A Happy New Year?

As Scotland gets back to work after the holidays, the Vistage Scotland blog has scoured the media for pundits’ predictions as to what 2012 may hold in store.

Starting with the good news, the IT and social media sectors are in for exciting times. Writing in Scotland On Sunday, Michelle Rodger reckons that the ‘social’ part of the term ‘social media’ will become redundant as the technology enters many more areas of life. ‘Social networking, social media, social gaming, social business, social communities will become an integral part of every business function,’ she writes, ‘and not simply something with which so-called “Generation Y” is fascinated.’

Perhaps more controversial is her assertion that the ‘gamification’ of the business world is well underway and set to continue. By this, she seems to mean that increasing number of companies are trying to encourage a sense of competition among  their employees with 21^st century advances on old school motivational techniques such as leader boards plus points and prize systems.

Rather more certain is her prediction that crowdfunding is set to expand in the face of high barriers which prevent many SMEs from accessing more traditional sources of funding. Last year, Fraserburgh brewing company Brewdog raised slightly under £2 million from its online share offer, Equity for Punks. Rodger contends that crowdfunding ‘for start-ups, students, social enterprises, and third sector and community projects will make its mark here in 2012’.

According to a report in The Scotsman bylined by Perry Gourley, lending to larger businesses is beginning to thaw a little but SMEs are still struggling. However, he points out that a raft of joint public/private initiatives, such as the Scottish Loan Fund, aim to start doing deals in the coming twelve months.

A recurring theme among many commentators is that while the Scottish economy is by no means helpless, it is, to a large degree, at the mercy of events in Europe. In the worst case scenario for the Eurozone, exports, imports, consumer demand and credit will all contract considerably. However, writing in Business 7, Sandy Manson, chief executive at Johnston Carmichael, has high hopes for Scotland’s SMEs despite the difficulties that 2012 will almost certainly bring. He foresees genuine reductions in red tape and improved access to funding

Further commentary on various Scottish business sectors can be found here from Business Insider magazine and here in The Scotsman.