1. The rise of the customer-centric organisation

Businesses have been transformed and reassembled themselves around the individual customer. Intelligent use of technology has enabled companies to target products and services at individuals in a way that adapts to the customers’ changing needs and circumstances right the way through their lives.

It is something that has happened across the public sector too. We are ‘customers’ as much as ‘citizens’ to the organs of government today.

This trend will continue throughout the next decade, as organisations find new ways of turning the data they collect into business opportunities. It will also continue to create yet another wave of professionals, adept at fulfilling these opportunities - like the information architects and search engine optimisers we met over the Noughties.

2. Search, and the rise of the knowledge manager

Search engines have delivered the sum of all human knowledge to the fingertips of anyone and everyone. There has been a great democratisation of the power that knowledge confers. Value is now found in interpreting, presenting and verifying, rather than sourcing, information. See the rise of the knowledge manager within businesses.

There has also been a proliferation of information outlets: 24 hour news, ‘citizen’ journalism and blogs have brought new risks (and opportunities) for companies managing their reputations.

3. The Eastward migration of economic power and influence

China is engaging and facing the outside world for the benefits it brings its own markets. India is facing the world and becoming more outward focused generally. Companies from these and other countries are becoming major players in many industries. For example, it is impossible to think about the global automotive industry now without thinking of Tata. The next decade will see these flourishing economies move into other industries and dominate others.

The extension of Chinese influence can be seen in many parts of the world, notably Africa where a whole new sphere of influence exists. Its business models are fiercely capitalist. The US has been leveraging itself on debt from China and the Middle East and this shift of influence Eastward has the power to change everything. There are two clear recommendations for UK businesses. First, differentiate your offering. Second, get access to these new markets.

4. Litigiousness v fairness

Concerns about the risks of future legal liabilities now characterise many corporate transactions and agreements. Does the increase in corporate litigation and American-style class actions indicate a move towards a fundamentally fairer society, or just one that is more litigious?

5. Social and business networks

Social networks have changed the way people meet, stay in touch, communicate and gather. Anyone who thought they were a fad has been proved dramatically wrong, especially now the medium has been adopted by older generations and communities such as young mothers organising childcare rotas.

Business networking sites, such as Linked In, have provided a low-cost way for entrepreneurs and others to market their skills and services. This, combined with the free availability of open source, integrated ‘office’ software has induced the birth and growth of new businesses and business models.

6. The changing deal for employees and employers

For much of the twentieth century, there was an unspoken deal between employers and employees. On the employers’ side, this meant underwriting an assurance of job security and pensions in retirement. Today, that deal is defunct. Companies have stepped away from pension commitments that are, in many cases, financially unsustainable.

The result has been an erosion and decline in the loyalty that employees assign to their relationship with their employer. The current economic climate works in the employers’ favour in this respect, but this will change. Strikes may be less common today but workers have fewer second thoughts if they get a better offer elsewhere.

Many companies are therefore working hard to foster an internal culture of employee engagement and common goals (through flexible benefits and leadership programmes, for example). One consequence of this has been the growth of the internal communications professional.

7. Virtual communication

Global markets mean global teams and the ability to lead, manage or work within a virtual team has become one of the new skills of the first decade of the millennium.

Remote working and the proliferation of email, hand held devices and conference calling has meant global networks can be effective and people can work from almost anywhere.

We get information instantly and communicate more widely. But some may feel isolated and alienated, rarely seeing others face to face, even if they work in the same building. The full consequences of the virtual communication revolution are not yet clear.

8. Divergent working patterns

Some of us are chained to ‘Crackberries’ while others are working flexible hours, from home or a mixture of office and home. The ‘portfolio’ career (doing several jobs at once) shifted from the margins to the mainstream.

Paternity leave didn’t exist in Britain ten years ago but more and more men are taking it, or working flexibly to bring up children. There are many male and female role models that show how kids and a career can go together.

9. The green agenda

It’s getting warmer on planet earth. Most people agree with this. But whether business leaders agree or not, they have realised that they cannot afford not to be seen to support the green agenda. The risks to brand, customer relationships and relationships with workers posed by ignoring this have simply proved too high.

10. Economic migration

Over the Noughties, the UK has seen the influx of people from Eastern Europe (prompted to a large degree by the EU expansion and free movement of workers) and also from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Some of these people are looking for a better life or a different lifestyle.

There is far greater mobility of specialist skills than there was ten years ago, as the highly skilled or qualified travel the world seeking markets that will provide the greatest reward for their work. For others, the backdrop to their movement included security concerns, war, shortages of water, resources and power. These factors will certainly affect population movements over the next decade.

11. Offshoring - Reshoring

Wave after wave of off-shoring projects followed IT off-shoring around Y2K. This was essentially started by an acute shortage of IT people in the UK and glut of qualified workers in India, ready to work.

There followed contact centres for financial services; then back office finance and customer services and, lately, transcription services. There were examples where these strategies did not work because of operational, cultural or language reasons. Some of these projects have come back, been ‘re-shored’.

Done right though, off-shoring has been a successful model for organisations from banks to telecoms companies, boosting profits and providing economic and social opportunities for many in countries as disparate as Mexico, Brazil, India, Hungary and the Philippines.

12. Consumer debt and the changing attitude to personal insolvency

The first half of the Noughties saw a shift in borrowing as consumers moved from living within their means to ‘living on tick’. An explosion in easily accessible cheap finance meant consumers from sub-prime to high wealth were able to buy the things they wanted – whether they could afford them or not.

The inevitable consequence of this was the huge number of people finding themselves bankrupt, but as the stigma of living in debt dissolved, so did the stigma of being declared bankrupt.

This, coupled with the introduction of the Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVA), meant bankruptcies soared from 28,000 in 2000 to an estimated 130,000 in 2009.

For many the beginnings of the credit crunch are observable within this explosion in consumer borrowing, but only time will tell if the consumers of the Noughties have learnt their lesson, as we move into the Teenies.

Kevin Ellis
The author is the leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers UK advisory practice