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“There’s no going back to normal,” says Peter Fisk, acclaimed strategist, as he spoke to the London Business Forum about the coming trends and new opportunities that will transform the economic landscape forever. With economic uncertainty framing every business decision we make, the world markets are unable to go back to the way things were. He also described how we can learn from the new market leaders, the Apples and the Obamas of the business world.

His first insight is the steady movement of business capital and potential from the West to the East and Peter believes the West is no longer the place look to for growth and innovation.

“If we look around us, we don’t see that much change on the streets of London, we see a few shops closing, we see more sales, but actually the big invisible changes which are happening in the world are more seismic and invisible the same time. This massive shift from West to East is not just an economic shift, but a political shift and a cultural shift as well.” Peter says that emerging markets are thriving markets, the E7 countries, and continue to grow despite the market downturn.

The new white spaces, as Peter calls them, are the new untapped territories that the old ways of doing business fail to address. He believes that the balance of power has shifted away from big business to smaller companies. Those who are small, agile and nimble can move faster into rapidly changing markets and be relevant to a particular audience.

Coupled to this is fundamental shift from business to customer. “We have to do things differently. People don’t just come to the High Street; we can’t sit there and wait for them to come in. Customers demand, not just expect, things when where and how they want them.” Peter believes that changing your business from being product focused, to customer focused, is the way forward. If your business must cut costs, he suggests focussing on areas that your customers find unimportant, rather than looking inward and working outwards.

“There is no such thing as an average consumer,” says Peter. The days of the mass market is over. Because issues of distance and manufacturing costs are becoming smaller, the place for bland, grey products aimed at some imaginary ‘average person’ is no longer there. Economies of scale no longer have the power that they used to. Customers are willing to pay a premium for value over the blandness of volume. This liberates your business from being a slave to market share and allows you to engage in a meaningful and profitable relationship with your customers, giving them a niche product at a premium price.

Peter then gave his pick of the biggest growth areas in the next few years. Top of the list was the E7 countries who exhibit rapid growth in the face of the economic crisis and lead the way in sustainable development. The second sector is water, the shortage of usable water is becoming critical to the growth of many industries and economies, and the companies that can improve the sustainability of water supplies can capitalise on this. The third biggest growth sector that Peter highlighted was the increasing power of women as consumers, especially in the Asian middle classes.

With his background in marketing, Peter had something to say about the way companies promote and advertise their products. Instead of pushing your product on a passive consumer, how do you actively engage with your customers in a real and connected way? He says that the days of being a seller, “here’s your product, goodbye” are over. He gives the example of a Turkish mobile phone provider, Turkcel. Turkcel had over seven hundred retail outlets, all of them just to sell phones, but almost every person in the country has a mobile phone already. So they converted their shops into meeting places and cafes, where people can connect. These new environments do more than just sell product, they engender a relationship with the customer.

Peter went on to talk about certain companies that have got this new way of marketing right. Surprisingly, his first example was Barak Obama’s 2008 electoral campaign. Unlike his rivals, Obama’s branding was clear, with a few simple words that he owned completely: ‘yes we can’ and ‘hope and change’. These words were backed up by a clear message that was tailored depending on the segment of the population he was talking to. Combined with this was his campaign’s highly sophisticated online presence, which enabled him to rapidly counter the arguments of his competitors and raise a huge amount of money from small contributions as well as being in direct contact with his supporters. The effectiveness of Obama’s campaign was nowhere to be seen in the recent British elections and the muddled and confusing messages that the British parties put forward could have been improved by the methods employed in Obama’s election.

Another of Peter’s favourite market leaders is Apple. They are no longer a computer firm, but a mobile devices business. Peter talked about Apple’s recipe for success, the marriage between the business mind of Steve Jobs and the design brilliance of Jonathan Ive. Peter argues that Apple was able to do things differently because they were willing to take big risks while understanding that one doesn’t have to be big to be best. Apple is the most valuable brand in the world, even though compared to its competitors it has a relatively small market share.

In closing, Peter believes that the new market leaders are the companies that are bold enough to stand out, brave enough to take big risks, and brilliant enough to recognise a great idea. You don’t have to be big to be brilliant.