How futurism is becoming the newest business strategy and why it's important.

The technology market has been rapidly changing due to futurist ideas. Companies are investing money into technology that will safeguard their businesses for the future. Large businesses cannot prevent issues coming up in the near future, but hiring futurist experts will mitigate what is to come for them.

In 1980, Edward Cornish of the World Future Society gave some groundbreaking predictions. He made 29 predictions of what the future will look like, and 11 of them became reality. One of the first predictions he made was that there would be artificial hearts available for transplants, which came true a few years later. He predicted that the construction industry would mostly rely on automated machinery with minimal labor. Unfortunately, he also predicted that governments will struggle to distribute food and labor for the majority of workers.

Other experts in futurism agree that rapid technology changes are ruining certain businesses. Jobs are being lost around the world, and governments do not know how to cope with these changes. Both businesses and governments will need to study futurism in order to implement changes that safeguard their economies.

HR departments have been recruiting futurist experts to improve the efficiency of their departments. Futurists aid them in determining new skill sets that departments should be looking for to gain an edge in their industries.

Organizations like the Rockwell International Corporation have appointed their own teams to assess their goals of the future. These teams must analyze the climate of the market to determine what moves the company must take to still be alive in 10 years. The team will also assess multiple paths for the company to take for the predictions of many alternative futures.

Even small businesses can take advantage of following futurist ideas. Long-term trends will significantly impact the demand for small shops or services, and many businesses may even become irrelevant. When new technology is introduced to the marketplace, business owners should assess how they can take advantage of the new trend. If a new demographic is moving into certain neighborhoods, the local shops must conform to appeal to them. These are just a few basic examples of futurism.

Entrepreneurs of small businesses should focus on imagining what the customer will need in the near future. Focusing on small, short-term niches will assure a collapse of businesses after the niche dries up.

Becoming personally invested in a product is also a bad idea. Many products may not even meet the demands of the public. A good example is the hordes of forgotten projects on websites like Kickstarter.

Even simple gadget trends are changing the way technology businesses are going. The internet of things has made many companies shift toward internet connectivity in their devices. Refrigerators, video game consoles, televisions, doors, lights, toasters, ovens, coffee machines and other appliances have been conforming to IoT trends.

On the other hand, there is an overinvestment in certain technology gimmicks that draw away from more important things. Pagers were an obsession during the 1990s, but the market should have focused on expanding mobile phones instead. Answering machines are another device that was quickly made irrelevant due to the rapid changes in phone technology.

Hotels have also been adapting to the way the internet shifts the market. Online booking is practically a must, since the majority of bookers are finding the hotel from the internet. Airbnb certainly changes accommodation prices in many tourist areas, and prices may shift down or up. The future of travel accommodation is shifting toward alternative means, so hotels must figure out a way to mitigate this.

Technology marches on, and the needs of consumers will keep changing with it. Businesses should be doing everything they can to future-proof themselves as much as possible.

Image from Michael R. Ross/Shutterstock

Jason Hope

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Businesses Need Futurism to Stay Ahead - Business.com