Today there seems to be a lot of confusion about the trends that are developing on the Market. That is, for each Trend, there are interpretations of a completely opposite sign.
At the basis of everything there is – as often happens in modern culture – a semantic question, of meanings of terms. It happens that over time some terms that describe social aspects of human life take on a different meaning from the original one.
The manipulation of the terms in favor of the “thought of the incumbents”
This happens both for a problem of incapacity (“cultural”) to understand the meaning of the Trends, both for a convenience from some Players of the Market (Managers, Consultants, Intellectuals) in making the Trend appear as something that in reality is not.
.
In other words, some people do not understand the real meaning of a social change in progress, and therefore they have a simplified idea of what is happening. A simplification in which, however, significant nuances are eliminated, without which it is impossible to understand the real meaning of the ongoing change (of the Trend).
The facts is that in this mode of thought, obsolete criteria are used – myopistically – to try to explain a totally new situation.
From this approach derive the current problems of the Market: often we get to attribute to the Trend opposite meanings with respect to the original ones.
.
This misunderstood conception of the meaning of trends is spread – it becomes the dominant conception – due to the fact that there are some classes of people who “have an interest” in ensuring that the changes taking place are interpreted in their favor.
These are those who have achieved a dominant position in the market, and do everything to maintain this position.
.
The problem for the stability of the social system (and of the market) is that in this way the Incumbents (the big Players of the market and the rulers who enjoy a position of power),
based on the conception of the changes in progress developed by them, conceive strategies that come into conflict with actual reality
(with the reality of the Society, of the Market).
That is, in the current Market the Incumbents develop strategies that are in contrast with the changes taking place, and therefore create frictions with it.
The changes – as illustrated in the following paragraphs – are a historical necessity of the moment.
.
The fact is that in this way
the Incumbents create problems
not only within the Society,
but also to themselves.
The problem is dramatic for the incumbents: slowly they arrive at a point where their Supply is completely detached from Demand.
And at that point not only they are no longer able to satisfy the new needs born of change (they are no longer able to sell their product). But
the Incumbents are
no longer even able to change mindset and structures
to be able to develop functional strategies
for the ongoing disruption.
(and the Governors lose the electoral consent).
.
The fact is that the Incumbents, as much as they try to protect the status quo with “protectionist” strategies (also in agreement with the government institutions), cannot prevent small producers from developing “alternative” products that are attractive to the Customers. In fact small StartUp companies are born that offer radically innovative products – disruptive innovation – that meet a great sales success. And therefore define a new generation of products (very different from that offered by the Incumbents).
A typical case of this phenomenon of big Players is the growth of “discount” supermarkets that have taken over today, and are leading to the failure of the large Supermaket chains (Auchan, Carrefur, etc …).
This new generation of Player emerges despite attempts to protect the Incubents developed by government institutions (see the “policies” of contrast against Uber, Airbnb, etc …)
.
This inability to change by the big Players of the Market is due to the fact that they, having for decades discarded the possibility of innovating mindset and methodologies of their company, therefore finding themselves in a condition of crisis of profits that is almost impossible to remedy.
This irremediability of their condition is due to the fact that they, having given up changing for too long, now find themselves engaging in the various processes people with the mindset incompatible with the changes (such people are not really able to understand the need for change).
For these reasons today
the big Players of the Market
ARE INTRINSICALLY INCAPABLE OF INNOVATING THEMSELVES,
and are destined to succumb to the next generation of players who are now entering the market (such as small Start Up).
<see The great Firms are not able to develop disruptive innovation within them>
the concept of Trend (and fake-trends)
As mentioned, the current market crisis – due to the fact that most of the players are not able to develop products that meet the New Demand – there is precisely a misinterpretation regarding the real meaning of the changes (of the Trends).
Above all there is
AN INCORRECT INTERPRETATION
OF THE SAME TREND CONCEPT.
Trend: “the general direction of changes or developments” Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary
.
It is therefore necessary to understand first that
a TREND is a “spontaneous” trend (bottom-up)
of the Society (or the Market),
unlike the VOGUE,
which is something “induced” top-down.
.
The trends are therefore tendencies that have not been decided by someone, but that “emerge” in the history of man. They are not an option, they are something to be adapted to. They are something ineluctable, which cannot be “controlled” by man, because it arises from an inescapable need of the Customers: the latter just can no longer buy products of the current generation (their spending is extremely low, and they are forced to fall back on new generation products that have a high value-utility).
It is therefore fatal – as we do today – to confuse a Vogue, a “preference” that can be induced in people (a trend that can therefore be “addressed” top-down) with a Trend, which is instead something that escapes the possibility of control.
.
