BottomLine recently asked our community of business leaders to participate in an 11-question survey focusing on business trends for 2012. Here are the highlights:
Growth Industries for 2012 (open ended): Although answers ranged from a number of industries, healthcare, including biotech and pharmaceutical, was the overwhelming response to this question. In fact, all but a small handful of respondents included healthcare and related industries as their first or second prediction.
Waning Industries for 2012 (open ended): Answers to this question ran the gamut with much less repetition. Real estate and the residential and commercial construction industries led the way, with the manufacturing and newspaper industries were close behind. IT, government contracting and retail were each mentioned just once. The respondent who answered with IT also shared the insight that IT services would be impacted specifically because of the emergence of cloud commuting.
Most Valuable Asset for Businesses in 2012 (open ended): Human capital was by far the most frequent response, followed by financial capital and innovation. We’ve been reading quite a bit about the increasing value of innovation recently and are curious if “people and human capital” respondents considered innovation to be the underlying value of human capital or if another factor(s) drove their response.
Most Important Theme for Business in 2012: Economic recovery had a 63.1% response ratio and won the race for the most important business trend for 2012. Sustainability and social media both had response ratios of 47.3%, while workforce demographics followed in fourth place with a 42.1% response ratio.
Most Important Trend for Small- to Mid-Sized Businesses in 2012: Social media was the hands down winner here. Even so, a response that the accounts receivable cycle would become longer caught our attention right away, as did the insight that small- to mid-sized businesses might be able to leverage opportunities created by continued turmoil in larger companies in the coming year.
Most Important Trends for Big Business in 2012: Responses ranged from rightsizing and outsourcing to grappling with global demand. Data security made the list, as did mergers and bolt-on acquisitions.
Most Important Trends for Non-Profits in 2012: It was not surprising to see declining resources repeated in varying ways in each response. According to our survey participants, non-profits will continue to be challenged and will, very likely, need to find ever-more innovative ways of funding their missions.
Most Important Trends for Entrepreneurs in 2012: There was an extreme range of responses to this question. The most provocative response in our (subjective) opinion was competition from new entrepreneurs born of the economic downturn/unemployment. That said, finding capital amid heavy regulation and cash flow issues were cited more often than any other trend. Our community agrees that entrepreneurs will need to find new ways of attaining and managing capital if they have any kind of growth plans in mind.
Most Important Trend in Marketing for in 2012: Social media and strategic partnerships were the top responses to this question, overshadowing all other possible responses by a significant margin.
Most Important Trend in Human Resources for in 2012: Just as we cited outsourcing as one of the most worth-watching trends related to a business’ financial strategy, it was also cited as the top HR trend overall. This is particularly interesting given that human capital was predicted to be the most valuable asset for a business in 2012.
Most Important Trend in Financial Strategy for in 2012: Outsourcing was the winner in this category too – with a 52.6% response ratio. However, it did not beat the other top answers with as large of a margin this time. Internal financing, a harder focus on cutting costs and value and exit planning all had only slightly lower response ratios.
To all who participated in our survey, our heartfelt thanks.
Your insights about what’s trending for 2012 were enlightening, thought-provoking and gave us much reason for discussion in putting this issue of Summit together.
We look forward to tapping your brain for additional insights!
