Collective displacement, do-it-yourself innovation and empathy challenge are among the prevailing trends that could shape business, consumer behaviour and society in 2021, according to a report by global strategy and consulting firm Accenture.
The Fjord Trends 2021 survey found organisations can gear up to embrace new strategies, services and experiences to meet consumer needs.
"As we look to the future, a wealth of potential worlds opens up in front of us. Some are scary, some are exciting, and all of them are largely unexplored. What we do now will define the rest of the century," said Darwin Smarnond, managing director for financial services at Accenture in Thailand.
"Businesses have the ultimate permission and space to think and do differently."
The report highlights what is important to people inspiring community spirit and at-home innovators.
Challenges have emerged for businesses, including how to respond from an operational and communication perspective and how to meet consumers' changing expectations, he said.
The first trend is known as collective displacement.
"This is where people come with a shared sense of displacement as we collectively seek new ways and places to do the things we need and love to do," said Mr Darwin.
The report said the way in which people shop, learn, work and take care of their health has changed. In light of this development, brands need to seek new ways and offer new experiences to interact with people.
The second trend refers to do-it-yourself innovation, in which people's creativity is able to shine through driven by technology.
The third is dubbed "sweet teams are made of this", in which working from home has become living in the office.
This is having a huge effect on the reciprocal agreement between employer and employee. While employees still get paid, the peripheral value of being physically present in a workplace -- social capital, knowledge transfer, soft skills and hands-on experience -- has been lost.
The fourth trend relates to interaction wanderlust, which refers to people spending more time interacting with the world via screens. Organisations must reconsider design, content, audience and the interaction between them in order to inject greater excitement, joy and serendipity into screen experiences, the report suggests.
The fifth trend is called liquid infrastructure. This means companies are required to build agility and resilience across their organisations so they can adapt quickly to change.
The sixth trend is known as empathy challenge, in which people care deeply about what brands stand for and how they express their values.
Companies must work hard to manage the narratives that shape their brands, prioritising subjects that matter most to them and build their behaviors around those subjects, the report said.
The final trend is rituals lost and found. This trend points to the prime opportunity companies have to help people in their search for meaning through new rituals that bring joy and comfort.