"Imagine the power of four billion connected minds—are you prepared for the innovation about to be unleashed?"

It's a thought-provoking question from McKinsey Quarterly authors, posed in an article on the implications of an increasingly interconnected world. The article describes "The Global Grid," one of what the Quarterly is calling the "five forces," or global trends, that will define the coming era. These forces (not Michael Porter's five forces shaping industry dynamics), while framed in terms of their impact on the corporate world, will of course have implications well beyond profits and losses.

Here's a summary of each global trend, from the website. Read the full slate of related content here.

The great rebalancing. The coming decade will be the first in 200 years when emerging-market countries contribute more growth than the developed ones. This growth will not only create a wave of new middle-class consumers but also drive profound innovations in product design, market infrastructure, and value chains.

The productivity imperative. Developed-world economies will need to generate pronounced gains in productivity to power continued economic growth. The most dramatic innovations in the Western world are likely to be those that accelerate economic productivity.

The global grid. The global economy is growing ever more connected. Complex flows of capital, goods, information, and people are creating an interlinked network that spans geographies, social groups, and economies in ways that permit large-scale interactions at any moment. This expanding grid is seeding new business models and accelerating the pace of innovation. It also makes destabilizing cycles of volatility more likely.

Pricing the planet. A collision is shaping up among the rising demand for resources, constrained supplies, and changing social attitudes toward environmental protection. The next decade will see an increased focus on resource productivity, the emergence of substantial clean-tech industries, and regulatory initiatives.

The market state. The often contradictory demands of driving economic growth and providing the necessary safety nets to maintain social stability have put governments under extraordinary pressure. Globalization applies additional heat: how will distinctly national entities govern in an increasingly globalized world?