Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Economic Trends

(a) where you found it (i.e., what the source of the information was that led you to form the belief about an opportunity), (b), what leads you to believe that this information suggests an opportunity might exist, (c) who do you think is most likely to be the customer with the opportunity (i.e., the prototypical customer), and (d) is the opportunity relatively easy or relatively difficult to exploit, and why do you think so?

What I'm asking you is: if more than one person can see the same piece of information that you saw, why did you form the belief that an opportunity exists when another individual might not form such a belief. Is there something in your experience, work history, emotions, attitudes, and desires that helped you find this opportunity? Please describe this for each of the four opportunities you have identified. 

Regulatory Changes

1. "Turkish President Calls for Boycott of U.S. Electronics Including the iPhone"

The source of this article is the New York Times. This is a regulatory change because the Turkish president has called for this action to take place, so it is coming from a position of authority. This means that there is a greater demand for all electronics that are not from the US. The opportunity here is the need for consumer electronics that are not American, so there is potential to open retail markets that sell non-American products. The customer of this opportunity is all of Turkey, since all of its people are not allowed to buy electronics from the US. This opportunity would be difficult to exploit with the current use of technology and online retailing. Physical retail locations would be costly and difficult to maintain. Also, as someone from outside Turkey, we are not aware of the specific cultural differences or consumer preferences as of now. Hence, exploiting this opportunity would take a lot of research and preparation before actually planning and executing the opportunity.

I find this to be an opportunity because electronics are such a big part of everyday life, many important consumer products, including Apple products, come from America. Also, as someone who has visited India many times, I feel that the use of non-Apple products or American technologies are higher than the dependence on that in America, as it should be since American made products would be more popular in the US. With that being said, I find there to be a larger variety of products that are not American, hence the bigger market.

2. "G.D.P.R., a New Privacy Law, Makes Europe World’s Leading Tech Watchdog"

The source of this article is the New York Times. This is a regulatory change because the EU is using the new GDPR standards and is forcing all businesses and people to comply. The opportunity here is some company or service that can go into to other businesses and either work with the government in detecting where businesses are not being GDPR compliant, or they can work with businesses to point out where they are not being GDPR compliant and fix it before the business can get fined by the government. This is a big deal because it affects every single person. The customer of this opportunity would be anyone who uses the internet to buy or sell goods or any businesses, basically any entity that deals with consumers or consumer products and information using the internet in any way.This opportunity would be easy to exploit if existing knowledge of what it means to be GDPR compliant and how companies are not exists. The demand for a service or company that does this is high since this strict GDPR rule is all over Europe.

I find this to be an opportunity because I studied abroad in London this summer and had the opportunity to see GDPR in action. It is much different than the way the internet is run here, as most websites have a notice or agreement before entering and the information is more secure. Even in my internship, there was great presence of GDPR standards and a need to comply with them.

Economic Trends

3. "New Round of U.S.-China Trade War Rattles Global Markets"

The source of this article is the New York Times. This is an economic trend because the trade war with China has been going on for some time now and is going to continue. The article talks about how the trade war is effecting global markets and the American and Chinese currency. The opportunity here is an import/export or manufacturing business in other parts of the world to encourage trade and to build up new trading centers that many countries can use. Overall, this would just be a small contribution to the betterment of the world economy and for US and China. However, this opportunity would be extremely difficult to exploit. There are many logistical and regulatory issues that would cause roadblocks in opening some business that deals with import and export. It involves the mixing of business and government heavily since it deals with the import and export of goods into countries, which is one of the issues with the trade war between US and China.

I saw this to be an opportunity because of a family friend that is based out of Spain that has an import and export business. Although this is different from the trading relationship that US and China have, primarily because US and China deal with large manufacturing deals while my family friends in Spain deal with high end luxury items, I still look at their business and how it runs. I understand the challenges involved, and although it is not impossible, it certainly would not be easy right now.

4. "A Trump-Kim Deal Could Send China’s Trade With North Korea Soaring"

The source of this article is the New York Times. This is an economic trend because it shows how a relationship between Trump and Kim Jong-un could lead to a good trading relationship between China and North Korea with eased sanctions. The opportunity is the fact that an increased amount of importing and exporting means increased business, which is more opportunities for businesses that have products that both Chinese population and the North Korean population can use. This economic trend effects the middle class of North Korea and the importers/exporters of China as the article states that the middle class North Koreans are a big consumer group. This is important when understanding how the trading relationship would strengthen.

I saw this to be an opportunity because of my dad's vision for business opportunities and how to exploit that. He has always had an eye for seeing weaknesses and what business idea can be created to take advantage of that opportunity, and that is a similar situation here. If we know that there could potentially be a beneficial relationship between North Korea and China, then the opportunity to take advantage of that is huge.