Most recently, issues of digitalisation and globalisation have been at the heart of business development. Then the corona pandemic emerged and society adjusted in an effort to parry the first pandemic wave that spread across Sweden and the world. Then came a second, and at the time of writing the media are formulating headlines about a third wave rolling in. From companies slowly but surely working to digitise and reach out with goods and services globally, developments were instead characterised by abrupt acceleration and uncertain conditions. Consequently, companies had to work at a very fast pace to launch new business models in parallel with the verification of these models. This creative, exploratory and direct exploration has not only been characterised by a lack of time, it has also minimised the all-important space for reflection.
Our experience shows that continuous development in parallel with direct execution has been important for the survival of many companies. We also see the importance of strong brands and customer relationships. We see, for example, that companies with a common understanding of values and core values have been able to both create space and gain customer tolerance for this exploratory transformational work.
However, in times of crisis, rapid and disruptive developments, it is important to continue to be able to look up, monitor the world around us and take part in trend scouting. To ask yourself questions about which sectors you can learn from, which companies and entrepreneurs inspire you or who represent new knowledge that can benefit your business. Such monitoring offers good opportunities to identify new and good examples, as well as learning from the mistakes of others.
The purpose of the reflection questions is to make visible how you work with market intelligence and trend scouting today and to reflect on how this work can be developed to contribute to more sustainable business models.
Reflection questions: business models, monitoring the world and looking at trends
How could your existing monitoring and trend-spotting work be developed to increase your company's responsiveness to changes in the world?
How do you assess the flexibility of your business model based on changes in the environment, such as the development of:
- Digitisation
- Coronapandemin
- The economy
- Consumer priorities (what we spend our money on)
- Hemester
- Social distancing
Based on your reasoning, what are the consequences, i.e. what do you think you need to develop in order to increase your flexibility and thus be more sustainably equipped for tomorrow?
Can you see other possibilities emerging from your analysis?
