What is changing in these industries?

Technology

How is the tech­nol­o­gy indus­try evolv­ing? While the pre­vi­ous years have been pros­per­ous, with inno­va­tion and sales deter­min­ing the per­for­mance of tech­nol­o­gy-relat­ed firms, this year has expe­ri­enced unprece­dent­ed influ­ences from macro­eco­nom­ic and geopo­lit­i­cal fac­tors. Can the past momen­tum be maintained?

Dis­rup­tion is not uncom­mon for the indus­try, giv­ing rise to new waves of progress. As AI and IoT shift from the­o­ret­i­cal con­cepts to prac­ti­cal real­i­ty, tech­nol­o­gy firms must stay vig­i­lant about the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties ahead. While the indus­try is like­ly to be exposed to shaky devel­op­ments, tech­nol­o­gy will remain a key fac­tor in the glob­al econ­o­my, enabling firms to cre­ate and cap­ture new val­ue. Unsur­pris­ing­ly, tech­nol­o­gy is still a main cat­a­lyst for change and is on the verge of suf­fus­ing most firms, requir­ing them to adapt. Man­agers should be par­tic­u­lar­ly atten­tive to the forces that dri­ve change, track tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ments, and under­stand what fac­tors affect their company’s busi­ness mod­el. Advances in tech­nol­o­gy help firms raise their pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and offer the poten­tial to rein­vent them­selves to be bet­ter posi­tioned in the dig­i­tal age.

From recruit­ing top tal­ents suit­able to guide your firm through that change to assist­ing with strate­gic direc­tions, Glasford can sup­port tech­nol­o­gy-based firms to make the most effec­tive deci­sions and equip your com­pa­ny for what is yet to come.

Industrial Manufacturing

The indus­tri­al man­u­fac­tur­ing indus­try faces sig­nif­i­cant dis­rup­tion in the near-term from mul­ti­ple sources: the glob­al sup­ply-chain decou­pling, the move to net-zero emis­sions, tech entrants, shift­ing con­sumer pref­er­ences and expec­ta­tions, new busi­ness mod­els, and the emer­gence of unprece­dent­ed dis­tri­b­u­tion mod­els. These devel­op­ments are on the verge of reshap­ing the indus­tri­al man­u­fac­tur­ing indus­try, bring­ing about both risks and oppor­tu­ni­ties — the chance to inno­vate and enhance per­for­mance. Busi­ness mod­el inno­va­tion can act as a path­way to new lev­els, requir­ing firms to re-adapt and proac­tive­ly com­mit to new tech­nolo­gies for them to cap­ture more val­ue and grow sustainably.

A cen­tral indus­try trend is the rise of smart man­u­fac­tur­ing. Appli­ca­tion ranges from com­put­er-inte­grat­ed man­u­fac­tur­ing to dig­i­tal infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy that ana­lyze trends and spot resource inef­fi­cien­cies. Firms who imple­ment smart-man­u­fac­tur­ing are one step ahead over their rivals who miss out, so be sure not to be a late-comer!

The changes orga­ni­za­tions are exposed to can give rise to bolt visions and cor­po­rate actions that fos­ter the company’s future. How­ev­er, seiz­ing them requires the employ­ment of top tal­ents that trans­late chal­lenges into cap­i­tal­ized oppor­tu­ni­ties. Glasford can help fill posi­tions able to guide your com­pa­ny through the dis­rup­tions ahead.

Consumer Goods

Con­sumer prod­ucts are meant to sat­is­fy imme­di­ate urges from recip­i­ents and are also called final goods, because they are intend­ed to the con­sump­tion of the aver­age cos­tumer, rep­re­sent­ing their exit from the market.

Those prod­ucts are clas­si­fied in four types, each with unique char­ac­ter­is­tics, name­ly: con­ve­nience prod­ucts, shop­ping prod­ucts, spe­cial­ty prod­ucts, and unsought prod­ucts. Con­ve­nience prod­ucts are those fre­quent­ly pur­chased by con­sumers, tend­ing to be low priced, high­ly avail­able and demand­ing lit­tle or no com­par­i­son with com­pet­ing prod­ucts. On their turn, shop­ping prod­ucts are less fre­quent­ly acquired, which leads to a high­er degree of research and com­par­i­son by con­sumers, who tend to bal­ance qual­i­ty and price on the equa­tion for mak­ing the pur­chase choice. As the name sug­gests, spe­cial­ty prod­ucts are char­ac­ter­ized by unique fea­tures or brand qual­i­ties sought by cos­tumers, who tend to exert more effort into acquir­ing them, since they tend to be more scarce and only avail­able at select­ed places. Final­ly, at the oth­er end of the spec­trum, unsought prod­ucts are those not pur­chased in con­ven­tion­al cir­cum­stances. The clas­si­fi­ca­tion of con­sumer goods is impor­tant for the indus­try, as dif­fer­ent kinds of prod­ucts demand diverse mar­ket­ing efforts and directions.

