In the business world, if you want to be considered one of the most relevant leaders in your industry, then having a thorough grasp of today’s innovations, or demonstrating your willingness to gain the appropriate knowledge to keep your company ahead of the curve in an ever-changing market is a crucial step in order for your brand to survive.
Prospective clients and loyal customers are likely to stand by organizations that continue to inspire revolutionary growth with new ways of engaging with consumers, handling the day-to-day business requirements, and finding better solutions that are much more sustainable.
Therefore, a panel of experts from Fast Company Executive Board shares their top trends for developing new ways of thinking about how to run a business in 2022.
1. INTANGIBLE ASSETS
Instead of focusing on limiting consumerism and materialistic consumption, I’d rather invest in cultural capital. This means I want to acquire intangible assets, such as taste, education, knowledge, manners, experience-driven goods, or time-saving services. – Ana Brant, Dorchester Collection
2. SKILL-BASED HIRING
Skill-based hiring through new channel activation is essential. Attracting and retaining diverse expertise in underrepresented communities not only aids in diversifying talent-based communities but also opens up the candidate pool. Ultimately, skill-based hiring mitigates degree bias and elevates skills for the future. – Britton Bloch, Navy Federal
3. SUSTAINABLE BRANDING
Environmental action with eco-aesthetics continues to grow. When it comes to coffee manufacturing and our coffee farm, we focus on sustainability as we continue to look for more innovative ways to be an even more sustainable company. If it’s good for the earth, it must be good for us to model and promote environmental action and sustainability. Customers are getting more serious about which companies they support based on how sustainable they are. – Brandon Pena, BrandON Media Group
4. QR CODES
The QR code made a big comeback in 2021 and it will get even bigger in 2022. Customers have become habituated to QR codes because phone cameras scan them by default and restaurants have used them heavily during the pandemic. Greater QR usage will, in turn, drive higher offline to online conversion rates. Advertisers should take advantage of these trends and add more offline options to their online campaigns. – Chris Grosso, Intersection
5. E-LEARNING
E-Learning has become one of the biggest trends of late and I personally have been a part of this industry for the past two years. I picture it becoming a more cohesive part of our ecosystem in 2022. With that being said, the trend is so attractive because it fits everything we do in our current daily lives as people live more solitary, digital, and online lives. – Ben Nader, Recruiter Empire
6. VIRTUAL REALITY EVENTS
High production virtual reality (VR) conferences and events where the experience makes attendees feel like they’re actually immersed in a live event—compared to joining remotely—will continue to grow. There are so many virtual webinars and e-learning tools out there that are flat and disengaging. Amping up your VR efforts can increase engagement and exposure to your brand, product, or organization – Amanda Dorenberg, COMMB
7. DIGITAL WALLETS
Logging in with wallets—instead of with Google, for example, or traditional login information—will be a game-changer. The digital process of purchasing items is better integrated with payments and more secure. – Suchit Tuli, Quantime
8. ESG PERFORMANCE
Lending a better definition for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance for executive leadership and their boards is crucial. It is imperative for companies to demonstrate ESG management excellence, and this is largely due to business investor interest in demonstrating value beyond financial returns from their investments. ESG suffers from a poor definition, which often leads to a lack of clarity for company action. – David Jaber, Climate Positive Consulting
9. ANIMATED SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS
The necessity of adding more animation and movement to our campaigns’ social media posts continues to grow. We have seen that video does phenomenally better than a still image. With the addition of more animation and movement-oriented tools to create visual content, we can increase the engagement on a typical post where we would normally use a still design. Movement is a big upgrade if you can utilize it. – Christopher Tompkins, The Go! Agency