Weekly Business Insights from Top Ten Business Magazines | Week 293 | Entrepreneurship Section | 1

Extractive summaries of and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Week 293 | April 21-27, 2023

The Future Of Business: 8 Trends For Startups To Watch

By Bernard Marr | Forbes Magazine | April 25, 2023

Listen to the Extractive Summary of the Article

Change and transformation in business continue at a furious rate, and new trends pose opportunities and challenges for organizations of all sizes.  But what are the top trends that are the most relevant for startup organizations right now?  Let’s look at how startup founders can rethink their organizations’ product and service delivery to leverage these trends and stay ahead of their competition.

1. Becoming a purposeful business.  Customers are more likely to buy from — and remain loyal to — brands with a strong sense of purpose.  Today’s most successful startups not only deliver amazing products, services, and experiences to customers, but they should also work to tackle the biggest challenges we face as a society.
2. Sustainability.  All startups should be weaving sustainability into every aspect of their businesses, including products, services, and processes. This can include efforts like reducing waste, transitioning to energy-efficient manufacturing practices, and tracking the environmental impact of their operations and supply chains.
3. Finding and keeping talent.  Startup companies are now competing for talent with the biggest tech companies in the world.  To be successful, startup founders must make attracting candidates and engaging their best workers a top priority.  Motivate your talent and reduce turnover by delivering an amazing employee experience and being transparent about your company’s values.
4. Customer relationship-building.  Building direct relationships with customers will become critical for startup organizations. Collecting direct data from your customers will enable you to understand how they use your products — including what they like, dislike, or ignore.
5. Every company is a tech company.  In this time of rapid digital transformation, every organization needs to think of itself as a tech company. When thinking about the future strategy of your startup, consider incorporating artificial intelligence, blockchain, and Web3 technology into business processes.
6. The opportunities of the metaverse.  Technology like augmented and virtual reality will allow your company to create far more immersive experiences for prospects and customers, as well as new products and services and products from digital-only shopping.  If you’re not already thinking about the metaverse, ask yourself, “How can our company add value by turning customer interactions into experiences?”
7. Finding a balance between automation and human talent.  Human beings have skills like creativity, critical thinking, and strategic foresight that robots simply can’t replace. Startup founders need to give humans the jobs they excel at while automating the things they can with machine learning and AI.
8. Innovative business funding.  You’re no longer limited to traditional financial sources to fund your startup!  With new trends like crowdfunding, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), SPACs, and tokenization, companies can grow in very different ways from what was possible in the past. It’s worth staying up-to-date on these business finance trends, so you know your options.

2 key takeaways from the article

1. Change and transformation in business continue at a furious rate, and new trends pose opportunities and challenges for organizations of all sizes.  But what are the top trends that are the most relevant for startup organizations right now? 
2. Trend startup founders can rethink their organizations’ product and service delivery to leverage based on these trends and stay ahead of their competition: becoming a purposeful business, weaving sustainability into every aspect of their businesses, Finding and keeping talent, Customer relationship-building, Every company is a tech company, The opportunities of the metaverse, Finding a balance between automation and human talent, and Innovative business funding.

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Topics:  Entrepreneurship, Trends, Business