[2009 trends] A wishlist for African business objectives

There can be no happy customers without a happy workforce, so employers will be in a position of strength if they ensure that they are able to attract and nurture staff. Pruning, paring, prioritising will ensure cream rises to the top in every facet of business; new voices will emerge out of the hierarchies due to personal broadcast opportunities.

More of a wishlist than a trend forcast, 2009 African business objectives should look something like this:

1. The creation of a new style of FMCG and other brands will succeed in the creation of new African empires that will ensure today's global brands become so 20th century.

2. Based on its scarce resources, the necessity for Africa to develop new sustainable models will become its globally competitive advantage.

3. Brand owners and major players in the packaging industry will take advantage of South Africa's considerable creative, design and natural resources in order to invest in integral sustainability solutions that will ensure packaging does not get discarded but will be reused, retained or remodelled into something of after-use value.

4. More products will be taken out of plastic and glass and put into cardboard containers, innovative and mould-breaking new dies and engineering for these will also be developed. The plastic and glass packaging vehicle that survive will need to be of lasting or iconic value.

5. Local industry will be boosted by taxing imported products and brands with a high carbon footprint and incentivising the manufacture, purchase and export of globally desirable locally and regionally made products.

6. South Africa will start developing a Pan-African mentality and using African suppliers as preferred partners for raw materials and manufacturing in order to boost the economies of our neighbours - and stake our claim in Africa before the Chinese have commandeered all the continent's markets and resources.

7. The global cosmetics and pharmaceuticals sectors will be transformed via this new African ethos.

8. We will start to see SA branding itself proudly on the front of the pack instead of the back via new African product development, iconography and thinking.

9. Designers and brand owners who have a vision, belief and passion for what the new commercial African environment could look like will be the leading players in their categories within the next 5-10 years.

10. Due to its mass distribution and material nature, with the right thinking, after-use packaging has the potential to play a huge role in educational and creative play items.