Assignment 6A-Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

Assignment 6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Opportunities in Current Economic Trends

1. One apparent economic trend is global activity improving between Australia and other countries, such as China and Japan.

I became aware of this trend through businessnews.com shortly after doing a google, searching for economic trends.

Economic trends between any two or more major countries are big news and this big news suggests big opportunity. China receives approximately one third of Australia’s merchandise exports. Japan receives approximately 15 percent of Australia’s merchandise exports. With China’s activity having stabilized and Japan’s economic construction boom, it is a prime time for producers of merchandise in Australia to export their goods to China and Japan. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet the increasing Chinese and Japanese demand for Australian merchandise (an at least somewhat unmet need).

The prototypical customers of these Australian exporters are the Chinese and Japanese importers and ultimately the Chinese and Japanese people themselves.

I believe that this opportunity is relatively easy for established Australian merchandise producers to exploit; however, this opportunity is not at all easy for the average Australian citizen to exploit.

I certainly do think that this opportunity is limited and not easy for the average person to exploit, but I am confident that the opportunity still exists regardless of those factors. It is my belief that other people may fail to see this opportunity simply because they are unable to exploit it themselves.



2. Another apparent economic trend is baby boomers not retiring. This is a trend that I was already somewhat aware of and then was reminded of when reading an article on thebalance.com.

The article suggests that due to The Great Recession, over half of those aged 45-75 were forced to delay retirement.

I believe that this information is directly correlated to an opportunity. This opportunity is the opportunity to higher these baby boomers as part-time workers. Most of these workers have over 20 years of work experience and credentials. Hiring these baby boomers as part-time employees will prevent employers from having to pay for benefits for these employees. Instead of hiring one full-time worker, an employer can hire two baby boomers as part-time employees and save money, while meeting the largely unmet need of baby boomers looking for work.

Baby boomers would the employees (essentially the “customers” for purposes of this discussion).

Of course, there are limitations to this such as exactly what credentials an employee must have and whether it is feasible to hire two part-time workers (baby boomers) instead of one full-time worker. For many employers, such as the owners of golf courses, hiring baby boomers as part-time workers may be a wonderful option for a multitude of reasons. In many scenarios, it is very easy to exploit this opportunity.

I do believe that the majority of people would agree with me that this opportunity exists. I believe that being open-minded and somewhat resourceful is what allowed me to come up with the idea of hiring baby boomers as part-time employees rather than hiring younger people as full-time employees.


Opportunities in Regulatory Changes

3. When thinking of regulatory change as related to exploiting opportunities, the legalization of marijuana is the first thing that comes to mind for me. Throughout the past several years, the legalization of marijuana for both medicinal and recreational use has become a major topic. Not only has it become a topic, but states have begun to legalize marijuana. Many suggest that it is only a matter of time until marijuana is legalized throughout the majority of the United States.

As noted in one of Professor Pryor’s previous lectures, before marijuana is officially legalized in a given state, dispensaries are ready to open and take action. They are ready to exploit the opportunity and to meet that unmet need.

Marijuana is legal for recreational use in nine states and is legal for medicinal use in 30 of the 50 states. It has been shown through these states that the opportunity does and will certainly exist for when the other states legalize the use of marijuana.

Customers have and will include those needing marijuana for medicinal purposes and those wanting to use marijuana for recreational purposes.

I do believe that this opportunity will be relatively hard to exploit due to the expenses and licenses involved with getting into the field of growing and/or selling marijuana.

Another reason that exploiting this opportunity will be difficult is because this is an opportunity that many people are aware of and are also trying to exploit themselves. This is not a hard opportunity to see.


4. Another opportunity regarding regulatory change exists in the insurance market. This particular opportunity came to my attention while reading a couple of different articles on Deloitte.

Lawmakers and regulators are attempting to make many significant changes with regard to aspects of the insurance market. Although the exact measures are very complex, it is efficient to embrace them. Increasing the effectiveness and the efficiency of insurance companies’ risk and compliance programs meets an unmet need. This unmet need is to meet applicable laws, regulations, and supervisory expectations prior to the applicable laws taking effect. This opportunity should be exploited.

The target of this opportunity is to meet the unmet need of top insurance company owners and managers. Counsel helping meet the applicable laws serves the need of the insurance companies themselves.

To exploit this opportunity, counsel must have very specific credentials and knowledge. This is certainly not an easy opportunity to exploit. If this opportunity was able to be exploited efficiently, the pay off would certainly be worthwhile.

It was not easy to see this opportunity. Many may disagree with me on whether there is opportunity to exploit here; however, it is my proposal that there is. I still am not fully knowledgeable with regard to insurance regulations in order to know for sure whether the opportunity is worth exploiting, but as of right now, I believe that it is.