Trend Snapshots 2015+

Self-Tracking: Real-Time Health + Human-Centric
Smart living drives a better future, where business and people collaborate for mutual benefits. Real-time data will transform the traditional business model to one that delivers better services and customer experiences. Apple is changing self-measurement the way it changed music – with an entire Human-Centric platform and ecosystem for monitoring medicine, fitness and wellness. People want ‘intelligent’ options built in, as self-improvement boosts quality of life and wellbeing. There are currently 40,000+ health apps available and mHealth services and applications could be worth more than $11.5 billion globally by 2017.

Circular Economy: Green Growth + Sustainability
Today we consume 26 times more than we did 150 years ago. In this context, sustainability needs a serious make-over; only 28% of people know what terms like: ‘sustainable’, ‘responsible’, ‘eco friendly’ and ‘green’ really mean, and just 44% trust green claims from big brands. The Circular Economy is a vision to maximise resources and minimise waste to promote green growth, but to be successful you need a business case for sustainability. China has adopted the Circular Economy and its recycling industry is planned to be worth £183 billion by 2015.

Collaborative Culture: Sharing Economy + Social Value
Collaborative Consumption changes how we consume, work, travel and learn. Just think of the success of AirBnB and Zipcar. Some say that Collaborative Consumption generates enormous social value, but our current systems do not measure value created – only value captured. While the 20th-century focused on ownership, the 21st-century is about access, with sharing, mobility and affinity networks becoming the norm. Seoul is the world’s first official Sharing Economy – 60% of Koreans own a smartphone ­– with the city utilising Collaborative Culture as a civic and social problem-solving tool.

Betapreneurship: Disruptive Innovation + Female Power
The EU now promotes entrepreneurship as a career to encourage start-up communities that will contribute to Europe’s job creation, innovation and competitiveness. Betapreneurs are truly 21^st-century professionals who operate through a process of trial and error to make disruptive innovation happen. Resilient, self-reliant, and extremely potent, they are crafting the future – working solo, in small teams, or within large companies. Currently, only 30% of European entrepreneurs are women, but by 2020 in advanced economies, 2 in 3 graduates will be female, so their contribution will change the landscape of entrepreneurship.

Lifelong Learning: Augmented Reality + Deep Learning
Currently, the role of higher education is a global discussion – one where learners, not institutions, are in charge of both the conversation and the demand for innovative thinking. Campus-Centric old school approaches must evolve and embrace Digital-Centric new school MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Social structured learning is how to attract people to the rapidly growing flow of resources and create more opportunities for everyone. ‘Deep Learning’ – enabled by artificial neural networks and evolved ‘augmented reality’ – presents huge opportunities in everything from media and education to health, commerce and leisure.

Conscious Capitalism: Social Capital + Community
Hard data shows that, in the long run, conscious businesses outperform traditional ones by a wide margin. Brilliant business models are now driven by storytelling and Conscious Capitalism – leveraging networks to support local trade and create value and well-being simultaneously. Social capital is not just the sum of the institutions that underpin a society – it is the glue that holds them together. Community will drive brand experiences and foster a strong culture of innovation; almost 2/3 of people prefer to work for an organisation making a positive difference.

Radical Openness: Building Bridges + Collaboration
Movements for freedom of information are exploding – affecting everything in society from how we do business to who we choose to govern us. A global survey of 97,000 people in 30 countries found that 48% would not even recommend the company they work for. A good online reputation is your most valuable currency and smart organisations build bridges rather than walls by embracing values of openness and collaboration. Globally, 65% of people believe transparent and honest business practices are key to corporate reputation and trust.

Purpose Driven: Culture of Purpose + Inspired Action
When millenials make career decisions they look to organisations with a clearly defined culture of purpose. This is not about allocating more money to CSR, but revisiting your underlying business principles to make sure they sustain your organisation and benefit all stakeholders, including wider society. Great leaders inspire action and, as Simon Sinek reminds us: ‘If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.’

Images
1) Stockholm by Kjaer Global
2) Wim Wenders Cities and Clothes Yohji Yamamoto
3) Hampstead Heath by Kjaer Global
4) The Guardian film review