Future-fit businesses remain resilient to sense and respond to external environment changes. But success depends on active trend plotting.  A recent Gartner survey estimates that 60% of enterprises do not have a formal trendspotting process. Businesses that do not listen to external trends get their strategic planning wrong. They miss critical inputs in their strategic assumptions and planning and miss opportunities. 

Here are five key trends in the Asia-Pacific region that will disrupt most enterprises.

1. The rise of the metaverse

The metaverse is taking digital to the next level. Although in its early stage now, it represents the portent of things to come.

The metaverse is a collaborative shared space in the virtual world where people live, interact and shop from the comfort of their couches. It represents a convergence of the physical and the digital. People may replicate their physical activities in the digital world. 

Businesses have huge opportunities to leverage the metaverse for competitive advantage. They may bring groups of people together or deliver personalised digital experiences in the virtual world to: 

• Reach new prospects and customers through virtual spaces and communities. 
• Set up digitally enhanced retail spaces. 
• Monetise products and services. 
• Enhance customer support and customer engagement through dynamic and personalised signages.
• Promote internal efficiencies by providing employees with better engagement, collaboration and connections.
• Launch super apps that combine social networks, recruitment sites, and gamification to unlock new footprints.

Tech-savvy enterprises innovate to get early-mover advantages in the metaverse. They make a skilful interplay of head-mounted displays, IoT, AR, 5G, and spatial computing. They may deploy virtual avatars, co-opting smart mirrors, VR glasses, and other technologies. The rollout of spatial computing glasses by 2025 will make the technology mainstream. By 2025, 10% of all employees will use virtual spaces, compared to only 1% in 2022. By 2028, 10% of sporting, performing arts, and other public events will offer participation in the metaverse.

2. The climate challenge

Businesses, governments, and even customers can no longer ignore climate change. Conscious consumers deal with businesses that manage their carbon footprints. 

Innovations in climate mitigation technologies are already underway, with good results. Solar energy now costs 89% less, and wind energy costs 70% less compared to the previous ten years. Financial investment in public and private environment companies increased by 5-6x in 2020. 

Enterprises could co-opt climate-related initiatives in their strategic plans. Some pointers include:

• Deploying renewable energy infrastructures such as solar panels or wind turbines saves energy costs.
• Reducing carbon footprint to please the increasing tribe of conscious stakeholders, especially customers. 
• Improving operational and supply chain efficiencies through decarbonisation.
• Tracking price-to-performance ratios, capability improvements, and regulatory changes to promote innovations. 

The higher prices for fossil fuels and incentives to reduce carbon footprints make going green attractive.

3. The mainstreaming of hybrid work

The work-from-home trend during the pandemic has morphed into hybrid work models. Enterprises that co-opt hybrid work designs in their strategic planning gain a competitive advantage. 

With hybrid work enabled, the enterprise. 

• Works round the clock and becomes agile enough to seize opportunities fast. 
• Becomes future-proof to get work done by independent contractors. 
• The success of hybrid work depends on flexible enterprise systems that enable enterprise agility. 

4. The shift to a multipolar world

The world is in the throes of rapid changes encompassing all spheres of life. Technology, legal, economic and political systems are all under churn. International cooperation is diminishing, reducing the role of global institutions and treaties. The trend is towards blocks of context-specific collaboration. Fewer states than before come together to follow standard policies to achieve similar goals. One direct fallout has been multiple 5G standards, with a worldwide consensus eluding.

The recent multilateral agreements involving the APAC region include BRICS, Belt & Roads Initiative, Quad, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and Trans-Pacific Partnership. 

No business is immune from its ecosystem. Companies that track trends and align their strategies gain big. Some of the specific initiatives include:

• Take preemptive measures to cope with short-term shocks, such as supply chain friction and inflation. Especially factor in reduced choice in suppliers and offerings and seeking alternatives closer to the base.
• Relook traditional business models and revisit long-term planning assumptions. Just-in-time inventory (JIT) no longer works, as supply chain disruptions cause a shortage of critical materials.
• Shorten planning horizons for business activities.
• Flexible to manage the regulatory dilemma, especially incompatible regulatory and legal systems.
• Set up resilient systems to seize opportunities that have a short window.
• Differentiate strategies for different regions. Focus on regional markets, as other governments restrict foreign trade.
• Play a more proactive role in international organisations that address enterprise-specific business conditions.

5. The industrialisation of space

Commercial activity outside the earth’s atmosphere will increase exponentially soon. There has been a quantum increase in the manufacturing and deployment of satellites. The cost to launch a satellite has declined by 70% and could drop to 1% of the historical cost. Many businesses have already launched satellites that power several for-profit activities. In 2022, two Chinese companies launched low-Earth orbit satellites. By 2024, there will be continuous connectivity to every place on earth, with no more dead zones in land, ocean or sky. By 2027, the US and Chinese governments are all set to declare low Earth orbit satellite mesh as ‘critical infrastructure.” By 2025, satellite-enabled phones will gain a significant market share in the mobile market. The global space industry will generate revenues of $1.1 trillion by 2040, up from the current $350 billion. 

The possibilities include commercial space mining, sky laboratories, and manufacturing on other planets. Some of the potential use cases for businesses include:

• Deploying low Earth orbit (LEO) communications satellites for cheaper, faster, and better imagery. 
• Mining asteroids for valuable raw materials. 
• Developing safe venues for scientific experiments. 
• Upcycling or sequestering hazardous but valuable debris in space. 
• Tap space-based clean energy sources. 

Enterprises can exploit new business models related to space exploration. Direct investments present only one part of the opportunity. Improved communications, especially in areas lacking broadband, open up new markets. Logistics will improve as tracking, communications, vehicle, and ship automation become feasible. 

Most businesses struggle to maintain value in established markets and grow in emerging markets. The panacea for such ills is innovation. Keeping abreast of the key trends enables companies to innovate and enhance stakeholder value. Here are seven impediments to successful innovation.