Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

A shift in power from West to East: China and India continue to be markets to watch as an increasing percentage of the population joins the middle class. Sorrell noted that China Mobile is now the most valuable brand outside the United States, and is growing exponentially every day.

Product overcapacity: Most industries are working with an overcapacity of products. The auto industry, for example, is capable of producing about 80 million automobiles in a year, but currently the market can only absorb about 60 million, he said.

Employee undercapacity: Businesses are facing a growing undercapacity in the supply of workers, and therefore, top talent. Expect to see the war for the best talent worsen.

Disintermediation: New channels for communications, sales, and the like significantly increase the risk of disintermediation.

And...

A reallocation of marketing spending: While consumers spend anywhere between 20 to 28 percent of their time online, companies are only allocating 12 to 13 percent of their marketing budgets to that channel, Sorrell said. He predicted that online marketing spending could increase to 20 percent of the total budget in the next five years, as companies try to align their spending with consumers' time online; however, in that time, consumers may well further increase their time spent online, so the disparity may still exist.