IT’S JANUARY. Happy New Year! I hope you have an ordinary year. A few years ago this greeting would have seemed strange, even a little pessimistic. But after the COVID and post-COVID years of chaos and upheaval, I for one am looking forward to just an ordinary year — and so, it seems, are the respondents and panelists who weighed in for our annual cover story, the 2024 SDM Industry Forecast, which reports on both the previous year’s business trends as well as expectations for the coming year.

What struck me this year was the sheer “normalcy” of their responses to our perennial questions. Gone are any concerns about COVID-19, and supply chain issues slipped a whopping 35 percentage points as a predicted concern for 2024. In its place were issues like “increasing sales,” “finding and retaining employees” and “controlling costs.” Sound familiar?