EVERY COMPANY wan's fo know whet tha next major “rand is going to be in their aactor eo that thay can plan for the fulure and take advantage of i. Bu! how can we krovr vwhat the next big thingie betore others tind aut? Alan Kay, the American computer scientist, once seid The best way to predict the future isto invent ft.’ Wel that's good achice f you are an inventer, but most of us have to use other methods Perhaps the best guide to future trends is 1 look and Iisten to ‘what is haapening now. YWhen John Naisbit! wrote his emious book, Megatrands, n 1982, he cid exactly tat. He looked through newspapers and measured the amount of space that was devoted fo particular ‘apies. When ha saw that a tone was receiving more and maxe attertien in the newspanee, for example environmental S088, he noted this as an amergng trond. It io more difficult to use Naibitt's method nowastaye, because there is so much mote information tp read. Becase ofthe Intamet, the amount of published information has increased by arcand three thousand per cent since the 1980s. ‘But keeping your ayes and ears opan is etl important. The next thing is lookng for general trencs, outside your own secter. if you so9 new trance in your sector, then you aro probably 100 late to lake full advantage of ther, Looking for ‘rend in everyday lit in general can be more useful. nagin ‘or example, that your company makes everycay clothes. You notice the tno follwing trends: 1) people are becoming more 25 ‘and more active; and 2) companies are teaming up with other companies to make more interesting offers to consumers. “Two ways of exploting these current trends immediately come ‘0 mind: making clothes thet cen serve as loth everyday and active wear andr teaming up with an establshed maker af 20 sports clothes to oreato a naw range of clathing, Firaty, t's important to notice haw peopla ara playing, particulary if they ere playing enthusiastically. Trends in ‘consumer behaviour are not aways criven by things that ‘make us mote offciont. Ofton they criginato in people's 2 hobbies and things they do to have tun. Apple was founded by two members of the Homebrew Computer Club, a group ‘of hobbyists vio played around with computers in the 1870s 4nd 80s, And the whole cecial networking chenemenon = Facebook, etc. ~ wes buit on people sharing photographs or «9 personal intormtan n their ree te, ‘emerging (ad) new, in early stages f growth originate in (begin wit