6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Economic trend 1: Millenials are  more concerned with finding meaningful work. Source:https://www.thebalance.com/top-usa-future-economic-trends-3305666

• I believe this means an opportunity exists here because there is factual evidence that supports that those aged 45 to 75 were forced to keep working. This evidence is from a Prudential survey, an American Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company. 
• The Prototypical customers are those who are born from 1980-2000. These individuals are not interested in continuing the typical “career track” and are more interested in the freelance gig economy. They are also most likely to have just graduated or about to go to college.
• I think there is an opportunity here because I am a millennial that is more concerned with finding meaningful work and I am not interested in climbing the corporate ladder, instead I want to work as a freelancer/entrepreneur. Also, my friends around the same age have a similar mind-set.  I don’t think exploiting this opportunity would be hard because I have seen many companies targeting millennials promising a way to make a living from what they love such as a website called https://londonreal.tv/e/.

Economic trend: Technological advances are threatening U.S. jobs .

Source:https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/11/the-biggest-economic-change-the-world-has-ever-seen/ and https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/future-of-employment.pdf

• I believe an opportunity exists here because there is a recent study conducted by the University of Oxford that shows that 47% of total employment in the US is at risk, over the next decade or two.
• The prototypical customer would not just  be those that work factory jobs even professions that are considered “safe” such as  accountants, taxi drivers and paralegals. I think this would be a difficult opportunity to exploit because it is so widespread among among many professions and would be hard to pinpoint 
• For many years I have heard of this opportunity being voiced as a major concern among workers of all professions. 

Regulatory trend: Sexual harassment prevention

Source: https://www.paychex.com/articles/compliance/top-regulatory-issues

• I believe an opportunity exists here because over the past two years the #me too movement has spurred elected officals to introduce more than 125 piecs of legislation nationwide on sexual harassment prevention. 
• The prototypical customer would be those who have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. 
• I think this opportunity would be easy to exploit because sexual harassment is so common in the workplace. 
• I believe there is an opportunity here because of the widespread awareness and coverage of sexual harassment in the media in the past for few years and also because I know people who have experienced it, which leds me to believe this is a common issue. 

Regulatory trend: Faster payments and the independent contractor economy

Source:https://www.paymentssource.com/opinion/gig-economy-and-faster-payments-are-pressuring-bank-payment-strategies

• I believe an opportunity exists here because there is statistical evidence from American staffing showing the percentage of gig workers working in common industries such as managerial, IT, and health care. The gig economy  influences payroll practices making it much faster than typical payment methods.
• The prototypical customer would be those who work in the gig economy and want to receive payments faster and more conveniently. 
• I think this opportunity would be easy to exploit because it would be easy to find common places where those who work in the gig economy frequent such as fiverr and upwork. 
• I see this opportunity because I work in the gig economy and I have first hand experience into what a gig worker would want regarding payments and I know where I can find others in the gig economy to know their thoughts.