On the last few years, changes on the sup­ply chain and con­sumer mind­set drove the con­sumer mar­ket through a roller coast­er ride. While the search for con­ve­nience and inno­va­tion increased dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, the dis­sat­is­fac­tion with inflat­ed prices and insuf­fi­cien­cy of basic prod­ucts was aggra­vat­ed. The rise of eth­i­cal con­cerns and envi­ron­men­tal aware­ness have severe­ly affect­ed var­i­ous sec­tors, such as the fash­ion indus­try, as more sus­tain­able and eth­i­cal­ly resourced prod­ucts are a cur­rent trend.

Mean­while, the dig­i­tal­iza­tion of sales has facil­i­tat­ed the import of con­sumer prod­ucts direct­ly from all sides of the globe, with Asian retail­ers like Shein and Wish mak­ing over­tak­ing the west, which is also impulsed by social media. West­ern com­peti­tors strug­gle to achieve a com­pa­ra­ble clien­tele, as raw mate­r­i­al and human labor are not so wide­ly and cheap­ly available.

Social media is now a pow­er­ful mar­ket­ing tool, with trust­ed dig­i­tal influ­encers being deci­sive for the suc­cess of new prod­ucts, com­pa­ra­ble to tele­vi­sion adver­tis­ing years ago. Online adver­tis­ing has become indis­pens­able for most con­sumer prod­ucts, and an impor­tant new mar­ket ten­den­cy is to sell com­mod­i­ty along with goods. That is due to most cos­tumers being accus­tomed to door dash­ing dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, mak­ing the effort to leave their homes to shop uninviting.

Spa­cious, bright, and high­ly staffed shops are no longer as attrac­tive to clients as well-devel­oped user-friend­ly plat­forms for online sales that will bring their pur­chased goods direct­ly and rapid­ly to their doorstep, and cos­tumers are hap­py to pay for the con­ve­nience. This shift brings con­cern to the state and labor mar­kets, as emp­ty shop­ping malls and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence replac­ing sell­ers are not lucra­tive for either, which in turn can affect the econ­o­my and reduce the aver­age con­sumer pur­chas­ing power.

To deal with the insta­bil­i­ty of the changes brought upon on the last years, your com­pa­ny will need the most pre­pared exec­u­tives and man­age­ment, as involved, com­mit­ted and tal­ent­ed work­ers can be the dif­fer­ence between surf­ing on the mar­ket trends or being swayed by them.

The good news is that we at Glasford Inter­na­tion­al can help you with that and you can count on our decades of expe­ri­ence and suc­cess in exec­u­tive search. Our can­di­dates are care­ful­ly select­ed to match required tech­ni­cal skills and com­pa­ny prin­ci­ples, grant­i­ng sat­is­fac­tion from all sides and the best out­come. We are trea­sure raiders rather than head hunters and it we are take pride in find­ing real assets to your company.

Mashinery, Construction, and Mining

The growth of the con­struc­tion and min­ing indus­try can be attrib­uted to increased activ­i­ty and demand for high­ly sophis­ti­cat­ed tech­nol­o­gy. At the same time, envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns and socio-eco­nom­ic cir­cum­stances impede the industry’s growth.

What trends will impact the con­struc­tion, min­ing machin­ery, and build­ing mate­ri­als indus­try? The fol­low­ing changes are cru­cial to under­stand­ing how the indus­try is pro­gress­ing. First, con­struc­tion meth­ods change, and so do build­ing mate­ri­als. Reduc­ing car­bon diox­ide emis­sions is a major devel­op­ment, such as in the pro­duc­tion of cement. Fur­ther, mate­ri­als from demo­li­tions should re-enter a new life-cycle and be re-used. New kinds of mate­ri­als and tech­niques are also pros­per­ing. Among these are 3D print­ing and mod­u­lar con­struc­tion. Increas­ing­ly, inno­v­a­tive con­struc­tion meth­ods are being applied to prac­ti­cal cas­es. Sec­ond, autonomous machines ⚙️are on the rise. These find more and more rel­e­vance on con­struc­tion sites and min­ing oper­a­tions. While sig­nif­i­cant progress is yet to be made toward full autom­a­ti­za­tion, the path there is increas­ing­ly paved. Automa­tion promis­es to cut emis­sions and enhance pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. Third, con­struc­tion sites are becom­ing dig­i­tal. This trend entails the rise of human-machine inter­faces, vir­tu­al assis­tants and safe­ty sys­tems, and height­ened use of robots. Key devel­op­ments in this area are open plat­form com­mu­ni­ca­tions in a uni­fied archi­tec­ture through­out the man­u­fac­tur­ing process. Dig­i­tal plan­ning in the con­struc­tion process is a fur­ther trend, cre­at­ing safe­ty and effi­cien­cy while reduc­ing costs. Last­ly, the way to zero emis­sions as the indus­try faces gov­ern­ment-imposed envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards that chal­lenge the sta­tus quo. Often­times, green­house gas­es should become zero. Promis­ing ways to get there are elec­tric vehi­cles and CO2-neu­tral con­struc­tion materials.

Author: Glasford Inter­na­tion­al Deutschland