According to Australia’s leading business Futurist, Morris Miselowski, 2007 is going to be an extraordinary year for Australian business, one of on going change across most business fronts.

This is in line with Morris’s belief that we have experienced more change in the last 2 years than in the previous 20 years and that in the next 10 years we will experience the equivalent of 100 years of change.

Morris believes the marketplace is becoming savvier; customers want more involvement in the product and service you provide them. Staff will be harder to find and you’ll have to work harder to keep them. Inflation and interest will both increase in the short term before dropping back in the second half of next year.

In his regular and uncannily accurate look in to the future Morris predicts the following ten (10) trends and issues as being key influencers on business in the year ahead:

1. Continuing tight labour market – employers are going to find it increasingly difficult to attract new employees and are going to be working harder to keep those they have

2. Inflation and interest rates will both increase in the first half of next year, before dropping back in the second half of the year

3. Video and audio in business communications – business will start incorporating video and audio in their communications, they will be answering emails using it, preparing quotes and incorporating it in to their websites and promotional materials

4. Consumercentric – consumers will continue to drive product and service change and will become increasingly involved with business to ensure their demands are met

5. Convergence is the hottest trend moving forward for the next two years is for businesses to dig deep and offer a range of allied services and products to their existing and new clients, just like the proverbial Swiss army knife where one object offers so many possibilities, customers now expect business to fulfill multiple needs

6. The impact of Microsoft’s Vista and Office release broad uptake of this new software will not kick in till 2008, but what it will do in 2007 is make many businesses consider their broader computer needs

7. Mobile and wireless will continue to grow in importance as consumers continue to enjoy having information, services and communication with them wherever they are

8. Internet and technology as innovation drivers will be the greatest force behind business changing its offerings and methods of operation is new technologies and new uses for existing technologies

9. The Australian election this is a toughie, a fortnight ago it would have been a non issue on the 2007 business horizon but with the recent change in Labour’s leadership there may be a slight cooling off closer to the election whilst business waits to see if there will be a change at the top – my belief is that this will not be significant.

10. Web 2.0 – the increase of on line social networking is finding its way in to business, changing the way we interact and deal with customers and altering forever the traditional marketing and communication models

To hear or watch an 8 minute 43 second podcast of Morris Miselowski discussing next years top ten business trends please go to www.MorrisLive.tv