2021 is set to be another year of challenge but also immense opportunity for brands.
Coming out of a year that saw understandable focus on short-term strategies, our prediction for 2021 is that VUCA (velocity, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) is set to continue… on steroids, as is the need to act at speed.
The last year has seen executives largely focused on maintaining business continuity, and weighing-up cutting costs, driving productivity and implementing safety measures against supportive innovation-led growth. The results being that, unsurprisingly, investments in innovations are suffering.
And whilst people are calling for the return of normalcy, we must not expect the future to look the same as the past.
Warren Harding built his campaign for the presidential election in 1920 around his new word “normalcy”. It was an appeal to Americans’ supposed urge to forget the horrors of the first world war and the Spanish flu and turn back to the certainties of the golden age. And yet, instead of embracing Harding’s normalcy, the roaring twenties became a ferment of forward-looking, risk taking, social, industrial and artistic novelty.
Are the roaring 2020s now upon us? The decade began with a cry of pain but with the right policies, the decade could yet roar.
And crucial to that shift in attitudes and recovery, is the need for innovation to take centerstage once again. The business rewards for innovation are clear. Firms deemed “innovators” are receiving a valuation that reflects cash flow 10 years on.
So, as we step into 2021 and beyond, it is evident that the route to success will be by adoption of a “two-lens” approach. To succeed, brands need to have the ability to act at speed, as well as a structured commitment to long-term innovation.
Our intent is to provide information to help navigate the year with more confidence by looking in more depth at:
- Consumer behaviours & needs
- Retail Ecosystem
- Category Dynamics
- Data Strategy
Sharing data-informed insights and next steps brands need to be taking, as we enter this period of volatility, and opportunity.
Download your copy of Reset 2021 now.
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