Booz & Company Sees New "Age of Uncertainty" as Industries Look Ahead to 2012

For business next year, the only sure thing is uncertainty, Booz & Company advised its clients today. The consulting firm's annual "Industry Perspectives" predict that industries in 2012 will face challenges ranging from price wars to the evaporation of profit pools to technology-driven disruption. For executives, the best advice is to focus sharply on the capabilities they must have to win in this shaky environment.

The Industry Perspectives cover 12 different sectors and include robust insights and trends for the year ahead, including:

-- The aerospace and defense industry will be transformed by the entry of
new competitors while defense cuts back and commercial aviation soars.
-- The chemical industry will adjust to giant supplies of new raw
materials from shale oil and gas in North America.
-- Retail banks will feel pain as traditional sources of profitability
disappear.
-- Wealth management firms will use the Internet to build trust with
investors whose patience has worn thin.
-- Companies in the healthcare industry will find ways to deal with
regulatory uncertainty -- by cutting costs their own way.
-- Pharmaceutical companies will struggle to get through the
post-blockbuster drug era.
-- As the Age of Uncertainty continues in 2012, industrial companies must
revisit their conservative investment stance, because "sitting on the
sidelines" is hurting their growth prospects.
-- The disruption caused by mass digitization will set up the winning
global technology and telecommunications companies as gateways into
the cloud.
-- A new wave of innovation-based competition will propel the automotive
industry into another year of growth.
-- The leading retailers will use social media as their favored way of
reaching new customers.
-- Consumer packaged goods companies will continue to split and realign,
with the most coherent companies doing best.

"Across all industries, no matter what opportunities and challenges lie ahead, there is one piece of advice that always holds true. The key to success is to know what you're really good at -- and matters in the market -- and build your strategy from there," says Cesare Mainardi, Chief Operating Officer of Booz & Company and Managing Director of the firm's North American business. "This means figuring out how best to create value for your customers, identifying the unique combination of things your company does better than anyone else, and then assessing which activities should stay and which should go. The companies that coherently balance these three things will earn the 'right to win' in 2012."

To see all the Industry Perspectives, visit: http://www.booz.com/industry-perspectives-2012

Booz & Company (booz.com) is a leading global consulting firm, helping the world's top businesses, governments, and organizations. With more than 3,300 people in 60 offices around the world, we work closely with our clients to create and deliver essential advantage.