Future Markets 2020

Survey Results

Which markets have potential, and in addition help to solve global challenges? We launched a survey which not only provided us with a pleasantly high feedback in terms of the number of answers, but also in terms of quality: A total of 255 experts from the business and science community as well as social stakeholders assessed and commented on our selection of 12 future markets regarding the latter’s growth potential and contribution to solving global problems. A summary of the survey results is available for download.

Ideas. Designs. Products with a Future

Incombustible houses made of paper, glowing wallpaper, fuel-saving satnavs, powergenerating heating systems, a sixth sense "to go" – we present the ten best products, ideas, or designs with a future. Some of them are already on the market, others are still in the prototype-stage, and a few only exist on paper. Yet all  over issues which concerned us during the past year and which offer, on small or large scale, solutions for the future. Here, technologies find new uses, everyday problems solved innovatively, or global responsibilities are met in novel ways.

What growth do we want?

A New Course in Energy Policy Heralds a New Economic Logic

by Cornelia Daheim and Holger Glockner

Matters are seldom as clear-cut as when it comes to energy: Enough about the future, the time is now! Less clear, however, are the consequences: Setting a new course in energy policy means asking the question: What growth do we want?

Corporate Foresight - Radar on Business Rooftops

By Klaus Burmeister

In 1973, many companies would have given their eyeteeth for having been as clear-sighted as Shell had been. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries had scaled back oil production which resulted in skyrocketing oil prices and plunged the global economy into recession. Shell alone was not surprised by this incident which entered the world’s history books as the “oil price shock”. If, similar to Shell, your business wants to avoid nasty surprises, a systematic look into possible future challenges and issues has become more necessary than ever.

Trends: Innovation Communication

By Klaus Burmeister and Silke Loh

Dialogue Replaces Knowledge Transfer: Companies increasingly enter into dialogue with customers, partners, suppliers, and staff in order to be able to keep up with competition. For this reason, communication now has to accomplish more than the marketing of innovation and the positioning of the company as cutting-edge on the market of new ideas.

Digital Natives

By Andreas Neef, Björn Theis and Willi Schroll

"Digital Natives" have grown up with Wikis, Blogs und Social Networks and hardly ever distinguish the virtual and the real worlds. Businesses would do well to take these web-aborigines seriously. Andreas Neef, Björn Theis, and Willi Schroll have analysed how the Generation Internet will change society.

Changing Consumer Behaviour in China

By Björn Theis

In the western hemisphere, the financial crisis has increased calls for more government control of the market. Comrades in China, however, beg to differ: They progressively slacken the reins of market regulation. It seems as if economic drivers have simultaneously become the engines of social change. Z_punkt staff member Björn Theis spent four weeks travelling through China. In his travelogue, he reports about a country which is rapidly developing into the world’s largest market for luxury goods.