Campaign India's December series where industry leaders talk about a surprising moment from 2018 and an expectation from 2019.
Here's what Ashish Mishra, managing director, Interbrand India, had to say.
Surprising moment of 2018
The business world wakes to maturity, consolidation and responsibility. The multi bubble build-ups over the decade not just peaked, but also had a slow implosion in 2018. That really is the biggest theme of the year gone by, if we read between the lines. That is also the big watchout for the year to follow.
The global market cap, that equalled the global GDP a decade back, has spiralled 4 times. The valuation superseded value creation. The analysis and speculation itself began to create value that drove the world till its fragility and artificiality began to dawn upon all. Interestingly, all the previous bubbles in the world were singluar and sectoral but the recent decade has seen simultaneous inflation of many, with additions of start ups and other prone-to-speculation sectors simply because tech is now a horizontal and its impact is pervasive. Notably the uptick in the private equity for Asian and Indian markets still continues due to easy exit options and policy support hence the bubbles have all been growing rather steadily for a while. That’s what creates a more potent threat.
Prediction for 2019
Maturity, consolidation, positive utility, higher role of brand, hyper customer centricity models will dominate. Profligacy, aggressive and speculative growth will give way to realism and balance. Indeed the future will be more human and personal. Courage will mean rising higher than self. Myopic capitalism will slowly give way to responsibility. India will have to catch up on sustainability, ESG and good governance. Ethics, policies and governance will rule with national AI policy also around social inclusion and wellness.
This bracing against the impending corrections of the gross over leverage will however be slow as we are aware this time. This also means that the impact of the consumerism and unrealistic growths that had become the new normal in the stigmatised capitalist frenzy will have a longer time to change, thus creating a new set of value systems and lifestyles.
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