Allianz Partners looks to the future
Today sees the launch of Allianz Partners’ ‘The World in 2040’ initiative, a wide-ranging series of reports examining the various trends that will impact the travel, healthcare, mobility and home life sectors over the next two decades. The company commissioned Ray Hammond, a noted futurologist who has had a great deal of success predicting future trends over the last 40 years, to spearhead the series; Allianz’s hope is that by mapping out the potential trajectory of everyday living over the next couple of decades, it can anticipate the needs of customers and work to innovate preemptively.
The seven trends on which the reports will particularly focus are asymmetric global population expansion, climate change, renewable energy, globalisation, revolutions in healthcare, the exponential acceleration of information technology development, and ‘the bottom two billion – the world’s poorest people’. The first report will be dedicated to healthcare, looking at potential improvements in delivery to and access of care, followed by an analysis of how ‘smart living’ will change the home of the future. The third report will look at road transportation, and the fourth and final instalment in the series will look at the developing experiences of leisure and business travellers, looking at how these will evolve over the next 20 years.
“The world is changing at a rapid pace,” Ray Hammond commented, “and the next 20 years will see unprecedented levels of technology development. There will be nine billion people in the world by 2040. We can expect enormous change to almost every aspect of life between now and then, so it’s extremely timely for Allianz Partners to commission me to deliver this series of reports. The reports present my view on likely future developments and trends, based on my extensive research across a wide range of topics, of relevance to their various lines of business. I thoroughly enjoyed working on this series and believe it delivers valuable insights.”
Many industries, not just insurance, have been somewhat on the back foot when it comes to responding to developments in technology, lifestyle and so on, scrambling to meet customer demand, so it is a savvy move on Allianz’s part to commission an expert to help map out the potential trajectory of the next few decades. The reports will no doubt make for fascinating reading, and anything that helps the business community to prepare for what will no doubt be a turbulent and uncertain future is of huge value.
If only those in politics were as serious about planning ahead ...