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Scenarios for the transition to the New Normal

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By Paul Hodges on 05-Oct-2011

New Normal logo.pngThe transition to the new Normal is likely to be painful and long-lasting.

Future demand growth will be slower as the ageing Boomers spend less and save more.

More regular and deeper recessions are likely to become a feature of the global economy once more, in contrast to the relatively smooth growth seen during the Boomer-led Super Cycle.

Successful companies will also have to venture into the unknown, as until recently the 55+ generation had no real existence as a separate economic unit.

Previous generations usually found their needs at this age were focused on health-related issues – the Zimmer frame of popular mythology.

So as we venture into the unknown, Action Plans can’t be too prescriptive about what we might expect to see over the next 20 years. Chapter 5 of the blog’s free ‘Boom, Gloom and the New Normal’ eBook, co-authored with John Richardson, aims to help with this process.

As discussed yesterday, the Chapter outlines some potential Scenarios to highlight the key variables that need to be considered:

‘All’s Well that Ends Well’. In this scenario, the key dynamic is that there is a rapid adaptation to the New Normal. This may be driven by the observation of the major pain being suffered in countries already at the sharp end of some most unwelcome restructuring – Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain, for example. This gives Western politicians the courage to talk seriously about the issues that society now faces, whilst the wider population becomes prepared to listen to their messages and to accept that major changes need to be made.

Muddle Through’. In this scenario, there is no rapid adaptation to the New Normal, and although a higher quality of dialogue takes place between policymakers and the electorate than in the past, no firm agreements are reached on key policies and objectives. However, and importantly, social cohesion is retained, and so society does not fragment into warring groups.

‘If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, Any Road Will Do’. A third scenario is based on the potential for politicians to remain more focused on sound-bites than on formulating policies that will drive long-term success for their populations. In this Scenario, the current dysfunctional state of many Western political systems, and their alienation from the wider electorate, is not a temporary phenomenon but a sign of the future.

‘Don’t Worry, Everything will be Just Fine’. This is the scenario under which the West had been effectively operating for the past few years, ignoring the demographic changes which are taking us in a new direction. It is characterised by an increasingly desperate belief that everything is just about to ‘return to normal’ (i.e. the former SuperCycle), via the magic elixir of either tax cuts or yet more stimulus.

Tomorrow’s post will provide its view of the Critical Success Factors against which Action Plans need to be measured.

The blog will be happy to provide any support or advice that may be helpful to readers as they develop their Action Plans.

International eChem/ICIS are also running three training courses in Houston, Singapore and London during Q4, to help with detailed implementation issues. Please click here for further details.