1. The trend towards postponing retirement
a) Where I found this trend:
http://useconomy.about.com/od/criticalssues/a/Top_Five_Economic_Trends.htm
http://useconomy.about.com/od/suppl1/tp/retirement.htm
b) I believe several opportunities exist with people working longer and well into older years. With older employees holding out on retiring, they may face burnout. On the other hand, younger people may suffer from this because the older people are holding onto jobs for longer periods, reducing the number of jobs available for younger groups. This creates more competition.
c) This trend definitely affects both older and younger employees, but both in different ways.
d) I think that this opportunity would be relatively difficult to exploit. Younger people and older people are completely different target markets so you would have to focus on a solution for one group or the other.
e) I believe that an opportunity probably exists in this trend because both young and older age groups are such large markets. Each target market has its own demographics, characteristics and preferences, which allows for a multitude of ways to appeal to each group. I took Consumer Behavior last semester and that class exposed me to the differences between different age groups.
2. The trend of companies hiring more temp or part-time employees than full-time employees
a) Where I found this trend:
http://useconomy.about.com/od/criticalssues/a/Top_Five_Economic_Trends.htm
b) I think that an opportunity might exist in this situation to change how businesses try to cut costs. You could create your own business that places more emphasis on employee satisfaction and provides more opportunity for full-time employment. That being said, it may be difficult to stick to your guns when other companies are more successful with emphasizing part-time employment.
c) This trend may be more positive for companies than for employees because it may be harder for people to find full-time jobs as companies focus on cutting costs through using temporary and freelance workers.
d) I think this opportunity would be pretty hard to exploit because companies are trying to cut costs and employees can't do too much about that.
e) I formed an idea that an opportunity may exist in this situation because I believe that new opportunities are always uncovered with the introduction of change. Since companies are focusing more on part-time and freelance work, there has to be a way to come up with an idea that could benefit job-seekers that may suffer from this trend.
3. Nutritional labeling regulatory changes
a) Where I found this regulation:
http://www.politico.com/agenda/agenda/story/2016/1/obama-regulations-2016
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/03/03/2014-04387/food-labeling-revision-of-the-nutrition-and-supplement-facts-labels#h-48
b) I believe an opportunity exists here because this regulation may change the way nutrition facts are displayed and change what is actually included on nutrition labels. This will require many food companies to change their packaging to include the updated information. It will also require customers to learn how to read new labels properly.
c) A prototypical customer would be anyone who purchases food and reads nutritional labels.
d) I think that this opportunity may be somewhat easy to exploit. It would be doable to come up with an app that assists customers in reading and understanding the new nutrition labels.
e) I was able to see this opportunity because I am trying to learn more about eating healthy. To do so, you really have to read what's in the food you're buying. A lot of the time foods include unnecessary additives such as corn syrup, and you wouldn't know if you didn't look. A new nutrition label would create more confusion in interpreting nutritional facts, so an app that helps clarify the labels would create an easier transition for consumers.
4. Teacher preparation regulatory changes
a) Where I found this regulation:
http://www.politico.com/agenda/agenda/story/2016/1/obama-regulations-2016
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/12/03/2014-28218/teacher-preparation-issues
b) I believe an opportunity might exist in this situation. This regulation requires a higher quality of teacher preparation programs and threatens to cut off funding from for programs that are unsuccessful. This may make room for the creation of newer, more cost-efficient programs,
c) A prototypical customer may include school systems and teachers.
d) This opportunity would probably be hard to exploit because teaching programs are pretty much already established. It would be hard (and probably costly) to create a completely new teacher prep program and convince people to use the program.
e) I was able to see this regulation as an opportunity because I know how important training is and I think that good education is very important. We need great teachers to inspire our children.
Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteWe both found an opportunity in the regulatory changes of nutritional labeling. Your idea is great because I haven't even heard of an app such as this for the current labeling used. My idea was to create a database of all nutritional labeling of all foods sold in the U.S. Also, I found the article about postponing retirement very interesting because I see this everyday in the military with civilian working well into their late 60s to mid 70s. It's not uncommon to come across federal employees to hold a position for 25-30 years which causes an issue for younger, highly qualified candidates to obtain jobs with the federal government.
GREAT POST!!
ReplyDeletei enjoyed reading your post. i could defiantly agree with the opportunity for focusing on employee satisfaction instead of cutting cost. ive held a few jobs so far in my career and staffing always seems to be a problem. companies are will to give you full time hours because they need the man power. but dont want to give you the benefit of full time pay and work benefits. regardless of initial profits i believe any company that satisfies its employees over profit will be successful in the long run. happy employees means happy customers.
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