Eight megatrends for the decade ahead: How are Australian businesses placed?

Australia is well-placed to capitalise on the growing affluence of new markets in Asia, but many companies feel daunted by rapid technological changes and social media, according to a new survey.

The survey, Service 2020: Megatrends for the decade ahead, is written by the Economist Intelligence Unit and based on the forecasts of 479 business-leaders across the world, including about 50 from Australia. The businesses range from large to small, with a spread across regions and sectors.

BDO Australia National Chairman Tony Schiffmann says many respondents were downbeat about their company’s ability to capitalise on the eight mega-trends tipped for the next decade.

“The feedback is there are a lot of mountains to climb,” Schiffman told SmartCompany this morning.

The eight megatrends were:

• Global competition will drive up service standards.
• Companies must maintain service standards in the face of “the need for speed”.
• Firms must learn to use the increased transparency brought by social media to their advantage.
• Companies must use new sources and types of data to rethink the way they track and personalise their service.
• Good employees will remain fundamental to good service but with technology as an enabler.
• More firms will outsource aspects of customer service to new kinds of specialists.
• The rise of the mass affluent and other customer segments will force companies to find new product or service niches.
• Customer expectations, including the purpose of the store, are evolving with new technology.

Schiffman says business leaders are concerned about the pace of technological change and how to cope with social media.

“Smartphones and iPads, the development in that space is fundamentally changing things,” he says.

“So it’s being unable to know what’s ahead in technology, as well as the need for speed from customers who won’t be patient for organisations to embrace those changes and who will also want high levels of service.”

Schiffman says although it’s a given that business will need to pour more money into information technology – “we’re on the merry-go-round and we’ve got to continue to invest” – he stresses that these IT investments don’t necessarily need to cost an arm and leg.

“I’m not sure in this day and age that means having to spend huge sums of money,” he says.

“A lot of technology now is relatively cheap, so you can probably implement changes in a fairly reasonable way.”

Respondents were also cautious about social media, another megatrend of the next decade.

Says Schiffman: “The clear trend to come out of this is that organisations understand it’s here to stay and they need to harness it.”

He says social media is yet another source of data for business to collect, and should be aligned to its customer service processes to get a better reflection of what people are saying about their product or service.

Schiffman says Australian standards are already world-class.

“Australian markets are really at the forefront of what’s happening globally. Obviously in the US, China and Europe they’ve got huge markets and elements of scale. But our business processes and strategies processes are second to none.”