HP Innovation Journal Issue 02: Spring 2016 | Page 6

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In turn, this will lead to a shrinking and aging
workforce and put a strain on economies
and government spending, simply because
as the world ages, there will be fewer people
working to support the number of people
retiring. Germany, for example, will lose
nearly half its workforce by 2060, putting
its economy at serious risk. 17 Companies will
also be forced to reevaluate their workforce
programs for aging workers.
But every cloud has a silver lining, and in
this case it’s the fact that an aging working
population also means a significant market
opportunity. ‘Silver spenders’ as they are
known, have greater purchasing power than
their younger counterparts, and could rep-
resent a significant untapped opportunity
for companies in the future. The European
Commission estimates that by 2020, the
spending power of people over 50 will reach
$15T. This will create a significant shift for
brands who today devote the majority of
their marketing spend to people under the
age of 30, even though in places like North
America half of the money spent is actually
by people over the age of 50.
How should HP best cater to a diverse
(and aging) customer base? Simple, secure,
and seamless printing and computing
for the “silver generation”? Commercial
wearables to make us more productive
at work? Disruptive healthcare solutions?
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Innovation Journal Issue 2
Personal and commercial robotic solutions
to augment our lives and tasks?
Hyper globalization
Globalization arguably began 2000 years
ago with the 6,000km Silk Road that
connected Eurasia. However, no one can
argue that a truly dramatic “flattening” of
the world happened when the Internet was
created. And today it’s not just data that’s
freely flowing between countries—it’s
capital, products, services, and people. For
example, how and where we design, sell and
manufacture products will become both
hyper-global and hyper-local thanks to us
now living in a globally connected world with
a diverse set of local requirements.
Amplifying this globalization is the internet,
which has enabled the growth of a vast
digital marketplace from companies we’ve
never heard of, from cities we’ve never been
to, and working on digital platforms that
are changing the competitive landscape.
Anyone with an idea can become a global
business overnight. It’s now easier than
ever for start-ups to scale globally, and for
emerging market companies to become real
challengers to established multinationals.
By 2025, half the Fortune 500 will be head-
quartered in today’s emerging markets. 18
All of this meaning that market disruption
has become the new norm. Long gone are
the days when 75-year-old companies are
commonplace. The average tenure of compa-
nies on the S&P 500 dropped from 35 years
in 1980 to 18 years in 2012. By 2027, 75% of
S&P 500 companies will be removed from the
index. 19 Disruption is now happening every-
where to everyone, even to those companies
who were themselves doing the disrupting
just a few short years ago. Companies around
the globe will have to constantly reinvent
themselves to stay competitive.
How can HP enable our customers to nav-
igate this era of co