A Peek into Next 10 Years Through the Lens of Innovation

February 27, 2020
Agustin Morcillo

What has the next decade got to offer us? Will the world witness a sharp rise in technology companies? What will top 10 companies of fortune 500 look like? Will businesses chase platform economy? Which technologies will trend? And finally, is innovation the ultimate silver bullet for businesses to march ahead, stay competitive, and for that matter, even disrupt?

I recently spoke at World Innovation Congress – Mumbai, India, on the lines of the aforementioned questions. I am sharing my thoughts with a larger audience by penning the speech into an article.

The Population Bomb

By the time you finish reading this blog, 1250 new babies will be born (considering this as a 5-minute read and 250 babies born each minute). You’re sitting on an exploding population bomb. The current world population is 7.7 billion.

current world population data table
Data source: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

Approximately one billion new people will arrive by the end of the decade and population will be close to 8.5 billion (that’s a UN forecast).

Millennials are now joined by generation Z, generation alpha and soon be joined by a new generation – maybe call it generation Beta, or even cooler name, Omega. These generations will have brains wired differently as they will bring along new skill sets altogether. They will change the Purchasing behavior of the next decade.

They are set to interact with newer technologies and their nativity to disruptive trends will be unparalleled. The workforce of the upcoming decade and beyond will evolve and comprise of these new generations.

Not just the workforce, but consumers will have a different set of demands and seek integrated experiences. To fulfil those demands, new businesses will emerge, while some businesses will level up by triggering exponential growth.

Let me define exponential growth first.

Exponential Vs Linear Growth

Linear GrowthExponential Growth
Below 25% per annumAbove 25% per annum
Grows incrementallyMultiplier effect
e.g. of growth:      2,4,6,8,10,12e.g. of growth:       2,4,8,16,32,64

Linear growth in the above example is 12, whereas in exponential growth is 64. That’s the stark difference that I am talking about. Exponential growth multiplies crazily.

But if you’re wondering whether businesses really need to have an exponential mindset, then I’d say – yes, they do need to have that.

To achieve exponential growth, some businesses are already changing the ways of operation as new economies are emerging. For e.g.: India will be second-largest economy by GDP in 2030.

line chart showing the countries with the highest purchasing power in 2017 and 2030

The E-commerce platform opportunity in India alone will be around $150 billion. To cater to new economies, businesses are tapping new opportunities.

Just a few weeks back, Amazon pledged to invest $1 billion dollars to digitize the small mom-and-pop shops in India – and offer them an online platform.

Jefferson Bezos in an interview

Not just Amazon, but others are evolving and entering the market. Just a few months back, Billionaire Mukesh Ambani unveiled his ambitious plan to launch an e-commerce platform that connects local grocery shops. That’s the rise of partner-model.

online portal news

Not just retail, the transformations and the business-model evolution is evident everywhere. The industry landscape keeps shifting – top companies of 2009 are very different from the top companies of 2019

Here’s a quick look at the top 5 companies of 2009 and 2019 (only one of the previous toppers figure in the top 5 currently)

top global companies by market capitalization chart

You’d say the recent decade has been all about technology companies. Will the same trend continue?

For the next decade, I’d say a lot of non-internet companies, non-tech companies will also emerge in the next decade. I wouldn’t exactly expect them to dethrone tech companies – but the distinction between a tech and a non-tech company will start to evade as consolidated businesses will grow to provide a unified end-to-end CX.

Food for thought, isn’t it? ‘Experience’ will be pivotal in determining the growth of any business.

Consumers demand connected experiences, voice assistants are the new trend, smart homes are a reality, convenience is at the heart of everything.

Can we create solutions that offer more convenience to people? Make their lives more easy-going through our platform?

As the likes of flying cars, hyperloop, driverless vehicles, 3d printers arrive, how should we stay relevant, competitive, and profitable at the same time?

artificial intelligence driven cars
flying car
hyperloop

The way to disrupt in the future will be dynamic. I can’t really point at one technology but to unlock disruption, one must understand the three key dimensions:

1. Automation, Augmentation and Innovation

2. Human emotion and cognitive abilities – Culture and Purpose of the Organization

3. Disrupting technologies, Business Platforms and Network effects, quantum computing, 5G and more

I’d suggest a business to bank on these dimensions. In the coming decade, some businesses will solely rely on disruptive tech, while some on experience-building through emotion and cognitive abilities, some will focus on automating the repetitive tasks. And then there will be enterprises choosing the mixed approach, that’d make sense, isn’t it?

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