Jimin Lee

Title: Trends of business, what will it be?

In the book “Future File” written by Richard Watson, the author says that “Predicting the

future is a dangerous work. But it’s more dangerous if we do not predict the future because of

low accuracy.” In other words, it claims that predicting the future is hard but has more than

enough credit for it. “What if I know what will happen tomorrow?” I remember that this kind

of thought has been in my head for some time and I really hoped for it. If I could than I will

be able to play the market and have no rival.

In the field of business knowing the trends which will occur soon takes very important role

in making the profit of company. Since economy is directly affected by business and it is not

exaggerate to say that the future wealth of the world depends on predicting the future trends.

Futurologists William Gibson said that “Future exists at this time. It just didn’t spread itself.”

Just like his words, we need to construct the future out of what we know now. This is a work

which depend a lot of parts in imagination but with what we earned from past and now we are

able to glue some valuable predictions out of it.

The first trend which I think will affect the business entities is the increase in people’s

expectation about the morality of the company.

As the capitalism develops companies will gain more and more strength. We can see this by

a lot of examples. Bill Gates, the president of Microsoft has property which exceeds the one

year budgetary of a nation. And McDonald and Coca Cola is already conquered big part of

human life. Business power is starting to press the original power the society had. Samsung

the largest group in Korea is not touchable by the public power because it takes a huge part

in the economy of Korea. A company is now gaining more and more power in the politics.

The cozy relation between politics and business is causing corruption in justice.

We do not have to consider big issues like Microsoft or Samsung. We can feel that in our

lives that the company has a huge amount of affect in our normal lives. Large amount of jobs

are subordinated to companies and we are living by the payment from the company. This

makes our lives partially dependent to the company. So I think it’s not hard to say that

people’s human nature is affected by the company’s attitude toward society.

Companies do not only affect the human nature of workers but also has a huge affect to

the local society. Abbreviated word NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) and PIMFY (Please in

My Front Yard) shows that company can have good and bad affects. For example, the oiler’s

outflow of oil in the front ocean of Tae-A peninsula made the local citizen to starve because

of suspension of the marine commerce.

This kind of situation makes the concept of company’s responsibilities arise to have the

company handle some social chores. This kind of social pressure will change the mechanism

of business directly. Business functions on the basis of capitalism as well as market. Planning

a strategy for the market of a company depends on the profit and loss. But these social

responsibilities need to be shown like voluntary to citizen. Despite that the fundamental basis

of this responsibility is the “profit”, but tangibly it needs to be voluntary work.

In order to convince citizen the company, the responsibility should be shown tangibly

specific way. The company needs to bring their workers to the volunteering field and make

the name of the company look more morale. Companies should understand that the wealth

they earned should be returned to the society because it is accumulated by the sacrifice of

Jimin Lee

Global Initiatives Symposium in Taiwan 2009

Jimin Lee

society. They could achieve this by donating to orphanage, give scholarships and etc.

The second important trend is the business management considering environment. Global

economy has developed rapidly since the industrial revolution without thinking about

environment pollution. But since the late 1900’s the world has been considering the

environmental pollution seriously. Kyoto protocol is a good example of the concern. This

treaty is intended to achieve "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere

at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."

The Kyoto Protocol establishes legally binding commitments for the reduction of four

greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride), and two

groups of gases (hydro fluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons).

Environmental management is not, as the phrase could suggest, such, but rather the

management of interaction by the modern human societies with, and impact upon the

environment. The three main issues that affect managers are those involving politics

(networking), programs (projects) and resources (money, facilities, etc.). The need for

environmental management can be viewed from a variety of perspectives. A more common

philosophy and impetus behind environmental management is the concept of carrying

capacity. Simply put, carrying capacity refers to the maximum number of organisms a

particular resource can sustain. The concept of carrying capacity, whilst understood by many

cultures over history, has its roots in Malthusian theory. Environmental management is

therefore not the conservation of the environment solely for the environment's sake, but rather

the conservation of the environment for humankind's sake.

As with all management functions, effective management tools, standards and systems are

required. The ISO 14001 standard is the most widely used standard for environmental risk

management and is closely aligned to the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme

(EMAS). I think now is the time individual companies or entire industries start to adapt the

ISO standard. And companies should make restrictions about their range of environmental

pollutions. And should understand that restricting is not a loss but a profit in the future.

Companies should be aware that keeping environment clean is a duty, not a choice for them.

They need to try to develop ways like making manure equipment to make less pollution even

it takes them some cost.

Third, the trend is science technology. The main events happened in twenty and twenty-first

century can be mostly accounted to the development of science technology. Science

technology especially in the field of biotechnology, information technology has made

enormous improvement within two decades. Consumer, market and company’s structure

changed enormously by the development of Information Technology and most of all the

marketing operation changed directly by the development of Information technology.

We know by experience that the marketing strategy is now mostly about TV, radio,

newspaper and finally, the Internet. Internet is now the main source of business. Now there is

a lot of marketing procedures. E-Procurement is a good example. E-Procurement is

sometimes also known as supplier exchange) is the business-to-business or business-to-

consumer or Business-to-government purchase and sale of supplies, work and services

through the Internet as well as other information and networking systems, such as Electronic

Data Interchange and Enterprise Resource Planning. Typically, e-procurement Web sites

allow qualified and registered users to look for buyers or sellers of goods and services.

Depending on the approach, buyers or sellers may specify costs or invite bids. Transactions

can be initiated and completed.

Find the Next Wave to Ride On - New Business Strategies in the Changing World

Using internet at the field of business is very efficient so it keeps taking bigger and bigger

parts as time passes. Companies need to be aware of their usage of network and use it

efficiently in order to become the winner in the challenge.

I choose three future trends which seems to have biggest influence in business; Social

responsibility of companies, considering environment and using internet. Examining trends

are important for the persistent growth of economy. Roughly speaking, business is a game of

prognostication and planning. Whoever makes a better anticipation wins the game!

Global Initiatives Symposium in Taiwan 2009

Jimin Lee