Intuit 2020 Report: 20 Trends That Will Shape the Next Decade

By Rieva Lesonsky

As we head into 2011, one way to help ensure business success is to stay on top of trends. Trendwatching doesn’t just mean paying attention to today’s fads—it means looking far ahead into the future. To help, Intuit recently released its Intuit 2020 Report: 20 Trends That Will Shape the Next Decade. The report, based on several years of research from the Institute for the Future and Emergent Research, is a broad overview of trends affecting business in the next decade.

“Effects of the Great Recession will continue to reverberate globally, with slower growth, less credit and greater uncertainty churning the marketplace,” the report states. “Yet, in spite of this turbulence, a new economy will grow, one that holds promise for businesses large and small, and consumers around the world.”

Here are some of the key trends:

Big and small businesses will collaborate. Big companies will get even bigger, but they’ll also reach out to small ones in new ways. “Small firms will contribute innovative practices with market agility and customer knowledge that big firms can’t easily achieve. Big firms will offer small businesses marketing and distribution power, enabling them to penetrate broader markets more effectively.”

Small businesses will become more flexible. Credit shortages will continue to affect small businesses, but they’ll be able to work around and find cheaper methods of operating, including “enhanced cloud services, a broader contingent workforce and greater options for plug-and-play manufacturing. Small businesses will rely on variable cost business models to adapt, respond and adjust.”

Niche businesses will rise. As niche businesses become more prevalent, “Small businesses will proliferate,” the authors write. “The Web and mobile technologies will become the great equalizer of big and small, with customers no longer knowing – or even caring – about the size of the firm that provides their goods and services.”

Business and life will go mobile. “As technology prices fall, highly sophisticated mobile technologies will become pervasive,” the report predicts. “Smartphones and other mobile devices will emerge as the new standard for everyday computing, often replacing or completely bypassing desktop and laptop computing.” Not only will your business be able to take advantage of smartphone and mobile computing power, but you’ll also need to adapt to the many ways your customers—whether businesses or consumers—are using mobile in their lives.

Innovation will increase. With equipment and technology costs dropping, it will become easier and cheaper to test new ideas, launch new products or expand your business into new markets.

Read the full Intuit report for much, much more.

Image by Flickr user Steve Dean (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 at 10:30 am and is filed under Innovation, Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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