Abstract
Let me be clear—the heading of this chapter is a complete oversell. It is impossible to predict the future with any degree of certainty! The Covid-19 pandemic vividly illustrates how unpredictable our environment is. The widely used VUCA acronym further reminds us that the future is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. But does this rising uncertainty hail the end of strategic planning? We argue that the opposite is true. In a future increasingly characterized by VUCA, strategic planning is more important than ever. However, it is not planning for one future; it is planning for multiple possible futures that is called for. Companies need to develop the agility to adapt quickly to different possible scenarios to prosper under different conditions. This requires companies to spot trends that may influence their business as early as possible. Not all of the trends will materialize, and new unforeseen events may occur. Nevertheless, the more decision-makers think about how trends may impact their business, the more likely will they be able to capitalize on the opportunities these trends may offer and minimize the threats they represent. This chapter aims to identify some of these trends and discusses the likely implications for global marketing strategy.
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Notes
- 1.
BrainyQuote (n.d.-a).
- 2.
AZQuotes (n.d.).
- 3.
GoodReads (n.d.-a).
- 4.
GoodReads (n.d.-b).
- 5.
BrainyQuote (n.d.-b).
- 6.
Tumblr.com (n.d.).
- 7.
BrainyQuote (n.d.-c).
- 8.
Pitt and Schlegelmilch (2008).
- 9.
OECD (2013).
- 10.
Pitt and Schlegelmilch (2008).
- 11.
- 12.
Bergh and Nilsson (2014, p. 56).
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
Mazur (2000, p. 80).
- 16.
Lee and Vivarelli (2006, p. 178).
- 17.
Swadźba (2020, p. 8).
- 18.
Watkins (2002).
- 19.
Cowen (2002).
- 20.
Kolk et al. (2018).
- 21.
Subramanian and Kessler (2013).
- 22.
World Trade Organization (2011).
- 23.
BBC News (n.d.).
- 24.
UNCTAD Geneva (2013).
- 25.
Cairncross (2001).
- 26.
Antrà s, P. (2020).
- 27.
Farrell and Newman (2020).
- 28.
McKinsey Global Institute (2019).
- 29.
BrainyQuote (n.d.-d).
- 30.
- 31.
World Population Review (2021).
- 32.
Population Reference Bureau (2020).
- 33.
World Population Review (2021).
- 34.
- 35.
United Nations, Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs (2019).
- 36.
Verdugo (2006).
- 37.
UNFPA and HelpAge International (2012).
- 38.
Hoffman (1966).
- 39.
Vernon (1971).
- 40.
Ohmae (1995).
- 41.
Rodrik (2011).
- 42.
Wike et al. (2019).
- 43.
World Values Survey (2017–2021).
- 44.
World Values Survey (2017–2021).
- 45.
Alesina and Spolaore (2003).
- 46.
Rodrik (2013, p. 12).
- 47.
Roth (2015).
- 48.
United Nation, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018).
- 49.
Razvadauskas (2018).
- 50.
Siu (2019).
- 51.
Hamnett (2020).
- 52.
World Population Review (2020).
- 53.
The Economist (2018).
- 54.
- 55.
The Economist (2018).
- 56.
Gar-On Yeh and Chen (2020).
- 57.
- 58.
Viguerie et al. (2021).
- 59.
Mochari (2016).
- 60.
Brown et al. (2003).
- 61.
Thompson et al. (1994).
- 62.
Brown et al. (2003).
- 63.
McHugh (2018).
- 64.
Schrodt (2018).
- 65.
Dua (2017).
- 66.
Dataintelo (2020).
- 67.
Satenstein (2016).
- 68.
Schrodt (2018).
- 69.
Satenstein (2016).
- 70.
Davis (1979).
- 71.
Liu (2009).
- 72.
Boumphrey (2020).
- 73.
OECD (2001).
- 74.
- 75.
Folke et al. (2021).
- 76.
World Economic Forum (2014).
- 77.
Giger (2021).
- 78.
Gruber and Schlegelmilch (2014).
- 79.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (n.d.).
- 80.
United Nations Environment Program (2020).
- 81.
Cornwall (2020).
- 82.
Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (n.d.).
- 83.
Fleming (2019).
- 84.
McKinsey Global Institute (2011).
- 85.
Gandomi and Haider (2015).
- 86.
- 87.
Segaran and Hammerbacher (2009).
- 88.
Zeng (2015).
- 89.
McKinsey Global Institute (2011).
- 90.
Duhigg (2012).
- 91.
Zeng (2015).
- 92.
European Commission (2014).
- 93.
Federal Trade Commission (2014).
- 94.
Payton and Claypoole (2014).
- 95.
March (1991).
- 96.
- 97.
Pitt and Schlegelmilch (2008).
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Schlegelmilch, B.B. (2022). The Future of Global Marketing Strategy. In: Global Marketing Strategy. Management for Professionals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90665-8_14
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