Trends, Networks, and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century

What is Trend?
- a general direction in which something is developing or changing.
-A pattern of gradual change in a condition, output, or process, or an average or general tendency of a series of data points to
move in a certain direction over time, represented by a line or curve on a graph.

Process on how to spot trends

There are two ways to spot trends:
a) Qualitative way
b) Quantitative way

Qualitative way would be something like

"Alice is always late to work". This doesn't say by how many minutes or hours Alice is late to work. It just sets a general declaration
that Alice is always late.

MEGATRENDS AND MICROTRENDS

Mega trends -entail a major restructing ; they are a larger pattern of broad trends that reshape and transform our lives.

Micro trends- advocate localization as opposed to globalization, recognizing that people and communities have never been
sophisticated and more knowledgeable about the choices they make in their everyday lives.

EXAMPLES OF TRENDS:
Facebook – is the most common social network website where you can share information about yourself and communicate with other
people.
Twitter – it lets you see what is happening around the world, from breaking news and entertainment, sports and politics to big events
and every day interests.

What is Trend spotting?

Trend spotting- is attempting to see the future in the present (Rehn and Lindkvist, 2013). Being able to predict a trend is a valued
skill for the global citizen. Trend spotting is sometimes called cool-hunting and trend analysis.
Trend spotting-is the identification of new trends or attempting to see the future.
Trend analysis -is the widespread practice of collecting information and attempting to spot a pattern, or trend, in the
information.
Trend spotter- is a person who notices and reports on new fashions, ideas, or activities that are becoming popular.

Differentiating a trend from a fad

Fad -is a new thing that people are doing. The easiest way to categorize a fad is one word: short-lived. Trends have a much
longer lifespan than fads. In fact, trends can continue to be fashionable for years and even decades.
Trend -is significant, have broad implications in all aspects of society, identifiable and explainable while fad is transitory or quick,
affect only particular group of people without impact and driven by emotions.

FADS TRENDS

DUBSMASH pusuan mo bes

PITMALU smart phone
FACEBOOK LIKE cloud phone
LODI werpa
INSTAGRAM online shopping
CLIMATE CHANGE basher

Strategic Analysis- involves the individual’s capacity for thinking conceptually, imaginatively, systematically, and opportunistically
with regard to the attainment of success in the future. The process requires you to follow a pattern to creatively address a situation and
understand the environment in which an organization is operating.

Tools in Strategic Analysis

 SWOT Analysis
 Pest Analysis
 Five Forces Model
 Value Chain Analysis

SWOT Analysis
S – Strength
W – Weakness
O – Opportunities
T – Threat
How to Use SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis requires weighting every element of the system. Meaning you have to identify which of the elements have the
majority attributes. With this, you can easily identify if the subject will have favorable or unfavorable result or you will have the idea
on what kind of solution you are going to implement.

PEST Analysis
P – Political
E – Economic
S – Social
T – Technological

Political factors are basically how the government intervenes in the economy. Specifically, political factors have areas including tax
policy, labour law, environmental law, trade restrictions, tariffs, and political stability. Political factors may also include goods and
services which the government aims to provide or be provided (merit goods) and those that the government does not want to be
provided (demerit goods or merit bads). Furthermore, governments have a high impact on the health, education, and infrastructure of a
nation.

Economic factors include economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates, the inflation rate. These factors greatly affect how
businesses operate and make decisions. For example, interest rates affect a firm's cost of capital and therefore to what extent a business
grows and expands. Exchange rates can affect the costs of exporting goods and the supply and price of imported goods in an economy.

Social factors include the cultural aspects and health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and
emphasis on safety. High trends in social factors affect the demand for a company's products and how that company operates. For
example, the ageing population may imply a smaller and less-willing workforce (thus increasing the cost of labour). Furthermore,
companies may change various management strategies to adapt to social trends caused from this (such as recruiting older workers).

Technological factors include technological aspects like R&D activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate
of technological change. These can determine barriers to entry, minimum efficient production level and influence
the outsourcing decisions. Furthermore, technological shifts would affect costs, quality, and lead to innovation.

Forter five forces analysis

 The threat of subtitute products
 The threat of the entry of new competitors
 The intensity of competitive rivalry
 The bargaining power of customer
 The bargaining power of supplires

Value chain analysis

Value chain analysis is based on the

principle that organizations exist to
create value for their customers. In the
analysis, the organization's activities are
divided into separate sets of activities
that add value.
The three steps for conducting a value
chain analysis are:

1. Separate the organization's operations

into primary and support activities
2. Allocate cost to each activity.
3. Identify the activities that are important
to customer’s satisfaction and market
success.

Three main kind of thinker

1. Naive thinker - the person who doesnt care about or isnt aware of his/her thinking
2. Selfish critical thinker- the person who is good at thinking but unfair to others
3. Fairminded critical thinker- the person who is not only at thinking but also fair to othres

Globalization
- is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations,
- a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on
the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in
societies around the world.
Globalization
- is the increasing interaction of people, states, or countries through the growth of the international flow of money, ideas, and
culture. Globalization is primarily an economic process of integration that has social and cultural aspects.