Leading reseacher Frost & Sullivan has pinned down the top mega trends that will influence and shape the world in the coming years and has launched a visionary innovation research programme.

The ongoing research will cover a spectrum of interesting Mega Trends in the following areas: development of Mega cities, regions and corridors, “Smart” emerging as the new Green, Geo Socialization, Innovating to Zero, Beyond BRIC: The Next Game Changers, Space Jam, Personal Robots and e-Mobility and New Business Models.

A brave new world emerges from Frost & Sullivan’s recent research, “World’s Top Global Mega Trends to 2020 and Implications to Business, Society and Cultures,” said a statement from the company.

The objective is to provide companies with special reports to focus on the evolution of these global trends to help them drive growth and innovation in a rapidly changing environment, it added.

“Frost & Sullivan defines mega trends as global, sustained and macroeconomic forces of development that impact business, economy, cultures, careers and personal lives, thereby defining our future world and its increasing pace of change,” remarked Sarwant Singh, Frost & Sullivan partner.

'The unique feature of this Visionary Innovation Research Programme, compared to other predictive programmes out there, lies in its ability to not only identify and evaluate emerging Mega Trends, but to also to translate those opportunities to everyday business and personal life – the macro to micro approach,' he observed.

'In other words, we are not just throwing out forecasts for the future, but showing organizations immediate opportunities and threats in the here and now,' Singh added.

According to the analysis, sustainability was one of the major Mega Trends that shaped human, organisation and government behaviour in the last decade.

The study forecasts health, wellness and well-being with a much wider definition than mere healthcare, which will include body, mind and soul as the most important factor of discussion and differentiation in this decade, said the researcher.

'It reveals that women empowerment will reach new heights, with one in three workers being a woman and up to 40 percent of boardrooms in some nations comprising women by 2020.'

'The world will also witness reverse brain drain, wherein the vast vacancies for CXOs in countries like India will be filled not only by returning Indians, but also by Americans and Europeans seeking better prospects,' Singh added.

According to him, there will be many interesting Mega Trends to watch out for. 'First, future urbanization will drive integration of core city centres or downtowns with suburbs and satellite cities, resulting in expanding boundaries from the current average of 25 miles (40 km) to around 40 miles (64 km).'

'We will witness the emergence of 30 Mega-cities, 15 Mega-regions and at least 10 Mega-corridors with over 20 million people by 2020. Urbanization will lead to new hub and spoke business models for healthcare, logistics, retailing and many other functions, forcing organizations to re-think their ‘Urban’ business model.'

Second, e-Mobility will redefine personal mobility in the future. Over 40 million electric vehicles, including electric pedal cycles, scooters, four-wheelers and buses will be sold annually around the globe in 2020.

The opportunity in the e-Mobility market is not in making cars but in its value chain, batteries (including second life and recycling), charging stations and packaging innovative mobility solutions such as ’pay by electrons.’

The next level of social networking will focus on geographic services and capabilities such as geocoding and geotagging to enable additional social dynamics.

User-submitted data with profiles and interests will be matched with location-based services to connect and co-ordinate with surrounding people or events. This type of geo-networking will drive markets, businesses and individuals to interact, advertise and promote in real time.

Another trend identified by Frost & Sullivan is Innovating to Zero. This trend examines a world of zero emissions, zero accidents, zero fatalities, zero defects, zero breaches of security and carbon-neutral factories, the company statement added.-TradeArabia News Service