How Disruption Affects 2022 Predictions

Our Quote of the Day: 
"Forecasts at best are static moments in time that do not account for future anomalies. However, they can serve as benchmarks to consider as unforeseen future disruptions unfold."
— Leland Hicks





Consumers View an All-Digital World 


The Forrester report states that "Around 80% of consumers will see the world as all digital with no divide in 2022." The Covid-19 pandemic brought about increased digital usage due to consumers' expeditious ratification of new technologies. As of April 2020, when looking at online adult usage in the UK and US, 49% of the UK users and 63% of the US web visitors stated they had engaged in a new online activity, with examples like attending a religious shrine and online exercise workout. In addition, these online adults also upgraded their in-home technology for 35% of online UK residents and 44% of online US adults. We can expect more adults in 2022 to move from being wary digital participants to becoming more comfortable with adopting the online behavior exhibited by the numbers mentioned above depicting online adult users.

In short, consumers are of the mindset that companies will need to improve by creating a successful and sustainable digital consumer experience moving forward. More importantly, 56% of US consumers will expect businesses to understand how to better deal with pandemic-related issues. Further, 58% of these consumers assume that companies will consolidate digital resources to better manage any rising health anomalies in the future.


Note: As we were writing this blog, CBS news issued this statement: "WHO urges US to pay attention as surging COVID cases flood Europe's hospitals again."

Is Digital Transformation Behind Us?

Some would argue that digital transformation is an ongoing situation, with new digital architecture evolving and shifting how we interact with digital. By that standard, notably, the 10% of tech executives outlined in the Forrester report state that they anticipate prioritizing investments to "radically expand creativity and innovation." It's important to remember, Facebook is a single company, representing less than 1% of digital organizations that revolutionized digital consumer interaction.

Some would suggest that the digital transformation initiatives are over, with many implying that the movement has come and gone. Throughout 2021, just 21% of global purchase influencers stated their organizations would put forth digital transformation as a significant action to deal with business model reformation.  Forrester forecasts that the number will drop below 15% in 2022. That said, concern regarding pandemic response and technological advancements could continue to be an ongoing accelerant should there be another variant wave and how deadly that wave might be.

Another aspect of the digital transformation discussion implies that businesses are chasing new paths with an "ongoing digital sameness," and "failing returns on IT investments" may conjure the notion that business value may be elsewhere given the rising tide of overcrowded market waters.  Further, firms that may lead the digital transformation may also develop creative solutions. These solutions will benefit their employees and provide them with intelligent technology, including automation and predictive engines that focus more on outcomes than financial results.

Therefore, regardless of the digital transformation debate, a predicted shift signals a new transformation era for a more human-centered technology. This technology will establish a tighter link between the CX (customer experience) and the EX (employee experience), and the technology should deliver a 3 to 5% lift in productivity. As a competitive edge, employers will want to reexamine the remote versus in-office productivity enigma.

B2B Marketers Tech Investments

In recent years, B2B marketing has adopted more B2C marketing strategies, including integrating digital assets. Further, as the Forrester survey predicted, B2B marketers will invest more in technology efforts but be met with uneven results. The forecast suggests that 75% of personalized engagement strategies will fail to meet ROI goals. Further, 70% of marketers will advance the "always on" digital engagement strategy throughout 2022. Of this transformation in the B2B sector, B2B buyers noticed that brand competence was the top driver of purchase choices, most notably ahead of relationships with sales reps (5%) and even above customer references (6%).

In recent years, Martech, which represents tech stacks, was cited as a growth strategy for combining digital with automation tools, machine learning technology, and AI. Interestingly enough, Martech's marketing budget fell to 19% in 2020 but should rebound to 25% in 2022. Furthermore, for B2B marketing strategies to meet the "always-on" digital initiative, they will be required to invest in more Martech solutions for 2022.

However, it is critical to remember that 75% of digital initiatives to create automated, personalized engagement strategies will fail to achieve ROI goals. Again, this will be due to underserved buyer insight. Another 2022 prediction is that 10% of B2B organizations will need to understand measurable metrics to quantify value aimed at buyers for the buying process. B2B marketing organizations will have to create a customer-centric approach for both the planning and execution processes to realize personalization goals.

Organizations Struggle with Anywhere Work

One-third of first attempts at anywhere work solutions will fail. According to the Forrester survey, this one-third failure rate will not be due to the effects of the pandemic. Only 10% of organizations will fully commit to a remote work future. The remaining 90% will fail at return-to-office tactics, and these actions will be regardless of vaccine mandates. The most significant pain will be 60% of businesses attempting to shift to a hybrid work model.  While business leaders will discuss and support this notion of developing a successful remote work hybrid model, the bottom line is that promotions, job responsibilities, and meetings will continue to revolve around face-to-face engagements.

The report continues to forecast that when productivity suffers, these executives will suggest that the hybrid models are to blame versus looking internally for potential causes of these failures.  30% of companies that rely on an in-office work model will experience an attrition rate reflecting industry averages, with monthly resignation rates rising as high as 2.5%. Forrester projects that this will continue throughout 2022 until CEOs and C-Suite execs suffer enough pain to create a hybrid work model that can be successful.



The Net-Net

There are more insightful forecasts in the Forrester 2020 Prediction Survey. It would be wise to become aware of these predictions to be ready to move if outcomes reflect real problems ahead. After all, the first notion for creating a solution is to acknowledge a problem.

Digital transformation will continue to evolve, and undoubtedly there will be new terms to describe the next iteration of digital technology. It's best to understand that trends, forecasts, and predictions are in no way ironclad. However, they do present an uncanny reference of events to come. Predictability surveys and reports will remain a unique tool that all business models refer to from time to time. However, the question will remain, how serious are the implications and the likelihood of circumventing future predictions? We hope you found value in this article. Thanks for reading "How Disruption Affects 2022 Predictions!"


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