6A - Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

Assignment 6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

1.     ECONOMIC TRENDS

a)    Textile sector ‘rife’ with exploitation and underpayment

·      Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46992499

·      I believe it exists an opportunity here because there are investigations that prove this information is real. Many UK’s textile industries pay less than the minimum wage to their employees in order to keep a “reasonable price” of the product for their customers. In the article, the author expresses that there is underpayment in one in every four inspections. This must come to an end, but that kind of industries always find a different to go back to their market, by either changing the name of the company or founding different ways to evade detection of their illegal practices

·      The prototypical customer would be the persons who work with underpayment and with excessive hours of work, mostly in the textile industry as the article explains. It is hard to exploit this opportunity as the companies know how to come back and do what they did again, but it is possible to stop with this problem, the UK government should pay more attention to this issue

·      I think I saw this opportunity because I can see the difference within a fair practice and an unfair practice. I come from a country where many laws are not respected and industries do not respect the rights of workers, and that's what I see happening in UK with the textile workers, since those companies just worry about their profit and selling more

b)    Changing nature of ownership: “generation rent”

·      Source: https://www.marketingweek.com/2018/12/19/changing-nature-ownership-brands-generation-rent/

·      I believe it exists an opportunity here as the article explains, there are statistics to prove it and show how much home ownership (by young people) continues to drop and how there is an increase on renting everything you can; and companies are adapting to this trend. The article says that on average college students in the US moves around 12 times (during their college town), even I have moved more than 4 times since I moved to Gainesville.

·      The prototypical customer would be the young people, who have not settled in a place, haven’t formed their family, or do not have their desired job yet.

·      I think is an opportunity that is there, so it is easy to exploit in young people

·      I saw this opportunity because as I said before I have moved many times since I am in college, and I think it will be like that until I am in a place where I am happy at to stay for a long time

2.     REGULATORY CHANGES

a)    Gainesville looking to change immigration policy to prevent crime victims from being deported

·      Source: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-gainesville-immigration-policy-20180405-story.html

·      I think this opportunity exists because as the author say in the article many victims (in this case of abuse) are silent and do not report for fear of being deported to their country. That is, they prefer to suffer than to be returned to their country.

·      The prototypical customer would be any immigrant who has had to suffer from any type of abuse and they do not report it because of the fear of being deported from the country (The U.S)

·      I think it will be easy to exploit, the government should make an exception for those women, men or children who have suffered from abuse

·      I think it's interesting because not many people take into consideration this, we could never know how many people have had keep silence for fear of being expelled from the United States. I think it is great that Gainesville takes that initiative

b)    Gainesville just voted to ban plastic bags

·      Source: https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20190120/seidman-gainesville-just-voted-to-ban-plastic-bags-will-sarasota-be-next

·      I think the opportunity exists because it is important to help reduce waste and by reading some articles about this, by 2040 Gainesville will be a “zero waste city”

·      The prototypical customer would be every citizen and business in Gainesville, so that each person in the city helps reduce waste

·      I think this is easy to exploit, we just need to change our habits; like using paper bags instead of plastic

·      I found this important because plastic is one of the most notable pollutants of the earth, and helping with small actions like this one is a big step for us as a society