Identifying Opportunities - Economic & Regularity Trends

Economic Trends

1) 

a - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/business/economy/jobs-report.html

b - This information suggests opportunity because even though job growth is on a trend of being increasingly high, unemployment is at one of its lowest levels in a long time, and the labor market it a lot tighter, wage growth is still modest. This is due to factors such as slow productivity growth, the decline of unions, and the decline of digital disruption. 

c - The prototypical customer would be a worker who has remained with a company for a long time but is not seeing an increase in wages despite seeing new hires as a result of the declining rate in unemployment.

d - This would be somewhat difficult to exploit as it dives into legal issues surrounding wages. 

I saw this opportunity because I have had family friends deal with unemployment and also seen unemployed people turned away from my work place while looking for jobs so I was happy to hear that unemployment is now at a very low level. I also have worked for a long time and have not received wage increases, and several others that I know have not so the issue was also relevant to me.

2)

a - http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article212270859.html

b - The information in this source suggests that there is an opportunity to open new routes or even a new airline that service the Miami International Airport. This opportunity exists because several airlines have stopped their services at MIA causing routes to certain cities and countries to no longer exist. As such, a current airline could take the opportunity to service these new routes without competition or a new airline can step in and meet the demand for these routes with their new services as well.

c - The prototypical customer would be anyone who needs to fly from Miami to a place that is not currently serviced by airlines at MIA. The customer's needs could be for personal, family, business, or leisure reasons.

d - It is relatively easy to exploit. However, several factors must be in place or else it will be difficult to exploit. For example, there must be a demand for routes to certain cities and there must be a foreseeable chance of making profit in order to continue airline services in the future.

I saw this opportunity because traveling is a major part of my lifestyle. My life has been full of going to new places and experiencing new cultures so I have flown to many places from several airports and have an understanding of how airlines and airports function together.

Regulatory Changes

3) 

a - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/upshot/-us-tariffs-real-economic-risk-is-unpredictability.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbusiness-economy

b - The information found within this source points to an opportunity because the United States has changed its trade policies with Canada, Mexico, and the European Union regarding new tariffs on the importation of metals. Not only will this cause a detrimental shift in prices as well as business operations, long term damage is also foreseen since businesses will have trouble making long-term decisions if Trump's administration's trade policy continues being erratic. There is a need for competent supply chain managers and logisticians to help businesses adapt to changing policies.

c - The prototypical customer would be someone who runs a business related to or dealing with the international trade of metals. 

d - It can be fairly difficult to exploit because there must be a supply of managers and logisticians who are well familiar with what the administration is trying to do in order to help the businesses to adapt.

I saw this as an opportunity because international relations is a matter I am greatly interested in due to the classes and cross-cultural experience I've had leading to an issue involving international trade to catch my eye.

4)

a - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/07/technology/microsoft-moral-leader.html

b - The information shows an opportunity for a business that helps advise technology companies on ethical policies. The opportunity exists because Microsoft is changing its policies to become the "moral conscience" of the industry with guidelines for artificial intelligence and new technology. As Microsoft is leading the path for this, Facebook, Google, and other technology companies are lagging behind in terms of their own ethical stances and how it translates to their consumers.

c - The prototypical customer would be employees of the technology companies who serve in public relations or policy-making capacities.

d - It can be difficult to exploit since such companies are big and it is hard to predict what the future holds in terms of ethics and technology.

I saw this opportunity because I see artificial intelligence as full of beautiful potential but also as something that can be unknown and lead to dangerous possibilities as well. Thus, the new ethical policies of technology companies regarding this matter made this issue relevant to me.

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