Yesterday we were in Guildford and enjoyed the final countdown of 2008:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KZaObHa8Mq4
For many people 2009 will be great, for others not so much so. I have listened to the end of year's speeches by prime ministers, presidents and the like. It is going to be tough, they say. This makes me feel excited but also thinking of this new year as a very fast and furious ride. Some of my predictions are:
- The year could be good for certain countries. My bet is on Brazil. LatinAmerica is not yet there in the crunch (is it?). Or maybe we live in permanent crunch. Making some adjustments is part of the day to day.
- Those people with a credit-based lifestyle will suffer. My bank still wants to sell me a credit card and keep asking me why I do not have one. Why should I have it if it is not my money I am spending? (I learned this from a good Colombian entrepreneur).
- The clothes, the laptop, the gadgets, they can still last for another year or at least a few more months. The car, you can get a used one. Unless you go to a war zone with your car, it is likely to last too. I found a good mechanic near where I live, it helps to keep the car in good shape.
- Another prediction: Education could become an opportunity to look for new horizons. Formal and informal education will be on the rise, but also in the form of alliances. Imagine being employed by a company that employs you and / or pays you bit less but part of the salary is a training course. So this year could be a year of transition. For both employers and employees.
- An academic prediction: Management research funding could take unexpected routes for development. Projects with research outputs to be taken back to Uni; mediation between projects and solutions; and use of technology to facilitate communication between remote locations, these could help. Now that research assessment is over, we know where we can improve, and what the reality of good research is. Time to look for better and possibly inexpensive ways of producing good research.
- Community groups and organisations will play a more prominent role in society. They can become employers, places of encounter, or creators of new forms of working and helping each other. I am not sure if we can include things like co-operative banking here, but this one will also help people to beat the credit crunch once we realise money does not grow on trees neither by doing nothing. If only we could think of money differently, this year could be better.
- Technology will continue surprising us. But it is now people who will make the difference. Companies could turn the crises to their advantage. But so far I have only heard use of technology to cut costs and make efficiencies. Mmmm...is that the only story...? What about re-using, re-combining, centralising, de-centralising...? Or just making it last a bit more...? Some investments are not expensive and could help. This can include for instance technology recycling...We seem to have forgotten about the green planet.
- People will find ways to acquire and use technology. I just found an ACER netbook for less than £300. OK, it does not have the latest OS but it looks much better than a new brand, smaller& more expensive one. Mind you, now we are talking about netbooks and notebooks, and the latter still are useful. We could make better designs with the technology that we have without having to change technology for the sake of it.
