Our Big Topics for 2010 – and Beyond
At Sandbox we’re fortunate to interact every day with some of the most inspiring young innovators around the world. Our members are constantly driving new ideas and exploring untouched opportunities. Observing patterns within our community and studying trends of our clients, we identified six major themes to watch out for in 2010 and beyond:
1. Unique and Genuine Corporate Cultures
Many young people today are afraid of becoming “corporate slaves” limited to standardized work without any meaning. To be successful, companies increasingly don’t only have to be efficient, but must also create genuine corporate cultures that attract and retain employees, customers and shareholders.
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2. Create Meaningful Relationships
Being connected to others is crucial to our personal and collective success. The evolving “social web” phenomenon has made these interactions easier. In turn, creating and sustaining meaningful relationships will become even more important and valuable.
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3. Hippies 2.0: Do What You Love and Get Paid for It
More than ever, young people have a strong desire to do something meaningful in their lives. We see twenty-five year olds having their “quarter-life crisis” and asking themselves about their purpose in life and how it impacts society. This new “passion generation”, as we call it, mixes their drive for meaningful impact with another old concept: capitalism.
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4. Linking Data to Objects
The term “augmented reality” has been around for some time. It describes technologies and processes that add digital data to real-world objects and places. Now, finally, we think that all the pieces are in place for these technologies to spread widely, become more developed, and dramatically alter our lives.
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5. Social Business Design
The internet is more than a tool, it is an evolving user-powered organism that creates and manages vast information. The trends seen in the evolution of the internet can be leveraged by organizations and translated into new structures, processes, business models and cultures. “Social Business Design” makes organizations more agile, more connected and more transparent.
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6. Emplotment: The Skill of Making Sense of Stuff
Historically, the most natural form of communication is story telling. Then came the ideals of rationality and objectiveness and banned stories to the realms of fiction. Today, we experience information overload. As the vastness of data around us increases, the value of storytelling multiplies.
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In many ways, the six themes overlap and share the following properties:
- Emotional Innovation: In pursuit of happiness, we are creating innovative living and working spaces that give sense of purpose and reflect our passions. We also had intense discussions about this topic at the recent Palomar5 summit in Berlin.
- Blending Virtual and Physical: Technology is no longer just an instrument, it is deeply integrated into the heart of society, amplifying the individual voice and shifting social dynamics.
- Social Everything: The internet was the start, but today everything is connected through the social web, from organizational structures, corporate cultures, product development, marketing, problem solving, and the human experience.
We would love to hear from you: What do you think of these topics? What are your big trends for this year? Let us know in the comments!
On the 13. January 2010 at 05:56 o'Clock
I want to add to #3 “Hippies 2.0: Do What You Love and Get Paid for It.”
I think there is going to be a growing trend around how our generation actually carries out our entrepreneurial passions. Based on the financial crisis we now now beginning to come out of, I think our generation will continue to maintain a status-quo job in order to provide the safety of income, but still manifest our passions by moonlighting in various forms.
The resurgence of dual-jobs/careers will become noticeable for our generation. We crave the idea of pursuing our passions, but understand the need for safety of income. Or, you can look at like the entrepreneurial venture provides safety for the risk of losing a standard job.
The question is…which one will win in the next 5 years?
On the 19. January 2010 at 17:21 o'Clock
Great post guys!
To build on Bryan’s point, I think we will continue to see growth in the freelance community.
People all over are becoming ‘firms of one’ consultants as experts in their specialized field offering their help to various businesses across the continuously flattening planet.
The sense of community that usually comes from a work environment will slowly be replaced by tight personal and professional networks like Sandbox that help people find collaborators across various industries.
On the 6. February 2010 at 01:57 o'Clock
[...] publishing the Sandbox Six Themes report last month, we received a lot of great feedback and interest from our members, our advisory [...]
On the 17. May 2010 at 19:15 o'Clock
[...] at the DLD conference in Munich – Joint Sandbox-Seedcamp event in New York City – Sandbox publishes Six Themes for 2010 & Beyond – Antoine is invited to Singapore by Swissnex and speaks about the Sandbox business [...]
On the 25. June 2010 at 09:32 o'Clock
Hi,
You sound just like you should as young entrepreneurs: positive and eager to change the things around you. That’s good, but leads to a pretty strong bias, it seems to me.
So it’s striking that:
1) These are almost exclusively first-world ideas, attempts to create meaning in an (over-) saturated environment. On purpose, I guess?
2) You focus narrowly on the business sphere. Have you lost all faith in political processes and activism already? Too postmodern for democracy?
3) Definitely carry on with the emplotment stuff – there’s value aplenty to create and capture for your company and all of us around it.
So, I love what you have there and do find a most your points in my own live – good stuff :)
Cheers,
Hannes
On the 25. June 2010 at 11:37 o'Clock
Hannes, many thanks for your comments, very valuable and definitely spot-on!
We’re currently working on an updated version of this, check out http://members.sandbox-network.com/group/sandboxprojects/forum/topics/sandbox-big-themes-summer and let us know what you think about the new ideas!