Business Trends in 2022 & Beyond
The article is written by Mr. Anil Balan (Co-Founder, Splendre EyeMag Pvt. Ltd.)- Senior Associate Consultant, ATBC
Industry expected the world to return to normalcy at the start of 2021. Signs were positive with the vaccines starting to roll out, and many executives felt like it would be a matter of a few short months before we would all return to the business as usual model.
But to all surprise, 2021 was more volatile than expected, with the rise of new Covid variants, a massive spread within sections of society, changes in human behavior, the war for talent, an interrupted market, and the highest impact to the socio-economic levels in a generation.
As it is understood, new variants will continue to emerge and may cause business impacts and the workplaces to temporarily go remote again. The shift in consumer mindset with the limits in buying power due to the never-ending pandemic has led to a conservative approach. New behavioral patterns—driven by physical distancing and lockdowns—have reshaped our collective psyche. These realities will be layered on top of longer-term technological transformation, ongoing political disruption, and uncertainty.
Across the globe, small to large businesses are adapting to rapid changes as a result of the global pandemic, and the same is reflected in the Indian scenario too. Data-driven business transformation has inspired enterprise leaders to reimagine business models, new revenue streams, customer experiences, operational models, and processes.
Change in cultural trends, workforce behavior and volatility, technology transformation, penetration, and adoption of mobility in rural India will drive towards automation are a few of the future trends beyond 2022.
Return to tradition and the desire to be rooted have created a strong nostalgia for the good old traditions. We are now seeing a backlash against globalization. Many communities feel like they have lost their local traditions and identity. The move towards localization is further compounded by nations prioritizing self-reliance. The return to local traditions and values poses a major challenge for businesses. They need to find ways to remain culturally relevant in different markets—with divergent needs and values—while maintaining consistency.
Remote work makes traditional org structures obsolete, and this trend is for real. While employers love reducing expensive office space, employees have accustomed to the new way of working in the comfort with better work-life balance. There has been a shift in relation to the physical location of where people work since the onset of the pandemic. This remote working or working from home is here to stay. An agile organization having an agile work culture will allow companies to move at a much faster pace and to better adapt to the constant business environment changes.
Effective use of technology should find the right balance between using technology versus business productivity. The latest research identifies hyper-automation, hybrid experiences, distributed environments, and the explosion of data as some of the new challenges and opportunities facing all businesses. The future will witness accelerated digital transformation in businesses with the rise of business technologists. Security‑by‑default is a must‑have and a single source of truth becomes key to the data‑driven business as digitization continues to drive where consumers can get the right data in the right context at the right time. The continuous rise of artificial intelligence, rapid adoption in VR and AR, and wider implementation of blockchain technologies will be the focus in the coming days.
Consumerism is in crisis as we simply can’t continue our current level of consumption. Hyper-consumption is the main engine upholding our global economic system. If consumption declines, gross domestic product (GDP) will decline. Meaning the economy would stop growing in the traditional sense. A new generation of consumers is opting to reuse, recycle and reduce. The resale market is growing 11 times faster than traditional retail. But as we enter the decade of action, companies need to rethink their business models to stay ahead of the competition and maintain sustenance.
