Determine their Implications for Your BusinessAs we move further into the knowledge economy, the value of business will depend more and more on intangible rather than tangible assets. These 38 trends have been identified by an analysis done by Jan Wyllie, Trend Monitor International and commissioned by the Canadian Society of Management Accountants for their issues paper: Collaborative Innovation and the Knowledge Economy. This material will soon be available as a knowledge asset available for purchase. Contact Debra M. Amidon for more details.
What to Do
For each trend, complete the following:
| The Implications for your Industry | |
| The Implications for Your Company | |
| The Implications for Your Function/Profession | |
The Trends
Note: The number of arrows, > to >>>, indicates the strength of the trend.
| Established Trends | |||
| 1. | Change | >> | Transformation |
| 2. | Valuing tangibles | >>> | Valuing intangibles |
| 3. | Quantitative values | >> | Qualitative values e.g. quality |
| 4. | Increasing transaction costs | >>> | Falling transaction costs |
| 5. | Arithmetic growth patterns | > | Geometric growth patterns |
| 6. | Trading atoms | > | Trading bits |
| 7. | Optimisation strategies | >> | Innovation strategies |
| Emerging Trends | |||
| 8. | Flexibility | >> | Agility |
| 9. | Valuing technologies | > | Valuing people |
| 10. | Focus on medium and delivery technology | >> | Focus on content and presentation |
| 11. | Environmental management | >>> | Ecological adaptation |
| 12. | Science and technology driven change model | >>> | Culturally and socially driven change model |
| 13. | Success through acquisition | >> | Success through generosity |
| 14. | Valuing reproducible money and goods | >> | Valuing irreproducible time and infinitely reproducible information |
| 15. | Knowledge filtered by experts | >> | Knowledge filtered by interested parties |
| 16. | Commoditisation | > | |
| 17. | Economic theory based on supply and demand | >>> | Systems theory based on chaos/complexity |
| 18. | Separation of voluntary and for profit activities | > | Reintegration of voluntary and for profit activities |
| 19. | Resource restraints | >>> | Time restraints |
| 20. | Diminishing returns | >> | Increasing returns |
| 21. | High entry costs | >>> | Low entry costs |
| 22. | Equilibrium and stability | >> | Sustainability and adaptation |
| 23. | Shoring up the Nation State | > | Encouraging local economies |
| 24. | Large scale economic development strategies | > | Small scale seeding strategies |
| 25. | Private ownership and control | >> | Shared ownership and co-operation |
| Over the Horizon | |||
| 26. | Virtual “reality” | > | Post virtual realities |
| 27. | Focus on elements | >>> | Focus on context |
| 28. | Knowledge generation and personal expertise | >> | Knowledge utilisation and group understanding |
| 29. | Focus on text centered literacy | >> | Focus on multimedia and aural communication |
| 30. | Solving problems | >> | Seeking opportunities |
| 31. | European and African lack of innovation | > | European and African innovation leadership |
| 32. | The first slow stage of a doubling game | >>> | Phase change stage |
| 33. | Counting the past | >> | Counting the future |
| 34. | Economies of scale | >> | Economies of scope |
| 35. | Additive measurement | > | Combinatory measurement |
| 36. | Deregulation and freedom | >> | Re-regulation according to agreed principles |
| 37. | Economic planning and forecasting | >> | Responsiveness to needs and insight |
| 38. | International perspective | >> | Interlocal perspective |
Just thinking about the implications, especially with your colleagues, can stimulate new thinking about the market and business opportunities. This is one of the aids that we use in ENTOVATION's Knowledge Innovation® workshops to envision the future. The above list is just a summary of a comprehensive and detailed analysis. A summary of these trends can be found in Collaborative Innovation and the Knowledge Economy. A more detailed analysis and comprehensive briefing paper that discusses the implications - The Economics of Intangible Value - has now been published.
