New MR - New Mental Routes....Happy 2021!
31 December, 2020 - the last day of the year invariably prompts resolutions. But after 2020? Still worth a shot maybe. So here's my take on stuff for 2021, aiming to see MR a bit more broadly.
New Year, New Energy!
Ever get the feeling that you’re driven, emotionally and in the way you behave, by looking in the rear-mirror? By over-familiar narratives, exhausted in terms of new insights offered, offering little new in terms of energy or outlook?
I certainly do – likely exacerbated by the 2020 pandemic, wave 2 in particular, it's easy to become one's own back-seat driver.
So: time for a mental re-set. And a search for new stories, avenues of imagination, ones that hopefully stimulate, open up new mental routes - including those of humble market researchers.
Here’s a small list of diverse things, ideas, trends, things to read, sources of inspiration and usefulness that I wasn’t aware of.
Perhaps there’s something there for you too.
Slowbalisation
A term to describe the slowing down in global trade flows. Supply chains are moving away from the huge shifts of goods across continents via container ships. Factories are being assembled closer to the markets they serve.
Global trade in services is however expected to continue to increase.
So what? There’s a sense, articulated nicely by ex-UK minister Ken Clark in the FT of January 2020, of a large cycle coming to end:
“There was a sense of this generation (of the early 90s and 2000s, my caps)... was complacent about globalization and its uneven benefits. ….We didn’t, I think, quite know what to do with the at least 50% of the population for whom this meant their living standards didn’t rise, jobs they’d been proud of were given up for ones that were a way of making a living, paying the bills”
You can read the whole article here - Lunch with the FT/ Ken Clarke
Maybe we're at a tipping point which is more than just economically driven - the very beginning of a shift back to more local focus, of less dislocation, away from the anonymous, transactional, nomadic.
It's resolution time, so dreaming is allowed ;)
Greed is Dead – book by Economists Jon Kay and Paul Collier
With the sub-title Politiics after Individualism this book takes a swipe at the individualist ethos and the primacy of economic self-interest in wealth generation and economic prosperity.
Communities count more – these two highly respected UK economists anticipate a revival of the celebration of this concept.
I haven't read it yet, but it's on the list - Greed is Dead
Apparently it also targets strident activists, increasingly vocal in their demand for rights – property, tertiary education, legal rights – ideally met by the state, but likely to disappoint.
So what? Anything that suggests the end of an era and beginning of a new one in a politically neutral manner has to be worth a look at.
Modern Monetary Theory
The coming years are uncertain, full of awkward imbalances. But a number of economic commentators anticipate a splurge of seemingly unlimited central Government spending – aiming to re-flate weakened, partly dormant economies.
The phrase for this approach - Modern Monetary Theory.
It indicates the ability of central banks to print money limitlessly (QE) and cheaply – and finance rising central governmental debt.
Hopefully a force for good.
The risks: i) government debt ballooning to astronomical proportions that reduce the likelihood of it ever being paid off ii) inflation going out of control (currently not the case). Plus iii) zombification risks – companies being kept alive artificially through untargeted centrally-driven stimulus in a situation where the fundamental health of the business is unclear. Also criticised as a potential hindrance to necessary productivity increases.
So what? A cautionary reminder of the huge imbalances ongoing in the world’s economy – perhaps not a volcano yet, but highly vulnerable to external shocks.
But also of opportunities that can arise from reflation. Time to grab the moment to make things better perhaps – investing in better things and a better world, including more sustainable technologies....whilst the climate remains favourable.
Co-operative Movements in MR?
Nearer to home - we read a lot of the gig economy, an apparent army of freelancers working as and when then they can.
It's a highly controversial concept - but there are working organsational alteratives, including the familiar concept of the co-operative movement.
News from the UK research scence in the UK in Q1 2020:
The Nursery, a UK research and planning consultancy, announced on LinkedIn in early December 2020 that it had gone fully employee owned. Judging by the number of likes generated, seems a popular move.
Maybe a form of ownership that will grow – empowering and collaborative.
Crowd-Farming– www.crowdfarming.com
Finally, something more tangible and warming on the opportunities afforded by digital transformation: crowd-farming.
Buying direct from producers seems particularly attractive – support farmers directly who are engaged in organic, sustainable production with lots of information about the whole process. Know who you are buying from, where – in this case young farmers in the orange fields of Valencia, Spain.
From my wintry Northern European perspective, a welcome sense that a crate of seasonal Navel oranges will be delivered directly to my doorstop.
And no, it's not a subscription model so popular amongst certain investors ;).
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That's it.
Here's to 2021 - let's hope it's a year that opens up many new mental routes, and that market research can continue to invigorate and shake-up traditional ways of business thinking.
Curious, as ever, as to others' views.