Game Changers and Megatrends

The globalized world generates global trends. Groundbreaking inventions, discoveries, and personalities are drivers of disruptive change. Some of these are transformational: they are about to change entire industries.

Imagine our planet as a vast collection of interconnected brains. There are some 7.1 billion of them, and it is fascinating to observe how collective wisdom is “voting up” certain ideas while giving a “thumbs down” to others. Those 14.2 billion thumbs create “megatrends” that will inevitably shape our globally shared future. Megatrends have the potential to destroy or create industries, make professions indispensable or obsolete, and change the lives of many or even all of us. For management executives, startup owners, politicians, scientists, and — last but not least — parents, an awareness of these trends is essential to effective decision-making. In subsequent posts, I will discuss the chief trend-inducing game-changers that will most likely have a dramatic impact in the next ten to twenty years. Some of them — such as the English language trend — are already obvious, while others — such as the cheap, clean energy trend — are still in their infancy. The following trends will be examined in this article series:

• The English Language
• Freelance Workers
• Pocket Workplaces
• Autonomous Vehicles
• Ubiquitous Connectivity
• Open Source Economy
• Projectized Organizations
• Cheap Clean Energy
• Post-Freemium Economy

Since I am continuously researching various industries and media for trends and disruptors, this list is subject to change. I am also interested in further suggestions from readers about trends to identify and examine, and I will gladly consider these in my future analysis!

---

Let’s start a conversation on LinkedIn or X.com (formerly Twitter).