Last year, SI, which welcomed you to hell in the year of damnation (with 100 Damnations Down to date in the dirty dozen categories), avoided predictions because, as it clearly explained in its 2014 Series on The “Future” of Procurement and the follow up series which did a “Future” Trends Expose, most predictions are trash, with most futurists recycling the same old garbage year-after-year, and even though we are only four days into this year, it appears this year will be no exception.

the doctor is already seeing a number of 2016 posts about how this is the year we replace “negotiate” with “collaborate” (which the thought leaders have been saying since strategic sourcing decision optimization started becoming common in the leading Sourcing organizations, also known as the Hackett Group top 8%), that analytics will take off (which is the same speech we heard 15 years ago when Business Objects and Cognos were the names in analytics), that the skills gap will finally be addressed (which reminds the doctor of conversations he was having nine years ago), and so on. It looks like the amount of future sh!t that is going to be dumped upon you this year is greater than the truckload Biff Tannen had dumped upon his head in the original Back to the Future movie, way back in 1985. (A reference that is very appropriate because every year at this time it seems we get taken back to the future.)

The only prediction SI has ever really liked is last year’s prediction by Mr. Smith who predicted all predictions will be wrong, because that’s one of only two predictions you can count on for this year. The other SI will give you now so you can get the prediction post itch out of your system and get back to work:

It Will Only Get Hotter!You’re still in hell. Budgets are still too tight. Your platforms are still too out of date. The training budget is still zilch. Risk are still increasing. Commodity prices are still going through the roof. The emerging market, which is where the population growth is happening (especially now that China’s one child policy has been eased and a couple can have two children if either is an only child and the middle class in India is increasing), is gobbling up commodities and energy faster and faster (as even a small growth rate in the two countries that account for over one third of the world’s population is substantial) which is not only causing rampant price increases but shortages. Product lifespans are continuing to decrease and consumer preferences are changing faster than you can predict. The procurement equivalent of the second law of thermodynamics is in full effect and the result is chaos.

Last year, you might have been in the frying pan. This year, no matter what happens, you will be in the fire trying to dance between the flames. You have been warned!