6A - Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

1.     Economic Trend: The U.S Legal Marijuana Industry is Booming

·       Source: http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/31/news/marijuana-state-of-the-union/index.html

There is an opportunity here because there are many patients in need of the legalization of medical marijuana. In addition, the legalization of marijuana allows the purchase of marijuana to be taxed, which in turns boosts economy as suggested in the article above; plenty of data to show growth due to creation of jobs and mass sales.

·       Prototypical customer: People that suffer from chronic illness or disorders.

·       Hard/easy to exploit: I believe this opportunity continues to be a bit hard to exploit, as there are many people in the current administration that strongly oppose the use of marijuana and have federal bans placed on the drug.

·       I recognized this opportunity because working in the healthcare field has allowed me to experience firsthand the need that our patients with chronic illnesses are facing. Yes, there are many medications that help alleviate the symptoms of these chronic illnesses, but most are addictive and the side effects are detrimental to the health and organs of patients.

2.     Economic Trend: Decline in Manufacturing Jobs

·       https://blogs.imf.org/2018/04/09/the-decline-in-manufacturing-jobs-not-necessarily-a-cause-for-concern/

·       The opportunity exists because as technology is evolving, society is moving towards the expansion of services as machines replace humans in the manufacturing industry.

·       Prototypical customer: Companies or individuals looking to expand in the service market.

·       Hard/Easy to exploit: This opportunity will be easy to exploit as the manufacturing jobs continue to decline.

·       I recognized this opportunity because there is a trend of companies currently going out of business everywhere; mainly due to the inability to provide services consumers want. I believe this is a time to explore new avenues and be innovative, as there are so many opportunities out in the service economy.

3.     Regulatory Changes: An opportunity exists to educate Americans about the health disparities in minority communities and bring about change and strategies to tackle this issue.

·       Source: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/sres529

·       The opportunity exists because many minority groups are all at higher risk of developing chronic illnesses and dying from them, than are Non-Hispanic Whites; illnesses include but are not limited to; HIV, Hep A & C, Cervical Cancer, Obesity, etc.

·       Prototypical customer: Minorities affected by such illnesses, or in need of preventative care to reduce risk of illness.

·       Hard/Easy to exploit: While I wish this opportunity could be somewhat easy to exploit, this has been an on-going issue that hasn’t changed much in recent years, despite sufficient data to support findings. The biggest issue is that there is a lot of research that was conducted on Non-White Hispanics (majority population), then there is of the minority population. This leads to disparities because guidelines and health risks associated for Non-Hispanic whites, may/have not been the same minority groups.

·       I recognized this opportunity because we as a people cannot deny the research that supports and exposes the health disparities that exist in our minority communities. I believe different guidelines should be set for minority groups, and this change will continue to help forward this movement towards new research that will better serve the minorities in America.

4.     Regulatory Changes: Cybersecurity and the opportunity to regulate social networks and the improper use of consumer data.

·       Source: http://thehill.com/policy/technology/381654-facebook-says-87-million-people-may-have-been-impacted-by-cambridge

·       With recent scandals regarding Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica breach, I believe there is a need and opportunity for social network regulations that protect the consumer. These days, what used to be a method of communication and networking for many, has turned into a nightmare for American consumers whose personal information has been breached.

·       Prototypical customer: Online consumers and social network users.

·       Hard/Easy to exploit: I believe this issue will be relatively hard to exploit, as many online users are completely unaware of how their personal information is used. This can be due to the fact that many users do not understand what they are reading or simply do not take the time to read the terms and conditions of the applications/platforms they use. In addition, a lot of companies thrive from consumer information and data to find ways to target users with ads, so I believe there will always be some type of loophole when it comes to sharing personal information online.

·       I recognized this opportunity because there is no denying that we as consumers are rapidly evolving with the technological world. As more consumers turn to online networking, online shopping, online banking, we are constantly sharing tons of personal information, including bank/credit card information. This fact alone makes all online consumers vulnerable to cyber-attacks and breaches of information.