How will you be shopping in the future? On the fourth and final day of the Davos conference we addressed this topic. It turns out that mass customization, or the careful development of a very particular product for a very narrow consumer affinity group, is in. Mass marketing is out.

One new twist is that mass customization needs to go the next level. That is, the product must not only be customized for the affinity group it is targeting, but also for the country in which it is sold. That customization includes pricing.  It was suggested to me that a manufacturer calculate the price of a product in terms of the man-hour costs it takes to produce it in the country it’s being sold in.  Obviously, a country with a lower average wage converts to a lower price. And if that price won’t sustain the costs of a product developed in your home country? Contract with local product designers to develop a lower-cost alternative.

Companies that customize like this will have success selling in Thailand, India, and Indonesia. Companies that don’t will have their product copied very quickly by a local company that will.

Another fascinating trend to watch. Asian consumers will be ordering and paying for their merchandise on their cell phones. The software is already installed in Asian phones.

The technology workshop featured a panel of industry leaders, including the founders of Dell and Google and one of the top officers of Microsoft. Biotechnology and nanotechnology were chosen at the end of the workshop as those technologies with the best investment potential. It was notable that some of these leaders feel it’s possible to build a giant nano company but that it’s not possible with biotechnology.

The meeting concluded with a discussion of the attributes of great leaders. It was enlightening to see that virtually all great companies share these same attributes: integrity and honesty. That’s a global attitude I’m proud to embrace. 

Scott Rickert

Nanofilm, WEF Technology Pioneer