It’s that time of year when every third email contains the trends you need to look out for in 2024
Our Xmas gift: one trend per second
- Artificial Intelligence – AI – will be key in the coming year
- Corporate social activism will gain prominence
- Customers will demand more sustainable products
- Businesses will develop relevant purposes for their stakeholders
- Branding will be more important than ever
That’s our farewell until next year, and like the other trend messages, we can obviously assist you on these business issues.
Let’s Leave the Trends Trojan Horse and Let’s Get Down to What Really Matters
Transformation: [noun] a marked change in form, nature, or appearance
As since the beginning of time, we are in a moment of radical transformation. Some will say that “thanks to artificial intelligence we are facing a situation we have never experienced before”. No, we are not!
It’s not about the speed of change or digitisation as if it were something brought by an alien, because if we see it that way, we are emphasising it from the wrong perspective. By contrast, “it’s people who are transforming the world we live in, thanks, among other things, to the development of AI”.
If we get this wrong, we run the risk of limiting our business by:
- Catering to current and faddish demands, as opposed to blending these with what will really transform the business
- Thinking that transformation is technology-driven, when in fact it is driven by our stakeholders
- Being ineffective in aligning our human skills with technological tools
Understanding transformation prepares us to unlock unexpected growth.
Growth: [noun] the process of increasing in amount, value, or importance
Let’s be sincere for a moment, the most successful companies tend to be the most ambitious – the rest may be necessary, but they are second-tier issues.
We talk about purpose, mission, and vision; we work on positioning the company and its offer through its brand.
Euros, euros, and more euros that can be investments or can be turned into higher costs.
Thus, if the ambition is low or vaguely defined, neither the business nor the brand will ensure the growth that will drive business success.
Hence, defining the company’s ambition correctly serves to define the roadmap that sets future goals and enables brands to find new ways to connect and evolve, overcoming market constraints, responding to changing customer demands and unlocking new sources of business growth.
The company’s ambitions are based on fundamental beliefs that guide and inspire their past, present and future endeavours. It is a humane act.
Humane: [adjective] having or showing compassion or benevolence
Hallelujah, people matter!  Any transformation initiative requires empathy to be successful. It is a human-centred approach to embrace change.
Companies that approach transformation from this point of view are more agile and responsive to people’s needs and have more flexibility to adjust their growth ambitions.
The business and its brand are built around people, not technology or anything else: in the Lord’s vineyard one sees all kinds of things.
The truth is that, even before profits and efficiency, the company that focuses its strategies on people improves results, creates value and has a real positive impact. 
This more human vision also makes it possible to create impressive experiences, improve levels of innovation and reach new markets with product offerings that are more in line with the new reality that we live and will live in 2024.
Now, we hope you have a very Happy Holidays and that in 2024 you’ll be able to do what you’ve internally committed yourself to – including going to the gym from January 2nd.
*Mental note:
Don’t forget to call us to help you in transforming and growing your business in a sustainable way through your brand, culture and experience. Your new year humane adventure!
Images
Nicole Michalou and Kemal Hayit, Pexels
0 Comments