The fact is that, that is, a little out of ignorance, and a little out of convenience today
many Market operators
THEY TEND TO CONSIDER THE TRENDS
LIKE A SOMETHING THAT CAN BE MANAGED IN THEIR FAVOR.
That is, it happens that they create pseudo-trends (fake-trends) in the hope of being able to maintain the current layout of their strategies. But since these “tendencies” are not in tune with the reality of things (the needs of the Customers), these strategies are destined to fail.
This attempt to tame the trends by creating fake-trends produces an obstacle to updating the culture of business. That is, it leads to the creation of a series of misunderstandings about the meaning of the trends that disorient the Market.
<see
◊ The basic misunderstanding on Disruptive innovation◊ Disruptive innovation is not based on technologies
◊ The misunderstanding on Innovation by Manager, Consultants and Pundits
◊ Towards a new (real) sustainability: the mistake of focusing on the low price
◊ Misunderstanding: the future is not futuristic as one imagines it today>
.
To see the thing according to “the Chinese sage”, a trend is like the current of a river: if you are in a river the only way to develop a strategy (for example to reach the shore) it is necessary to support the current, ie swim by being carried by the current: only by swimming in tune with the current it is possible to put yourself in safety.
In the reality of the Society (of the Market) it is the same thing: either the Trend is favored, or it is crushed by the “current” of the social trend.
.
The current recession is precisely the result of this approach: the bankruptcy strategies of the Incumbents – which do not support the “flow” generated by the Trend – create a lack of profits (decrease in wages, unemployment, etc.) which is the cause of the spiral vicious of the recession.
.
In order to get out of the current recession (to be able to develop really effective product strategies) it is therefore decisive to understand the difference between the Trends, the spontaneous tendencies of the Society, and the top-down induced “trends” (fake-trends).
Otherwise, the new generation of competitors that will be able to correctly interpret the change (the new demand) will continue to be powerless to invade the market: AirBnB, Discount Supermarkets, Ryan Air, “Chinese” spare parts for Automotive, …
Analysis of trend types
the meta-trends: the driving force of Trend
It is necessary to distinguish several types of “trends”.
.
Recalling that, in fact, the Trends are “flows” of bottom-up change, and are therefore not “manipulable”, we can note that underlying these changes (specific trends) are
meta-trends:
meta-tentecies that act as
A “DRIVING FORCE” FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIFIC TRENDS.
Meta: [The American Heritage Dictionary] “Situated behind” “More comprehensive” more generally
A meta-trend is therefore something less defined than a Trend, which functions as a “driving force” underneath the trends.
.
For example, a meta-trend is the tendency that people have to “make community”: this meta-trend today is the driver of specific trends such as Sharing (Sharing Economy) on the basis of which services such as Ube, Airbnb are being developed.
And it is important to understand the essence of this meta-tremd, because it – like all meta-treds – is the “why” of real innovation (of disruptive innovation able to satisfy the new Demand).
As it is for medical treatment,
only by understanding the profound meaning of the cause of a problem, it is possible to develop a solution that actually solves the problem
(in the case of the Market, it is a matter of developing a solution that actually satisfies the demand).
.
To be able to create products that can actually be sold today it is therefore necessary to understand that the tendency to
Crow-ization is a strong drive of people to
MANAGE DIRECTLY ASPECTS OF THEIR LIFE
WHICH TODAY ARE MANAGED BY THE “INSTITUTIONS”
(Market and Government) in a totally ineffective way (today both the products of the Market and the services of the Public Administration are not able to satisfy the real needs of people).
This meta-trend is the result of
● of “objective” needs of people, who today suffer from the current recession.
● of new expirations by the Customers who become aware that the technologies – if designed according to their current needs – are able to solve their problems.
From the point of view of Sociology, Crowd-ization can be considered an opposite phenomenon to that of massification.
Meta-trends as a trend matrix
We can say that in substance today, due to the inability of the Market to produce products that are actually useful for the customers, and of the public administration to provide effective services,
people live a sort of Day after of the “consumerism civilization”.
And in this condition they are forced to take forms of managing their lives in Do It Yourself mode,
That is,
TODAY PEOPLE ARE FORCED TO SELF-ORGANIZE
(WITH THE SUPPORT OF SOCIAL WEB PLATFORMS)
TO DIRECTLY CREATE THE SERVICES THEY NEED.
But also to directly create material products (the Trend “Makers”).
.
Understanding this meta-trend is a fundamental step in order to develop truly salable products.
Today there seems to be a lot of confusion about the trends that are developing on the Market. That is, for each Trend, there are interpretations of a completely opposite sign.
