is being
reviewed as part of an ongoing company-wide restructuring aimed at shedding
$1 billion in
assets. "I don't really rule out selling any asset." Miller said in and interview
with the Wall Street Journal. Letters-of-intent for the sale of Equilon's
Wood River, Ill., and El Do-rado, Kan., refineries have already been inked,
and Miller hinted that more assets could be sold.
BP Amoco will sell LA. Refinery; eyes
huge cuts
BP Amoco's John Browne dropped another bombshell on the
refining and marketing community. But this time, the dynamic CBO is not adding
to the size of the integrated energy behemoth-instead, he is slashing costs
by some $10 billion
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