At the tail end of the great global boom, their old richer consumers are behaving more like new poorer ones, also increasingly concerned about cost, quality, and safety.

People talk about the businesses of the future needing to be more agile and more responsive if they are to be successful. But this requires a deep change in the way organisations work.

People are more willing to buy branded goods provided they are persuaded that they are getting value from them. And they need to be convinced of those benefits, in authentic everyday language, without being confronted by corporate-speak. Get it right, and you create a virtuous circle. Get it wrong, and you get punished for it.

Privacy isn't dead, although it is fashionable for digerati to say so.