At the basis of everything there is – as often happens in modern culture – a semantic question, of meanings of terms. It happens that over time some terms that describe social aspects of human life take on a different meaning from the original one.
The manipulation of the terms in favor of the “thought of the incumbents”
This happens both for a problem of incapacity (“cultural”) to understand the meaning of the Trends, both for a convenience from some Players of the Market (Managers, Consultants, Intellectuals) in making the Trend appear as something that in reality is not.
.
In other words, some people do not understand the real meaning of a social change in progress, and therefore they have a simplified idea of what is happening. A simplification in which, however, significant nuances are eliminated, without which it is impossible to understand the real meaning of the ongoing change (of the Trend).
The facts is that in this mode of thought, obsolete criteria are used – myopistically – to try to explain a totally new situation.
From this approach derive the current problems of the Market: often we get to attribute to the Trend opposite meanings with respect to the original ones.
.
This misunderstood conception of the meaning of trends is spread – it becomes the dominant conception – due to the fact that there are some classes of people who “have an interest” in ensuring that the changes taking place are interpreted in their favor.
These are those who have achieved a dominant position in the market, and do everything to maintain this position.
.
The problem for the stability of the social system (and of the market) is that in this way the Incumbents (the big Players of the market and the rulers who enjoy a position of power),
based on the conception of the changes in progress developed by them, conceive strategies that come into conflict with actual reality
(with the reality of the Society, of the Market).
That is, in the current Market the Incumbents develop strategies that are in contrast with the changes taking place, and therefore create frictions with it.
The changes – as illustrated in the following paragraphs – are a historical necessity of the moment.
.
The fact is that in this way
the Incumbents create problems
not only within the Society,
but also to themselves.
The problem is dramatic for the incumbents: slowly they arrive at a point where their Supply is completely detached from Demand.
And at that point not only they are no longer able to satisfy the new needs born of change (they are no longer able to sell their product). But
the Incumbents are
no longer even able to change mindset and structures
to be able to develop functional strategies
for the ongoing disruption.
(and the Governors lose the electoral consent).
.
The fact is that the Incumbents, as much as they try to protect the status quo with “protectionist” strategies (also in agreement with the government institutions), cannot prevent small producers from developing “alternative” products that are attractive to the Customers. In fact small StartUp companies are born that offer radically innovative products – disruptive innovation – that meet a great sales success. And therefore define a new generation of products (very different from that offered by the Incumbents).
A typical case of this phenomenon of big Players is the growth of “discount” supermarkets that have taken over today, and are leading to the failure of the large Supermaket chains (Auchan, Carrefur, etc …).
This new generation of Player emerges despite attempts to protect the Incubents developed by government institutions (see the “policies” of contrast against Uber, Airbnb, etc …)
.
This inability to change by the big Players of the Market is due to the fact that they, having for decades discarded the possibility of innovating mindset and methodologies of their company, therefore finding themselves in a condition of crisis of profits that is almost impossible to remedy.
This irremediability of their condition is due to the fact that they, having given up changing for too long, now find themselves engaging in the various processes people with the mindset incompatible with the changes (such people are not really able to understand the need for change).
For these reasons today
the big Players of the Market
ARE INTRINSICALLY INCAPABLE OF INNOVATING THEMSELVES,
and are destined to succumb to the next generation of players who are now entering the market (such as small Start Up).
< see The great Firms are not able to develop disruptive innovation within them>
the concept of Trend (and fake-trends)
As mentioned, the current market crisis – due to the fact that most of the players are not able to develop products that meet the New Demand – there is precisely a misinterpretation regarding the real meaning of the changes (of the Trends).
Above all there is
AN INCORRECT INTERPRETATION
OF THE SAME TREND CONCEPT.
Trend: “the general direction of changes or developments” Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary
.
It is therefore necessary to understand first that
a TREND is a “spontaneous” trend (bottom-up)
of the Society (or the Market),
unlike the VOGUE,
which is something “induced” top-down.
.
The trends are therefore tendencies that have not been decided by someone, but that “emerge” in the history of man. They are not an option, they are something to be adapted to. They are something ineluctable, which cannot be “controlled” by man, because it arises from an inescapable need of the Customers: the latter just can no longer buy products of the current generation (their spending is extremely low, and they are forced to fall back on new generation products that have a high value-utility).
It is therefore fatal – as we do today – to confuse a Vogue, a “preference” that can be induced in people (a trend that can therefore be “addressed” top-down) with a Trend, which is instead something that escapes the possibility of control.
.
The fact is that, that is, a little out of ignorance, and a little out of convenience today
many Market operators
THEY TEND TO CONSIDER THE TRENDS
LIKE A SOMETHING THAT CAN BE MANAGED IN THEIR FAVOR.
