Assignment 6A: Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Economic Trends

Article 1: Could your state land 50,000 Amazon jobs? Headquarters contest kicks off

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/09/07/could-your-state-land-50-000-amazon-jobs-headquarters-contest-kicks-off/641276001/#

Opportunity Exists: There is a huge opportunity for the state who gains a new Amazon headquarters. Amazon is a dominant company and building another headquarters would bring the winning city prestige and jobs. 50,000 jobs are quite the number especially since many people want to see more jobs in America rather than outsourcing.

Prototypical Customer: Job seekers in the United States and graduating college students would be the prototypical customers. There will probably be many recruiters coming to college campuses to recruit students and many people will apply regardless.

Exploiting the Opportunity: This opportunity will be easy to exploit. Amazon is very successful and there are already numerous cities throwing their hats into the ring to compete for this opportunity. Landing the headquarters would boost the economy of the city Amazon chooses.

Seeing the Opportunity: I think I saw this opportunity because Amazon is a great company and they would be creating many jobs. I know in the past few years there has been a great demand for more American jobs and this would be a significant help.

Article 2: Campbell’s expects sales drop as people shun packaged food

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/08/31/campbell-expects-sales-drop-people-shun-packaged-food/620651001/#

Opportunity Exists: I believe that there is an opportunity for packaged food industries, like Campbell’s, to change the way people view packaged food. The trend lately has been for people to skip the packaged food and select fresher foods. However, this would give Campbell’s time to focus more on its slowly increasing (but increasing nonetheless) fresh foods unit (which includes carrots and salad dressings); maybe expanding its product line. They may also choose to create a campaign that launches their packaged food in a positive light (i.e. creating recipes that combine fresh foods and their canned soup).

Prototypical Customer: The prototypical customer would be consumers of packaged and fresh foods. Campbell’s would ideally want to keep their packaged consumers, but expand into the fresh foods category.

Exploiting the Opportunity: This opportunity would be harder to exploit because Campbell’s is pretty much known for its packaged foods like canned soup and cookies. However, as mentioned above they do have a fresh food unit that is slowly rising, so there is a possibility of competing with fresher foods.  

Seeing the Opportunity: This opportunity may be hard for some people to see, especially since it is coming from a negative situation. Fresh foods, in my opinion, are better, however, there is still a convenience that packaged food holds. I believe that now would be the time for Campbell’s and other packaged food companies to start changing how these foods are packaged, start developing their fresh foods unit, or repositioning themselves in the market.

Regulatory Trends

Article 1: Equifax Hack Exposes Regulatory Gaps, Leaving Consumers Vulnerable

            Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/business/equifax.html

Opportunity Exists: The opportunity that arises from the Equifax hack is that credit bureaus, like Equifax, may soon fall under stricter guidelines. Millions of people were left vulnerable due to this hack and all credit bureaus, not just Equifax, will have to strengthen their security.

Prototypical Customer: The prototypical customers of this opportunity would be the credit bureaus themselves. They would need to have stricter regulations put in place to make sure this does not happen again.

Exploiting the Opportunity: I believe that this would be easier to accomplish and benefit from now that a negative event has taken place. Many articles have expressed the gaps in credit bureau regulation and unfortunately now, due to a hack and bad press, they must adapt.

Seeing the Opportunity: I saw this opportunity because security is very important to me (and most other people). Many people could be open to identity theft and for me that is unacceptable, especially since there were many reports of Equifax making mistakes and lax oversight.

Article 2: Poor design, construction blamed in damage to California dam

Source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-bc-us--damaged-dam-20170905-story.html

Opportunity Exists: I believe there is now an opportunity to update how dams and old infrastructure are monitored. The Oroville Dam did have notable flaws in its original design and those were overlooked until the damage occurred. Inspections of these structures or even changing how these structures are built and designed could be something to be changed in the future.

Prototypical Customer: The prototypical customers will be groups, such as U.S. Society on Dams, who monitor the structures and the construction companies who create the dams and other structures.

Exploiting the Opportunity: I think this will relatively easy to exploit. Monitoring of dams occurs once every five years currently; this timeline in the initial stages can be changed to occur more frequently. Also, the technology and knowledge we have of building things is more advanced than in years past, so it would be easier to create more efficient ways to create sturdier and safer dams or repair old ones.

Seeing the Opportunity: I saw this opportunity because there have been many events in the news that revolve around flaws, whether that be building flaws (as the case for this article) or other shortcomings. We live in a more advanced society, why not use some of this technology and knowledge to check some of the older things and improve them for the future.