For the last two-plus years, I have been fortunate to interview industry dignitaries, thinkers, entrepreneurs, and leaders for Forbes Insights in the podcast Futures in Focus about the forthcoming world of 2030. 95% of the interviews have been incredibly optimistic, with a cause. 2020 has been an acid test of their ideas, visions, and practices.
2020 could be seen as a catalyst for ideas like EV dominance by 2030. Just look at the market capitalization of Tesla. 2020 has violently accelerated the shift to digital retail. Again, look at the market capitalization of Amazon. 2020 has also led to very different ideas about work. That move to virtual did not just amplify Zoom’s market capitalization but also Microsoft’s market capital value. There are exact causes and effects and accelerants from 2020.
21 PREDICTIONS FOR THE WHAT IF FUTURE.
There have also been calamities. The travel industry (inside and outside of the US) was in the middle of a ten year high in 2019. Can you even remember the blockbuster movies of 2020? Yet early signs from WW 84 and home watching have breathed life back into the idea of blockbusters going straight to pay per view. Remember how boxing has survived on pay per view before. The lesson here is that the future is not as predictable as we may like to think as necessity is the mother of invention for whole industries.
Here are the twenty-one predictions for 2021 headlines for the next three articles, where you will see more specific details and logic for each one.
Leadership now demands a 360-degree perspective, 365 days of the year. Change is a constant, and digital-first reigns. Live on this or die slowly in 2021.
The debate about the future of work has barely started, but the argument might be missing the wood for the trees. In 2021 solve that challenge, and you will have a huge hiring advantage.
The urban retreat might not be permanent, but cities will change forever if we don’t do something about it in 2021.
Personal relationships go to the extremes, and we are about to see that unfold in front of us in 2021 and beyond.
The housing crisis becomes a very obvious third rail with no clear solution in sight for 2021
The role of a corporation in 2021 and beyond will be increasingly complex and exciting
Does a fresh satellite view of the less polluted planet have a lasting positive effect on us, or do we go back to our old ways? 2021 will be the big test.
Planet Earth.
Preventative medicine may be here to stay at last. That could transform at long last in 2021.
Will college ever be the same as before, or are we at a moment of reckoning for higher education in the US? We are about to find out if 2020 continues through 2021. Indeed change will have to come.
The future restaurants may be in the cloud or on trucks for a long time to come. 2021 will be the phoenix year for this.
Millennials may be the most financially and career-wise stunted segment from 2020. Recovery may look very different for them as they were meant to come into their own.
Digital transformation flips to intelligent systems, very fast. Faster and more prosperous than even the digital transformation of the last ten years.
In 2021 we all discover the splendors of the idea of Route 66 and the countryside around us. It might reignite the love of simple American road trips.
In 2021 the side Gig economy becomes personal sanity and the insurance policy for the future.
The Gig Economy: Uber Eats food delivery courier is seen in Krakow, Poland on Novemver 30, 2020. ... [+]
In 2021 we will all see the K recovery firsthand. It will make us have harder discussions about which part of the K we want to be part of a leadership plan.
Significant events will struggle to return in 2021, but some significant pressures will change the experiences for good, starting in 2021. Get ready for VR, 5G rich, and seat concierge services.
In 2021 the whole fitness experience moves virtual as the first choice. Mirror, mirror on the wall could be the new model for far more of us in 2021than ever before.
The focus on sustaining and evolving work culture goes into hyperdrive in 2021 as historical goodwill runs out.
In 2021 Digital economy companies will take share from distant markets as their cloud infrastructure enables almost infinite agility for those who get it.
2021 will be a year choices’ have to be made by leaders. 2020 was a year choice’ were thrust upon us. We need to develop new digital frameworks at our core for 2021 for our people, customers, and strategic futures.
In 2021 more of us will be tracked in everything we do than ever before. Our ID will be mostly defined by digital presence than physical presence.
Re-read these fast and ask how each has and will affect how you build strategy and ideas in your organizations from now on, one prediction at a time. In the next three pieces, I will look at sets of seven predictions in more detail.
