The GIGA Trends

1. GIGA Trend - From Matter to Spirit

Meaning

This is the giga-GIGA Trend that can be found in all GIGA Trends. Quasi from the material mechanics to the electronic computer program.

Examples in business life:

  • From the drive and control of a steam locomotive to the electronics of high-speed train
  • From a telephone system with a cable connection to mobile networks
  • “Everything is spirit” Prof. Dürr, quantum physicist

2. GIGA Trend - From darkness to light

Meaning

In the far past a maximum of one candle per family, today LED light “everywhere” until the point of causing light pollution. Light stand for Life and Seeing.

Examples in business life:

  • Business life around the clock – regardless of daylight
  • LED film projector with 1 million lumens
  • LED “day” driving lights in Germany

3. GIGA Trend - From camouflage to transparency

Meaning

Camouflage and deception were easily possible in the past due to the very limited flow of information. Today, with light, satellites and the Internet, “everything” becomes visible for “everyone” sooner rather than later.

Examples in business life:

  • Tianmen Square Beijing 1989, secrecy neutralized by fax
  • Omnipresent witnesses with smartphones provide evidence, Tehran plane crash
  • Hong Kong protests
  • Police violence cases
  • Impeachment process USA

4. GIGA Trend - From ignorance to knowledge

Meaning

Worldwide knowledge currently doubles in less than a year; the exchange of wisdom between culture, former secret and power knowledge comes to light and becomes general knowledge.

Examples in business life:

  • Price comparison platforms provide “total” transparency, 2 cents less leads to a purchase decision
  • Second by second price movements in the stock markets
  • Religious ideologies come under pressure in the now possible comparison with those of other cultures
  • Quantum physics “prove” ancient human knowledge
  • Human knowledge overcomes cultural boundaries
  • Spirituality becomes scientifically tangible

5. GIGA Trend - From logic to intuition

Meaning

Logical “thinking” processes are no longer fast and comprehensive enough. They are being replaced more and more by intuition.

Examples in business life:

  • Short and long-term purchase decisions
  • Intuition is more widespread in today’s youth than in previous generations
  • Conscious use of intuition in product development, complex decisions

6. GIGA Trend - From fear to trust

Meaning

More knowledge and credible information creates (basic) trust.

Examples in business life:

  • Without fear of flying on the plane
  • Insurance contracts based on real data combined with probability
  • Knowledge of the laws of nature and their interrelationships (operating instructions for life on earth)

7. GIGA Trend - From calm to movement

Meaning

Previously lived in one place for a lifetime. Today “on the move” from birth, all over the world.

Examples in business life:

  • Health tourism, “my doctor in Hungary”
  • Commuting to work
  • Flying as often and naturally as driving a taxi (presently under examination)

8. GIGA Trend - From survival logistics to fun

Meaning

In the past, provisions had to be made for winter in summer and vice versa.

Examples in business life:

  • Ice from the frozen lakes for the brewery in summer
  • Potatoes in the cellar for the winter
  • Preserving fruit
  • Electricity comes from the socket
  • Food from the supermarket, anytime, anywhere, (almost) anything

9. GIGA Trend - From rigidity to mobility

Meaning

A hundred years ago “there were rules for everything”. See etiquette. Platform ticket. Now: “Everything” flows.

Examples in business life:

  • Previously timetables and price lists for 12 months.
  • Today, flight prices can be changed every minute.
  • · Re-disposition of trucks while driving.

10. GIGA Trend - From effort to ease / play

Meaning

Activities of daily life, development and production processes, agriculture, passenger transport to drive.

Examples in business life:

  • Travel from a horse-drawn carriage to a car to an airplane
  • Monday was washing day, today 10 minutes of effort, “on the side “
  • Development time for a vehicle from 7 years to 3

11. GIGA Trend - From slow to fast / immediately

Meaning

Complicated and therefore slow mechanical processes have been automated and accelerated.

Examples in business life:

  • Mail by horse carriage – railroad – plane – email
  • Buying concert tickets online

12. GIGA Trend - From location and time-bound to omnipresent

Meaning

Communication technologies allow time and space to be decoupled.

Examples in business life:

  • Physical Conferences to digital
  • Voice mail / messaging
  • Join the conference call from the beach or home

13. GIGA Trend - From working to simple being

Meaning

The meaning of “work to survive” is replaced by “just be”. Playful way of life, priority of spiritual development. Basis: basic income.

Examples in business life:

  • Mechanical work is increasingly carried out by robots
  • Likewise administration work is done by computers

14. GIGA Trend - From male dominance to female leadership

Meaning

Core male traits were essential to survival in the age of “fight and war”. In the new age of “love”, core female competencies will be required to enable the unfolding of human potential.

Examples in business life:

  • Women´s quota
  • “#metoo”
  • Notre Dame fire Paris
  • feminism

15. GIGA Trend - From commanding to self-regulating

Meaning

Future complex and fluid processes require the shortest possible decision process and times. Command structures are overwhelmed here. “Every” cell is intelligent enough to control itself.

Examples in business life:

  • Increasingly flattest hierarchies in successful companies
  • Corporate cultures are systematically transformed
  • Outdated leadership style leads to overwhelmed and burnt-out leaders

16. GIGA Trend - From motivated to inspired

Meaning

Motivation requires conscious and repeated motivational encouragement and is “limited in time”. There will be no more energy or time for this in the future. Inspiration has a comprehensive and long-term effect and ensures “harmony” in and between the teams.

Examples in business life:

  • Highly successful soccer teams
  • Start-ups with the inspiration of a “new beginning”
  • Charismatic leaders

17. GIGA Trend - From Omnivores to Herbivores

Meaning

Meat-based nutrition hinders mental development. This realization and the increasing importance of intellectual achievement will lead to plant-based nutrition.

Examples in business life:

  • Already more than 5 million vegetarians in Germany
  • Vegan, as a business model
  • Medicine recognizes meat consumption as a risk factor

18. GIGA Trend - From national borders to one world

Meaning

The awareness that we are “all one” on the planet is growing, also supported by the high degree of mobility and cultural exchange across continents.

Examples in business life:

  • European Union
  • globalization
  • Global standards, systems
  • Pandemics

19. GIGA Trend - From owning to using

Meaning

The place of possession in people’s lives (for the ego) is diminishing. The attachment and burden of possessions are recognized.

Examples in business life:

  • The importance of the “car on the doorstep” as an indicator of wealth is disappearing, especially among the younger generations

20. GIGA Trend - From complex to smart / simple

Meaning

With the increasing spread and functionality of electronic aids and the participation of users in their development, these become “easiest”, one click, to use.

Examples in business life:

  • Apps on the smartphones
  • Payment processes
  • Self-steering vehicles

Are you curious?

Do your GIGA Trends test now!

Find out which GIGA Trends are influencing your company and how well prepared your company is today.

Final remark:

This list of GIGA Trends is intended to stimulate the readers’ thoughts and indicate development directions.  It is alive, GIGA Trends are discovered and added or turn out to be part of another trend and are therefore removed.  The examples do not claim to be scientifically precise or complete.

Status: April 2021

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