Organisations and individuals do not own everything they need. Civil engineering firms may hire road traffic management solutions, individuals may rent holiday houses, governments may hire specialist technical equipment, and large businesses may license specific intellectual property for specific purposes. This is the essence of this industry — entities providing tangible and intangible assets on a temporary basis. While other industries have significantly changed over the last decade or so, for this industry change is generally more evolution than revolution. However, change is happening and this is what this article is canvassing. That is, what could happen in terms of careers and business in this industry. It is a futurist’s take on how things might pan out over the next 10 years or so.
For the purposes of clarity, the future of this industry is viewed through the lenses of climate change and computerisation. For these are the two global megatrends that are shaping much of the world as we know it. There are other global megatrends, such as technological convergence (for example, collaboration across the fields of genetics, nanotechnology and robotics) but their influence on the rental, hiring and real estate services industry is not as significant.
About the global megatrend of climate change
