With the new year approaching, it’s the season of prediction lists. Unfortunately, those prediction lists have become, well, pretty predictable, and the business world is not immune to the inevitable yearly prognostication. Sometimes looking into the future is a lot like looking into the past.
The words “mindshare,” “disruptive” and “multiplatform” will appear somewhere in the list.
Millennials! Millennials! Millennials!
There will be dire warnings related to the cloud that are — surprise — directly related to the product the list-maker’s company sells on ways to protect you from the cloud.
Witty Donald Trump reference.
Note on the inability to maximize and leverage your business on mobile.
Baby Boomers! Baby Boomers! Baby Boomers!
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Obligatory mention of your business’s need to act with social responsibility.
The term “analytics” will be slightly misused.
There will be a bold statement about the need to simplify.
Venn diagrams, Wave reports and Magic Quadrants will indicate those companies with the most aggressive marketing spend. So you’re not really invited to play with this crowd.
Content is king. Still.
Including the terms “newsjacking” and “growth hacking” will make the writer feel younger.
Something will be the new TV and it won’t be TV.
Praise for the open office.
Backlash over the scourge of the open office.
The word “micro” will continue to be put in front of an ever increasing list of words — hopefully ending when we get to “micro micros.”
A virtue will be found in something completely virtueless, i.e.: “The benefits of malware.”
It’s finally the end of Facebook.
Millennials again!
“It’s like Google for …”
Kelly Leonard is creative adviser for Second City Works, the business-to-business arm of Second City.