INNOVATION
WHAT’S NEXT?
Market and economic trends Sussex Innovation’s Research and Insight team specialise in delivering market analysis for start-up and scale-up businesses, leveraging leading market research resources to gain a better understanding of where risks and opportunities lie. Research & Insight Coordinator, Maria Bedoya outlines several of the macro trends that will inform how we do business in 2022 and beyond, from the multinational corporation to the micro-business.
If 2021 was the year the world turned the tide against the pandemic, 2022 will be dominated by the need to adapt to new realities, both in areas reformed by the crisis and in the new scenarios informed by social and political change. Things are changing rapidly, from the immediate world of work, travel and leisure to the geopolitical shifts caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the growing influence of China. Beyond even that, the threat of climate crisis becomes more and more urgent. And although the scenario does not seem optimistic at first glance, it means that the time has come to invoke the powers of innovation. We must rethink,
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reimagine, reinvent and redesign processes and activities, even in those sectors that have traditionally been the least innovative. This is the time when the world and its wealthiest economies must stop depending on oil and non-renewable
energies to make way for cleaner, safer, more efficient and more sustainable models. This is a crucial moment for businesses large and small to make firm decisions regarding the effects of their operations on people, communities, and the natural world. Ethical practices and business models must become the starting point and not an added bonus to their value proposition. The most important lesson we can take from the pandemic is that our decisions have to be informed by their impacts on health, wellbeing, and care for what is essential – life. Unfortunately, we are once again facing a war that looks like one of those in 19th-century history class where human lives were sacrificed by empires fighting over territories. It seems that the clear message of the pandemic was not heard, resulting in massive short and medium-term effects on migration, access to fossil fuels and grain, and the potential reconfiguration of NATO and its guiding principles.
