smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

The next ten years will herald a ‘seismic shift’ in the UK’s business landscape unseen since the original industrial revolution, finds a new report looking at the future of UK firms.
 
The 2020 Vision study by Bibby Financial Services foresees that wireless use of the web, giving businesses the ability to be truly mobile, will facilitate an upturn in the number of small and medium-sized businesses in the UK by 20 per cent come 2020.

It suggests that the impact the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries had on daily life is set to be felt again 250 years later due to a ‘jump point’ in the internet to 3 billion users worldwide.

This will herald a marked step in history as the rise in use of smartphones, tablets, online networking and social media changes the business landscape in the UK forever, according to the study.
 
Among its key findings, the report predicts a surge in the number of micro-businesses, often operating outside of traditional business hours and premises.
 
Business psychologist and CEO of Xancam Consulting Maria Yapp, says, ‘These findings will certainly impact differently for each generation of workers in the UK and in particular, on Generation Y (born early-mid 1980s), as it is they who will be taking this new business model forward in the coming years.
 
‘Generation Y are infinitely more comfortable with the idea of the ‘boundaryless workplace’. But the biggest challenge will be more for older generations who have grown up with the established corporate model and will need to adjust to the needs of Generation Y. 

Yapp adds that established corporations and businesses will need to create a ‘very compelling proposition’ if they want to attract top talent in the future.

‘There are also likely to be changes in the psychological contract between a business and its employees, with less of a sense that employees are ‘assets’ owned by the business, but moving towards a model of ‘delivery partners,’ she says.
 

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