Bring on 2023 - How can we ensure mindful growth in the shifting South Aussie future?

As another year of changing scenes is coming to an end, it’s time to look back at the year we had to be able to look forward into what might happen in the exciting new year ahead.

 
Looking back

The past few years has kept the whole world on its toes, Australia even more so than others. The idea that people have had to live through a global pandemic and the resulting economic disarray followed by the entire country being ravaged by bushfires, followed by a year of record inflation and flooding shows, how amazing this culture is at survival, but I think we have seen and talked enough about resilience for now. 

The most fascinating thing is the amazing Australian adaptability (excuse the alliteration) shown this past year more so than ever.


Let’s have a look at the great news as a result of this: 

• South Australia has just had its first week ever powered by 104% renewables now extending to over 10 days meeting the 100% mark.

• The Murray River floods were met by an instantaneous response by volunteers saving the affected wildlife. 

• The 2022 numbers are not available just yet, but the March 2021 census South Australia has had its highest movement of people to the state since records of interstate movement began in 1981, and we are anticipating that this trend has continued this year. 

• Australians have started a record breaking 160000 net new businesses in the past year.
  
  

The new South Australian residents will inevitably bring more variety and business to the region, with startups and remote workers abound needing a home not only in the traditional sense, but in a business sense as well. 

As much as remote working boosts short term productivity and can be a win-win for both employer and employee, it can also diminish long-term community and creativity, according to research from Microsoft.

The rise of coworking seems to provide the perfect answer to this, with community and creativity being provided from a more varied background with inspiration from different industries under one roof. Being able to share ideas and inspiration and gain insights over a cup of coffee with people who are not only in a different company, but a different industry altogether can bring a much more fresh outlook into anyone’s work - more so if you have members like us also bringing in tasters of new and unreleased wines from the region (shoutout to Good Pair Days and Vinteloper, two of our resident companies plucked from the best vines). 

The future ahead

It’s very clear that there will be plenty to keep up with, work towards and ways to evolve in the next year (and after), but what exactly are we looking at in terms of changes and growth in all industries? 

By 2050 the population of Greater Adelaide is forecast to reach 2.3 million, which means the city is expected to need an additional 390,000 sqm of office space, 2.28 million sqm of industrial space, and 212,500 new homes. The city is currently being promoted as a destination for investment in the technology, defence, cybersecurity, pharmaceutical and biomedical sectors. 

Alongside the influx of new population, the forecasted economic growth in South Australia for 2022-23 is expected to be driven by a 7.2 per cent boost in exports.

This means not only is the internal market shifting, but the interstate and international one as well, with a more versatile customer base as well as a shuffled availability of talent, with brand new potential employees, partners, investors and advisors available both due to their new geographical location and a renewed openness to connecting and working together remotely.

With all of this uncharted possibility ahead of us, the biggest challenge will be to focus and not get overly distracted and sidetracked by opportunities, customer bases and collaborators that don’t align with what we are looking to build, startups and established businesses alike.

So how can we grow mindfully? 

We would like to believe that the days of lip service, rampant greenwashing and lack of business transparency are coming to an end, but there is always more and better that can be done.

The rise of movements such as the B Corp Certification are helping to ensure that businesses have a benchmark to check that we are working towards an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economic system.

But even if one doesn’t choose to go down the route of external certification, keeping ethics at the forefront of the company mission and stating them clearly and early on when both approaching new clients and business relationships means the people we end up working with, for and alongside align with the same values.

Having a set of core pillars helps to set targets and KPI’s that reflect these - for example our work at Mâché is set to centre around Community, Sustainability, and Culture so we set our targets for the year ahead accordingly.

By setting standards early and making the hard decisions before they arise, it’s much easier to build with a focussed approach and say no to potential opportunities that would eventually hinder or sabotage these goals. 

The charm of blitzscaling and overtrading is always there, but having a focussed product/market fit and an accurate and specific niche will increase customer retention and save lots of wasted money, time and energy on the long run as well as keeping the brand connected to its core pillars. 

Conclusion

Keeping up with the constantly shifting paradigms, expectation, international economy and technology has created an intensely competitive environment which will definitely keep us all on our toes, so we think it’s time to take a deep breath, take a bit of a break and pat ourselves all on the back for the past few years’ achievements before diving back into the vortex, however exciting and exhilarating it may be.

Whatever the future holds, be it hardships, prosperity, or a balanced mix of both (we vote it will likely be the third), we all have a joint responsibility to ourselves and the people around us to tread with purpose and support each other in growing with our impact, both social and environmental, in mind.

As for Mâché, our goal for the next year is to keep building a nurturing community where this is not only possible, but encouraged and aided. 

It’s time to revive, reassess and when we return in 2023 we are looking forward to welcoming all our wonderful existing and fresh new members to our newly renovated downstairs space.