Upcoming event:  Forecasting Economic Trends for 2013

For more than 27 years, Alan Beaulieu and Brian Beaulieu have specialized in forecasting future economic changes for businesses. Alan is the President and Brian is the CEO of ITR Economics™ (aka the Institute for Trend Research). Their forecasting accuracy rate is a reliable 94.7%. In their upcoming webinar, “Forecasting Economic Trends for 2013,” they offer practical strategies and solutions for spotting unfolding business cycle trends.

The brothers began by asserting that business leaders need to decide now how they are going to make their move for the economic future. “Economics without actionable items is worthless economics,” said Alan. Their most recent book, Make Your Move: Change the Way You Look at Your Business and Increase Your Bottom Line, elaborates on this concept further. The time to prepare for the economic ups and downs of 2013 and the years beyond is now.

According to Beaulieu, when you survey the world, you have to keep three megatrends in mind that are going to define economic opportunities in the future. These megatrends are:

1. Demographics. There is a correlation between GDP growth and population growth.
2. Inflation. Countries that are rich in natural resources fare much better during times of inflation, while others struggle.
3. Taxes. The unfortunate political truth is that you can’t solve the budget deficit by raising taxes, but you can’t cut spending without raising taxes. To be realistic, you have to expect tax increases to be  part of our economic landscape in 2013 and beyond.

With those megatrends in mind, Alan and Brian make some general predictions about the next five years.

At first, the outlook can seem dim, as inflation reduces purchasing power and increased taxes reduce cash for businesses. But if you figure out now how you’re going to fight this, if you look at your inventories differently, restructure employee compensation now and find ways to drive efficiency to stay ahead of your competitors, you can react in advance to prosper and profit.

It’s a two-year process, and to do it, you start with your competitive advantage. What do your customers really value? Aim your competitive advantages to that. Aim your website, study, adjustment, sales approach, and marketing plan to protect your profit margins. If you aggressively pursue new customers, markets and opportunities now, then market share gains in 2014 can be used to offset a lot of the decline.

During the hour-long webinar, the Beaulieu brothers address further questions on the impact of healthcare reform, world countries’ industrial production, housing, the U.S. public debt, and more. 

Join Tom Cuthbert and Vistage San Antonio is viewing the webinar together on Friday January 25th at noon.  Email tom dot cuthbert at vistage dot com to request an invitation.