We are at the start of the second decade of the 21st century.  How many businesses still think that they can operate as if it remains a 20th century world?  The influences of technology, politics and demograhics are immense and cause economic forces that are beyond our control.   

Technology has brought the tools of the internet and mobile telephony.  They have a profound effect on communications, change the way that information can be handled, and the way we work.  The real impact of this technology is to remove most of the barriers to trade other than the physical movement of goods and people.  Information is accessible from anywhere in the world, lack of security is a problem and intellectual property is difficult to protect.

Politics has created the EU.  This means access to a large home market, but conversely, competition from lower cost producers.  It also means free movement of people to the UK from EU countries.

The world population growth is a dramatic element of change that affects demand and available resources.  The UK is expecting an increase from around 64 million to around 80 million people, and worldwide, we are looking at an increase from the current 6 billion to 9 billion by 2040.  

If we consider what has happened in 20 years since the start of the internet, we can get a glimpse of what is to come.  Creative work can now be done by collaboration from dispersed groups and individuals, providing a flexible resource independent of location, employment and cost.  The same is true of most administrative tasks.  With centralised knowledge management, manufacturing can be located close to markets and cheap labour.  Retail is able to display its wares on the web, and with modern distribution, there will be a decreasing need for shop space.  Only construction is necessarily constrained geographically, but will be controlled by the technical information generated at central locations, and even these will have dispersed teams.

The implications for all businesses, other than those with a powerful local demand, are that their future lies with increasing importance on the internet.  This means that they must have a strategy that leaves the old order behind.  This strategy must
·    recognise the internet as a challenge to everything that they have known, and respond with actions that deliver their goods and services flexibly and at a cost that meets international needs.  
·    invest in the necessary technical skills, and the appropriate resources.  
·    build connections with suitable partners at home and overseas.   
·    embrace a culture of flexibility and learning.
·    work with new forms of “employment” as traditional jobs decline.

The rate of change that we have experienced in the last 20 years has caused and continues to cause huge uncertainties.  The next 10 will be even more testing, and require new strategies for these uncertain times.