The past year will be remembered by the global economy’s strong and pretty much-synchronized growth. At least, to a certain point.
True, the US economy increased (thanks to the enacted fiscal stimulus), but others like Eurozone, the UK, Japan, and China – began to decline. Apparently, that trend will linger on in 2019, as well.
IHS Markit has some predictions for us, and we are not going to like it. The global growth will decrease from 3.2% in 2018 to 3.1% in 2019, and will just keep decelerating over the next few years.
Businesses in this year will have to be lean enough to survive recessions or worse.
Apparently, the not-so-secret weapon the most successful companies will use is an ethical and environmentally responsible policy.
Special attention will be paid to a customer data, which will stay in-house and well-protected. And everything, and we mean literary everything will be oriented towards customization, from marketing to shopping experience.
Here we have a list of the most important trends of 2019, that will be shaping the market, as well as the work environment.
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The gig economy and remote work.
Looks like this phenomenon is here to stay and is still going strong. Let’s take U.S. as an example. More than 75 million Americans somehow participate in the gig economy (a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements). The world is going digital at the speed of light and that kind of evolution creates more opportunities for people to launch their own business ventures.
The remote work numbers went skyrocketing and some of those numbers are saying that as much as 43% of employees work at least part of the time from their cozy homes.
So, one should keep in mind that working people now value the most a flexible work environment that allows them to spend more time out of the office. In that spirit, adapting your policies to fit this kind of arrangement – will most definitely put you (or keep you) on the business world map this year.
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Consumers will demand more control over their data.
In the past year, one huge event changed the game rules. The name of this is GDPR. The General D
ata Protection Regulation is the law created and now put to the test. It gives customers power over their personal data and allows all EU citizens to choose what information of their companies have and remove their data from company databases for any reason.
Every company that is not in compliance with the GDPR will be fined. With six figures amounts!
Start figuring out how to create interactive content that might be your way to have one-to-one personalization. This way, you will have accurate data tied to a specific customer.
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Everything that can be personalized will be personalized!
Nowadays, consumers are everything but an open book. However, one thing is sure. A majority of them prefers brands that offer so-called personalized experiences. This can be obtained from many different types and forms of personalization. Some of those are coupons based on the customer’s locations, communications on the customer’s preferred channel, and recommendations based on past purchases or service history.
Communication is affected, as well. A “channel of choice” is a communication strategy that gains more and more popularity each day. For some reasons, consumers started turning away from live contact. All of the sudden, they started choosing services that don’t require talking, such as SMS and social media.
We can conclude that people need more personalization, but without being involved in a communication with real employees. And that is fine and we can work with that.
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The digital transformation is here to stay
This has been a focus for quite some time now, and we are talking here about the companies in every single industry. 
Almost 90% of senior business leaders keep digitizing among their top priorities. However, mistake many of those are making is the thought that digital transformation is a process that will eventually come to its end. It isn’t so.
As a matter of fact, it’s a constant process. A digital transformation has become the new normal, and companies should embrace it as a permanent state of mind.
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Future of technology
It is said that 2019 belongs to the 5G, the latest generation of cellular mobile communications.
It will be a year of its complete and outer domination.
A 5G could improve processing speeds by more than 10 times and could enable remote surgeries and Uber’s announced food delivery drones.
Smells like back-to-the-future spirit, right?
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Social media
At the same time, traditional social media companies are pretty much struggling these days. Experts predict that 2019 will be a down year for social network companies (like Facebook, for example).
In short, if you are focused on growing through social media, now is a good time to shift budget to some new platforms.
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Social responsibility
As we already stated above, a struggle is also guaranteed future for the socially irresponsible firms.
This year brings social responsibility to the table. And it will not be an elephant in the room anymore. The change is real. Companies that aren’t sure how to contribute, should speed up a process of creating a strategy. Whether it’s employee volunteerism, selection of socially responsible suppliers or grants for environmental initiatives – getting into it is crucial for survival.
Finally, some good news in the being-a-human-and-a-business-owner department.
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The software as a service (SaaS) revolution will dominate small business
And we from Teodesk couldn’t be happier and more excited about that!
If you look at the things and analyze small and mid-market businesses, it is pretty hard to find sector-specific software products. SaaS creators are expanding their offerings to include functionality like project management, email marketing, and survey technology.
Just like we did.
A few years back, we saw it coming – and now, a Cisco study suggests 74% of application workloads will be SaaS-based by 2020.
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What is next in 2019 is that increasingly diverse payment options are available
Even though all the news on Bitcoin and blockchain are not as hot as they were at the beginning of 2018, they sure managed to give us a glimpse to the important trend that is unlikely to go away. Customers are looking for more flexible banking models and payment methods and a rising star that will lead the way to the important changes is definitely contactless credit card payment.
A digital shopping just left the comfort zone – your chair.
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The augmented workplace is the next big thing
It’s true, this trend didn’t hit the mainstream until 2016. Even then, it was all thanks to the success of the mobile game Pokémon Go! Since then, it has gone a long way to become a part of a regular workday.
Did you know that, for example, in the Porsche repair centers, mechanics wear goggles that can receive visual guidance from remote experts?
Or maybe you heard that surgeons at certain hospitals are testing glasses that visualize data from ultrasound scanners, allowing them to peer through the skin at underlying tissue?
Imagine then what this technology might do in a simple environment of the regular office!
Truly successful companies are those who walk hand-in-hand with satisfied customers. If your clients see your company as a partner and a part of their community, you are doing a good job.
It was like that since forever and it will be forever. Everything else is just a try to get there.
