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After a 2020 “for the books,” on Tuesday Kearney Global Business Policy Council, the global consulting partnership’s foresight and strategic-analysis unit, released its trends forecast for the next five years. 

In last year’s report, the group identified five trends: going cashless, a great battery revolution, a global reskilling race, the rise of climate-resilient infrastructure and a loneliness epidemic. While it didn’t predict the COVID-19 pandemic, those calls are looking pretty reasonable. Here are five more things Kearney predicts we’ll see more of in the years to come:

Embattled governments: Governments face increased fiscal and political pressure from rising inequality, climate change and the pandemic. Kearney expects deficits to continue soaring in many advanced economies, with jarring implications, including a loss of trust in government overall. To fill the gaps, businesses will assume functions governments can’t.

Push to national self-sufficiency: The private sector may see more chances to collaborate with governments as leaders look to improve domestic health care, technology, food, energy and manufacturing. “Beyond the immediate need for increased medical and technological self-sufficiency, countries are looking at boosting other industries that will mitigate future crises,” reads the report. But it’s a fine line, with too much intervention possibly stifling future innovation, it says. Businesses will face pressure to localize supply chains and may have trouble relying on foreign technology. Manufacturing could make a comeback in advanced economies.

Stranded segments of society: Minorities, low-skilled workers, students, children, working mothers and other “stranded segments of society” will be further marginalized, and more so by the pandemic. Governments and businesses will have to work to reskill and reposition them. Businesses, meanwhile, will see leadership held to new standards and will focus increasingly on child-care benefits.

Rise in food insecurity: “A global food crisis is on the horizon, with disproportionate downside implications for emerging markets,” reads the report. Food supplies are tightening, while incomes are falling. The situation will get worse and the food industry will change. Technology that strengthens food supply chains will be more in demand; food processing, packaging, distribution and sales will evolve as demand for bulk, non-perishable items and discount products could grow; the private sector may see pressure to address health and wellness.

Industry consolidations, mergers, and acquisitions: Stronger companies will acquire weakened ones, or their technologies or assets, resulting in “the realignment of market power in some industries, including health care, airlines, grocery, retail, manufacturing and auto components, which were already among the most oligopolistic industries pre-COVID.” The biggest shakeouts will take place in private equity, tech and the energy industry. Success in M&A will require understanding shifts in the commercial environment, and how consumer behaviour changed due to the pandemic.