Amid the frenzy of holiday parties and the nostalgia of year-in-review roundups, let’s also take a moment to pause, reflect, and dream big about what's to come.
In our latest series on LinkedIn, we're predicting the top trends of 2015. From the wonders of wearable tech to a job market where workers finally have the upper hand, 70+ Influencers (including Richard Branson and Ban Ki-moon) shared their bold vision of what’s on the horizon.
What one innovation, social cause, business shift or event do you think will define 2015? Write your own Big Idea post here; please include the hashtag #BigIdeas2015 in the body — not the headline — of your post, so we can all read your great predictions.
Read on for some of the boldest ideas and trends for 2015:
This Year, We’ll All Get Raises
The Daily Beast columnist Daniel Gross is betting his bottom dollar on a salary bump — for everyone. With minimum wages rising in various states, companies will also have to adjust their pay scales. Great news, right? Not so fast.
"Whether looking for a job, or considering shifting to a new one, we all have to screw up our courage," Gross writes. "Whenever somebody approaches me with a job offer, or an assignment, or a book deal, there are two questions I write down and force myself to ask. (1) How much does it pay? (2) Can you pay more?"
-----
More Companies Will Fire Customers
Fred Reichheld invented the Net Promoter System as a way to measure a customer’s loyalty. As it turns out, the customer is not always right: "Some companies have always maintained confidential lists of customers who have been banned for bad behavior... Customers are more likely to treat employees (and fellow customers) respectfully when they know that they can’t get away with bad behavior."
Why shouldn't the rating process go both ways? (Uber and Lyft have already gotten a jump on rating customers.)
-----
Employees Will Finally Gain the Upper Hand
J.T. O’Donnell predicts that the tables will be turned in the war for talent, favoring workers for once. But in the desperate attempts to court would-be workers, companies may be tempted to exaggerate how cool their workplace is: "Just like someone who has been out of the dating scene for many years, many companies will stumble, bumble, and ultimately fumble their initial Employment Branding efforts."
-----
Wearable Tech Will Lead to a Better You
Given all the health-related New Year’s Resolutions out there, it's clear that accountability remains one of the biggest hurdles to successfully changing bad habits. Campbell Soup Company’s CEO Denise Morrison rejoices that monitoring your health habits (both good and bad) is now just a click away: "I see more people taking charge of their well-being through the use of data and digital sensors, wearable health bands and smartphone apps that can track and quantify everything."
-----
More Companies Will Act Like Startups
In 2015, every company will need to learn how to adapt — or else. Intuit CEO Brad Smith writes: "Even large organizations must now operate with the agility of a startup in order to thrive and grow."
So why is organizational change always easier said than done?
-----
Content Will Be Saved — One Micropayment at a Time
This one has long-been just around the corner. Now it looks like that corner is here. With the popularization of digital payments, Walter Isaacson describes how readers could fund creativity — directly. "People could click and pay a few pennies for an article," Isaacson writes. "Frictionless coin systems that allowed us to buy digital content on impulse would support journalists who want to cater to their readers rather than just to advertisers."
-----
This Will Be the Year You Finally Launch Your Startup
As Don Tapscott points out, "unemployment gnaws at an individual’s well-being, and makes them feel surplus to society’s needs." Stop waiting for the perfect job — why not create one yourself?
-----
In the coming days, we'll publish more bold predictions:
- PBS President Paula Kerger: The Year We Take the "Me" Out of Media
- Cisco CEO John Chambers: What If the City of the Future Could Be a Reality Now?
- Maynard Webb: Technology Can Save Us Time, But Are We Spending Those Extra Hours Well?
- Katya Andresen: Our Kids Will Rule The Internet
- Rich Moran: Silicon Valleys Will Spring Up Around the World
YOUR TURN: What one innovation, social cause, business shift or event will define 2015? Who or what will be impacted (for better or worse) by your Big Idea? Be specific: What problem will be solved, or what industry will be disrupted?
Write your own; please include the hashtag #BigIdeas2015 in the body — not the headline — of your post.