2012 The Year of New Normal

 

As 2011 was a year of transition, 2012 will mark a new and permanent normal. Here are 5 events that will usher in a century of "NEW NORMAL", a time in which we will never return.

We felt the birth pains of the "New Normal" in 2011 with these political and technological shifts that occurred at rapid fire and sometimes under the radar.

• The Arab Spring
• The death of Osama Bin Laden
• The death of Muammar Gaddafi
• The death of Kim Jong Il
• The death of revolutionary baby boomer, Stephen Jobs
• The financial crisis in Greece, Italy, and even France.
• The rise in the power of the mobile "smart" phone

 

As 2011 will be remembered for its dynamic beginnings of change, 2012 will set up the dividing line of permanence in the following cultural ways:

1. The death of Mass Media into the permanent new age of Mass Communication: Facebook, Twitter, and the mobile phone have been emerging technologies until now. Moving forward, these will work together permanently changing the way we get and give information. Mass Media will forever more bow its head to these new technologies.
2. From Brick and Mortar to ecommerce: Banking, real estate, and commerce will need to adapt to the permanent change of products and goods being sold online on sites like: Cars.com, flowers.com, eBay, Facebook, Google and the like. Banks will have to find new ways to permanently re-evaluate commercial real estate and properly evaluate dynamic commerce website URLs. This process will be gradual as banking institutions are clearly behind the curve and from recent failures, somewhat inept. 2012 will mark this as a permanent change, however.
3. The Fall elections of 2012: As the 1932 elections heralded in a new age of thought with Keynesian Economics, the election of 2012 will bring about a permanently new way that government talks to and deals with its voters. With new media the electorate has more voice than ever before and governments will need to adapt becoming more transparent and dynamic as a result. Look for governments to leverage technology in an effort to gain control and work with it in an effort to appease voters.
4. Permanent Dynamic Change Cycle: Technological Darwinism will mark business forever more. Adapt or Die will be the motto. The rate of change will permanently occur in three month cycles. Large corporate giants will struggle to adapt, ushering in a new "GUILDED AGE" of micro corporations that are highly collaborative worldwide and highly creative in achieving business solutions.
5. Outsourcing to machines will become permanent: All routine work will forever more begin being outsourced to computers. Employers will be permanently seeking applicants who can: Think critically, communicate well in a team environment through mass global communication structures, and collaborate well with people inside the business and around the world. The global revolution of networking will make this possible for even the smallest firms and this will also be a permanent change.
6. BONUS PREDICTION - The emergence of Generation Tech as the Baby Boomers begin exiting stage left: The passing of the torch to a new generation will become evident and permanent in 2012. In 2011, it began in the Middle East and will now migrate to America. This new generation will work, think, and collaborate on smart phones. Unlike their parents, they will solve routine problems in more creative ways. As productivity marked their grandparents' age, technology creation and wealth management earmarked their parents' age, creativity will be the buzz word forever associated with this new generation. This generation will usher in a new age of creative craftsmanship much like the gilded age that existed before the industrial revolution.

Major upheavals in social, political, cultural and technological environments have periodically marked history throughout the ages. We are now entering into just such a new season.

Let's embrace it.

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