COMPANIES WILL COURTTHE WEALTHY AND INVEST MORE IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

It’s been an especially rough year for brick and mortar retailers. The pandemic sent shock waves with reduced foot traffic in stores and a rapid shift to online retail options. The result? Recordbreaking store closures and a fresh wave of retail bankruptcies. All of this leaves one sticky question: What do we do with all the vacant retail space? Some shops that remain vacant can be transformed into residential units. Large cities will continue to have the appeal of attracting large crowds, so retail real estate will continue to repurpose itself.

The global pandemic has created “a tale of two cities”. The people at the top will continue to do spectacularly well while the rest fall further further behind. In the wake of the pandemic, companies will be forced to follow the money in order to thrive or even survive. Operate a movie theater that has been sitting largely empty? Private screenings might fill the gap. Hotel chains are courting well-todo workers seeking private offices, a trend that could continue for years.

As companies chase moneyed consumers, their own operational makeup will change too, Businesses across the globe have been shedding the assets that have historically defined them - factories, machinery, regional offices teeming with people. Companies will increasingly invest in intellectual property, software, online platforms, proprietary data and algorithms — whatever it takes to track and meet the customer of the future where they are.