Helmut Melzer
"Growth and development are not the same thing," says sustainability communicator Fred Luks - and thus meets the major economic trend of the next few years, if not decades: growth in companies is being revalued and could even lead to long-term growth in the post-growth society. "It depends on companies what they are for companies and in what environment they operate. Certainly a start-up needs a period of growth for it to stabilize. An established craft business probably has no growth strategy and does not need it. Many medium-sized companies also do not have a clearly formulated growth strategy. Growth is something that happens because you succeed. And sometimes companies shrink because of the shrinking market in which they operate. Above all, the story of growth is one of the major companies, "says André Reichel, publisher of the" Next Growth "study, in the SZ interview.
"We are at the beginning of an era of Next Growth in which economic success is no longer defined solely by the constant maximization of one's own growth. More and more, therefore, a new mindset is spreading, a new understanding that sees growth not as a purely economic category, but as a combination with social, environmental and human aspects. This understanding of growth demands that economics be different in general ", says the Zukunftsinstitut, which is currently dedicated to the trend topic" Next Growth "and calls for" liberation from the growth fetish ".
Similarly, the circular economy is at the start of previous economic processes over the pile to throw. "Rather than unnecessarily driving continuous demand for products that we do not want or need, we can avoid bad sales and slow down resource cycles," says Nancy Bocken of the Zukunftsinstitut.
Gloomy forecasts confirm that "next growth" and the circular economy are promising alternatives. A study by the consulting firm Bain & Company heralds a “decade of extremes”: “In the 2020s, a rapidly aging population, an unprecedented technology boom and increasing inequality will collide, causing enormous turbulence and instability in the economy and society. The digitization of production and the service sector increases labor productivity by an average of 2015 percent compared to 30. Since demand grows much more slowly than production potential, jobs are lost. However, only around 20 percent of the working population benefit from digitization in this country. These are the ones who are qualified for the demands of the future. While their salaries are rising significantly, the broad middle class will come under increasing pressure in the coming decade. The inequality in income and wealth that already exists today will continue to increase. The social consequences of aging, unemployment and inequality are also a threat. Governments are likely to respond with stricter regulation of the markets, tighter antitrust laws or higher taxes. "
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