Back To The Business Future

Robert Bryant - IBISWorld

At IBISWorld we take our forecasts out to five years. This takes into account the time it takes for business to truly take advantage of any trend, establish itself in the marketplace and ensure it has the infrastructure to take advantage of it. We find this to be a more applicable forecast period than 12 months.

Looking ahead, the resources sector will continue to dominate the top 10 industries in terms of growth over the next five years. In particular nickel, uranium, and iron ore are forecast to top the industry growth table. This doesn't mean you have to be a big mining corporation to take advantage. There has been a great deal of growth in everything from the supporting infrastructure, engineering, construction trades, transport, even entertainment and leisure, as local and regional economies continue to prosper. Opportunity continues in the business services sectors–accounting, legal, recruitment and training.

Outside of resources, financial services are expected to be another dominant sector. This is due to several key factors. Our aging population funding their retirement, strong employment levels driving incomes up, and recent legislative changes encouraging us all to take responsibility for our own financial future. Consequently, investment advice, and the industry that encompasses investment services and superannuation, all feature as areas of opportunity in the years ahead.

Following are some of the highlights based on industry growth forecasts, but, as ever, companies that understand their own business, that of their customers, and the business environment they operate within, have as good a chance as any to find success in the year ahead!

John Downes - Partner, Growth Solutions, Deloitte.

As a consultant in the SME space, I find that small enterprise has just as many problems as big enterprise, but they’re faster to react—more decisive—and you can make a big difference very quickly.

Thanks to retiring baby boomers, the number-one issue facing everyone (globally) is the talent shortage. They’re being constrained not be the opportunities in the marketplace, but the opportunities for them to get good staff to perform the work. It’s going to be a growing trend in 2008. And that provides significant opportunities for businesses, as well as the challenges. Service businesses will increasingly rely on outsourcing more to fill roles.

Some of the resource gap will be filled by the ‘grey army’, and small businesses will need to be prepared to take on different staff models to access those skills.

There’s also a trend towards sustainability, and corporate social responsibility, to make an impact on climate change. There are a lot of opportunities for service and manufacturing businesses that address climate change.

With an increasing sense of busyness, there’ll be continued use of outsourcing for ‘valet’ services, such as home cleaning, car detailing, buying services and concierges. That’s going to lead us into a boom in franchising in industries that are either service or SME focused. So that caters to the market in two ways: one, for us to serve up those services and products, but also more readily draw on the retiring end of he community who are able to take on more of the part-time or casual roles in those franchises.

Suzi Dafnis - Entrepreneur and National General Manager, Australian Businesswomen’s Network

Having sold Pow Wow Events in August, my hope if to have more free time to work on the Australian Businesswomen's Network, a role that, while voluntary, is very fulfilling and my way of giving back.

Our MentorNet program, which kicked off in 2007, will continue with a goal to have 1,000 women go through this six-month mentoring program in the next two years.

A new initiative Her Voice (hervoice.com.au) is an exciting new direction for the ABN, and will take the concerns of the ABN’s community of over 20,000 Australian businesswomen to government and industry, advocating and lobbying to make a real difference to legislative outcomes.

In terms of business trends and predictions, I think SMEs need to think global. I feel that those businesses that think globally, even if they only operate locally, will win. There is such easy access today to the latest of everything, latest think, business ideas, education. If you’re not accessing what’s hot in key places around the world, your competitor might be.

Technology and especially social media and networks will find a solid place in business practice. If we look beyond the social aspects of Facebook and My Space there is a clue to how to build loyalty and attraction to customers. Using technology to interface relevantly with your customers will be key.

I think those companies that display a real and necessary care for the planet will win points. But it can’t be tokenistic. If you’re not really being green, don’t pretend to be.