That is, it happens that they create pseudo-trends (fake-trends) in the hope of being able to maintain the current layout of their strategies. But since these “tendencies” are not in tune with the reality of things (the needs of the Customers), these strategies are destined to fail.
This attempt to tame the trends by creating fake-trends produces an obstacle to updating the culture of business. That is, it leads to the creation of a series of misunderstandings about the meaning of the trends that disorient the Market.
<see
◊ The basic misunderstanding on Disruptive innovation◊ Disruptive innovation is not based on technologies
◊ The misunderstanding on Innovation by Manager, Consultants and Pundits
◊ Towards a new (real) sustainability: the mistake of focusing on the low price
◊ Misunderstanding: the future is not futuristic as one imagines it today>
.
To see the thing according to “the Chinese sage”, a trend is like the current of a river: if you are in a river the only way to develop a strategy (for example to reach the shore) it is necessary to support the current, ie swim by being carried by the current: only by swimming in tune with the current it is possible to put yourself in safety.
In the reality of the Society (of the Market) it is the same thing: either the Trend is favored, or it is crushed by the “current” of the social trend.
.
The current recession is precisely the result of this approach: the bankruptcy strategies of the Incumbents – which do not support the “flow” generated by the Trend – create a lack of profits (decrease in wages, unemployment, etc.) which is the cause of the spiral vicious of the recession.
.
In order to get out of the current recession (to be able to develop really effective product strategies) it is therefore decisive to understand the difference between the Trends, the spontaneous tendencies of the Society, and the top-down induced “trends” (fake-trends).
Otherwise, the new generation of competitors that will be able to correctly interpret the change (the new demand) will continue to be powerless to invade the market: AirBnB, Discount Supermarkets, Ryan Air, “Chinese” spare parts for Automotive, …
Analysis of trend types
the meta-trends: the driving force of Trend
It is necessary to distinguish several types of “trends”.
.
Recalling that, in fact, the Trends are “flows” of bottom-up change, and are therefore not “manipulable”, we can note that underlying these changes (specific trends) are
meta-trends:
meta-tentecies that act as
A “DRIVING FORCE” FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIFIC TRENDS.
Meta: [The American Heritage Dictionary] “Situated behind” “More comprehensive” more generally
A meta-trend is therefore something less defined than a Trend, which functions as a “driving force” underneath the trends.
.
For example, a meta-trend is the tendency that people have to “make community”: this meta-trend today is the driver of specific trends such as Sharing (Sharing Economy) on the basis of which services such as Ube, Airbnb are being developed.
And it is important to understand the essence of this meta-tremd, because it – like all meta-treds – is the “why” of real innovation (of disruptive innovation able to satisfy the new Demand).
As it is for medical treatment,
only by understanding the profound meaning of the cause of a problem, it is possible to develop a solution that actually solves the problem
(in the case of the Market, it is a matter of developing a solution that actually satisfies the demand).
.
To be able to create products that can actually be sold today it is therefore necessary to understand that the tendency to
Crow-ization is a strong drive of people to
MANAGE DIRECTLY ASPECTS OF THEIR LIFE
WHICH TODAY ARE MANAGED BY THE “INSTITUTIONS”
(Market and Government) in a totally ineffective way (today both the products of the Market and the services of the Public Administration are not able to satisfy the real needs of people).
This meta-trend is the result of
● of “objective” needs of people, who today suffer from the current recession.
● of new expirations by the Customers who become aware that the technologies – if designed according to their current needs – are able to solve their problems.
From the point of view of Sociology, Crowd-ization can be considered an opposite phenomenon to that of massification.
Meta-trends as a trend matrix
We can say that in substance today, due to the inability of the Market to produce products that are actually useful for the customers, and of the public administration to provide effective services,
people live a sort of Day after of the “consumerism civilization”.
And in this condition they are forced to take forms of managing their lives in Do It Yourself mode,
That is,
TODAY PEOPLE ARE FORCED TO SELF-ORGANIZE
(WITH THE SUPPORT OF SOCIAL WEB PLATFORMS)
TO DIRECTLY CREATE THE SERVICES THEY NEED.
But also to directly create material products (the Trend “Makers”).
.
Understanding this meta-trend is a fundamental step in order to develop truly salable products.
That is, only by understanding this urgent need of the Customers to directly manage some aspects of their life previously covered by the Market and by the Public Services, it is possible to understand the why of the Trends as “co-creation” (which involves the need to integrate the Customer in the process of product creation – or to transform the current Marketing into Participated Marketing°); or the “Sharing economy” (whose misunderstanding leads, for example, to confusing rental with sharing – and therefore leads to the development of products destined for failure).
