Fueled by central bank cheap-money activities across the globe, mergers and acquisitions have significantly replaced investment in building and expanding businesses with true-innovation price discovery and entrepreneurial creativity. And now cheap and accessible machine automation in traditional workplaces will eat away at something once greatly valued in industrial, entertainment, media, retail, architectural and service sectors: the individual experience and the human touch.
The powerful undercurrent of these emerging macro trends is the need to seize market gaps abandoned by the bigs because product volumes were too tight or margins too small for their grand-scale operations.
Among the most promising opportunities for ontrendpreneurs around the globe to capitalize on include health and well-being services and products to meet the needs of an aging world. An increasingly obese, prescription-drug-dependent, and stressed world, whose primary treatment options are corporate medicine and Big Pharma, is eager for alternatives.
In addition, green and buy-local initiatives will grow even stronger, augmented by homegrown, old-school attention to quality customer service. These will extend to exurbs and suburban areas and will be piloted by ontrendpreneurs connected to their communities and the unique tastes and interests of their neighbors.
Areas outside major cities that have unique entertainment, cultural and artistic offerings will be increasingly attractive to boomers and seniors, and ontrendpreneurs will seize the unique potential of luring these groups.
Events and travel/learning programs will thrive, capitalizing on and selling the unique attributes of local regions.