What’s on the horizon for 2019?
This is the time of year when many business owners turn their thoughts to the future. We wonder if our sales will hold in the coming year; whether our expenses are going to rise. We try to predict whether we have the right team, right strategies, and the ability to face the future. Larger organizations often spend months developing a plan and a budget for the future, doing strategic and business planning for the upcoming year. They turn to experts and ask the question, “What do you think will happen?”
As my clients start planning for 2019 and consider opportunities and threats to their businesses, sometimes they turn to me for advice. As a result, I have been doing my research, in order to help them determine the best strategies for 2019 and beyond.
Possible U.S. economic slowdown
Christopher Barraud, an economist out of Paris ranked by Bloomberg as the most accurate forecaster of the American economy since 2012, says that change is in the air. He suggests that due to the US trade war with China, foreign tariffs to steel and other goods, and a possible oil price increase, the US might be in for a slowdown in 2019. These possible slowdowns could be a challenge to many companies that are reliant on discretionary income. Less effected will be businesses in areas that are fortunate enough to have larger projects or more diverse economic balance.
Technology will affect more change
Business Leader Magazine’s Barney Cotton suggests that data charges for mobile phones will continue to drop. Security challenges will continue to plague technology providers, and Amazon and Netflix will continue their expansion into the bricks and mortar business with Amazon expanding to Europe.
Auto industry changes
One doesn’t need to look far to see reoccurring predictions coming in the next year or two. Selfdriving cars will be a widespread reality. Also, numerous forecasts of some automakers moving away from gasoline and focusing solely on electric vehicles are appearing.
More web, less TV
Worldwide trends are going to continue to engage more people in digital media and less with television. It is expected that by 2019, the average person will be spending 45 minutes watching video online.
For business owners this might change the way that they market and interact with their customers. Audio commands are going to continue to drive technology and change how people are interacting with apps and devices. Due to an overabundance of digital interruptions and the onslaught into peoples’ personal lives, we will start to see significant number of people who take time away from technology. Don’t be surprised if you see technology addiction groups starting up.
Medicine, food and vitamins
As more people become concerned about the long-term environmental impact of plastics, look for a move away from traditional plastic packaging towards more biodegradable plastics in the food industry. In terms of food preparation, mushrooms will continue to become more popular as a food and medicine as we see a continued trend towards less meat and more plants! Medicines will continue to become more user specific based on genomes and virtual reality technology will probably start to play a part in some mind over body medical treatments.
Environmental
China, the world’s largest polluter will start to work on cleaning up the environment as health care costs related to pollution become prevalent. Expect to see advances in pollution treatment of waste water. Business is being stretched by this time of turbulent change. Past solutions are not going to have the same effect for businesses in the future. Strategies to ensure success and competitive advantage for our organizations are going to need to be different to be effective. As business leaders we need to determine what the best approach is for this next year and for the future. No one can predict with total accuracy what will happen in 2019. However. if we are prepared for possible outcomes, we can reduce our anxiety substantially and improve the ability of our teams to compete.