External drivers and influencers that drive business decisions

1. Quarterly Insights 2016 - Q3
External trends and influencers that drive business decisions.
Haworth contracts with an independent third party source to understand relevant and timely insights for commercial environments.
These insights are developed through the tracking of over 400 sources of information and the attendance of over 40 tradeshows worldwide each year.
SOCIAL
TECHNOLOGY
ECONOMIC
WORK
I research
companies
I buy from.
70% of people claim
thought leaders social leaders
waze fitbit tinder uber
DELAYED
ADULTHOOD:
“Adulting”
ALWAYS
“ANYTIME”
AND LEAVE
NO TRACE
EMBRACING
CULTURE
Nostalgic Futurists:
Innovation in the Old
RISE OF ROBOTS:
Legalized Personhood?
72%
83%
60%
INSPIRE AND SHARE
MILLENNIALS
ECONOMIES OF
DISTANCESHARING ECONOMY
by 2025
>$300
BILLION
THE OPTIMIZED SELF:
be the best you.
SMARTER SUPPLY CHAIN
children spend
6 hrs per day
hunched
over screens
EVOLVING
COMMUNICATIONS
fastest growing apps are for services that improve existing behavior

2. SOCIAL
• Transparency—the New Differentiator: It’s
no longer optional: Companies are expected
to operate out in the open, which is now
driving them to compete on transparency.
They are eager to show consumers that they
have nothing to hide and everything to boast
about. And 70% of people claim,“I make it a
point to know more about the companies that
make the products and services I use.”
[Source: HAVAS Worldwide]
• Social Leaders: In business, it’s no longer
enough to aspire to be a thought leader. To
truly connect with customers and employees,
you must become a social leader as well. It’s not
enough to manage from behind-the-scenes,
taking to the stage once a year at the annual
company conference. In our rapidly evolving
content world, business leaders need to
inspire and share their vision and brand
values everyday via open social platforms.
• Delayed Adulthood: Every generation invents.
Young adults have turned the noun “adult”
into a verb (“to adult”) and back into a noun
(“adulting”). The popular word is a sign of the
times. Delayed adolescence causes people
in their twenties to shake up traditional life
stages and assumed patterns of consumption.
• Embracing Cultures: Americans of all ethnicities
are embracing diverse cultures, exploring other
heritages, and bringing elements of these
cultures into their own lives—particularly
today’s youth. Millennials seek to engage
with brands that respect their heritage.
• Nostalgic Futurists: The past has the ability to
play a tangible role in today’s design process.
There’s innovation in the old, and the maker
culture knows it. How do you consider the past
in terms of the future? How do you recycle a
product? Balance is key, according to Japanese
fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto:“With one eye
on the past, I walk backwards into the future.”
ECONOMIC
• New Consumerism: The next 15 years could
see a consumer landscape dominated by the
rise of a sharing economy that leverages the
shared creation, production, distribution, trade,
and consumption of goods and services. With
an explosion of the middle class the sharing
economy could exceed $300 billion by 2025.
Activist investors who acquire companies in
order to incite change may influence a shift—
or drought—in talent.
[Source: McKinsey]
• Economies of Distance: Over the next two
decades, new technologies will cause the
cost of distance to decline sharply, altering
the way we live and work faster than most
people expect and more broadly than many
imagine. This next big economic shift will
create an astonishing array of opportunities
for businesses and investors—and unexpected
risks. Perhaps this is why co-working facilities
are increasing so rapidly?
[Source: Bain Insights]
• Smarter Supply Chain: Global forces are driving
change, requiring radical transparency in new
products and services. For example, the new
Burrow sofa shows the difference between
traditional and progressive manufacturing and
shipping methods, ultimately reducing cost to
the consumer.
WORK
• Always“Anytime:”Today’s workplace design
asks us to be permanently on call. The
flattening hierarchies and sociability that
define contemporary professional work
are mirrored in the spaces and gadgets that
allow us to function in the 21st century: open
plans, glass walls, communal table-desks, high
ceilings. Across these diverse spaces, the two
most consistent design principles are openness
and a banishment of personal clutter. The new
office is a comfortable, temporary platform
where workers come for interaction and heads-
down work before vanishing at a moment’s
notice. The norm is to leave no trace behind.
[Source: New Republic: https://newrepublic.com/
article/136558/life-nowhere-office]
• The Optimized Self: Humanity is on a quest—not
for perfection, but for optimization—to be the
best versions of ourselves, the most effective and
efficient we can be. For the Optimized Self, there
is no end of the journey, no perfect self—but
there is continual improvement.
[Source: LSN Global]
• Evolving Communications: 72% of Millennials
text 10 or more times a day. 83% of Millennials
open text messages within 90 seconds of
receiving them. 60% of Millennials prefer
two-way text engagement with companies
because it’s fast, convenient, and easy to do.
[Source: openmarket.com and mediapost.com]
TECHNOLOGY
• Body Work is the New Homework: Children
spend over six hours a day hunched over
screens. This obsession, paired with a
generally sedentary lifestyle, is leading
to a myriad of health concerns, such as
an increase in “tech neck.”This condition
creates a backwards curve in the neck and
spine caused by staring down at screens for
extended periods. Tech neck is a strain that
can result in headaches and a hunched back
in the short term, and mood disorders and
permanent spinal damage in the long term.
• Rise of Robots: The European Union
parliament is considering giving robotic
companions legal personhood in a move
that could allow them to carry out financial
transactions or collect prescriptions on our
behalf. Soon we may be comfortable enough
with robots to consider them as friends and
companions. We have relationships with
pets—why not with machines that are so
convincingly human that we fall for them
over and above human alternatives?
[Source: http://www.robotcompanions.eu/]
• Changing Behaviors: Some of the fastest
growing apps are for services that improve
existing real-world behaviors, such as hailing
cabs, exercising, and dating. For example,
Waze helps you navigate through traffic more
efficiently. Uber and Lyft improve the process of
hailing a cab. Tinder makes dating easier. And
Fitbit lets you track your personal fitness data.
[Source: comScore]
Quarterly Insights 2016 - Q3
External trends and influencers that drive business decisions.