How to Stay Ahead of the Pack through Minitrends

A key advantage for any business is to stay in the forefront of emerging trends in their particular industry. To do this successfully an organization must utilize its most valuable asset, its people. Assigning a few employees to focus on the unappreciated and actionable minitrends can help an organization tap into the top trends and achieve the best results. Here is a three step approach on how your organization can stay ahead of the curve, energize the innovation process, and succeed in an ever-changing business and technology environment.                                                                                                                                                     

Step 1: Recognize- Spark and encourage innovation, creativity, and imagination among your employees. Establish a team that regularly scans the environment for interesting and potentially profitable minitrends.

Step 2: Assess- Create a structure that will help you organize, analyze and rank potential minitrends for further consideration and action. Assess the likelihood of the trend’s success and how it fits with the organization.

Step 3: Strategize- Upon assessing your finds make sure to incorporate the most promising minitrends into your business strategies. This enables new opportunities depending on the size, nature, goals, and resources of your organization.  Some options to accomplish this includes: acquiring or partnering with other companies, building protection from competitors while growing the business, and creating new ventures.

Note: This information was derived from the article “Here’s how to stay on top of ‘minitrends’ and get ahead of the pack”, which was published by the Austin Business Journal. To read the full article refer to the following link:  http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/blog/at-the-watercooler/2014/09/how-to-stay-on-top-of-minitrends-and-get-ahead.html?page=all