Microtrends by Mark J. Penn with E. Kinney Zalesne

Many books that I've read focuses on the big things that drive our world and society today. These are things that we can see happening to us everyday, and things that hardly escape the media's attention. I like this book - Microtrends - because it draws our attention to the myriad of things that happen below the radar. Penn calls these things microtrends if they are adopted by 1% of the population, which he calls the "magic number".

The proliferation of Microtrends is a reflection of the increasing access we have to self-expression. It is also a product of the flat world. Information and knowledge is now widely available to almost everyone, and with more selection, people have much more themes to chose from and incorporate into their lives. It is also much easier now to find commonality and brethrens amongst the world populace that one can identify with. This allows critical masses to form, which in turn switches on the virtuous cycle (or vicious cycle for negative trends such as terrorism) for more people to be brought into the trend.

I like that Penn focused alot of his book on the implications of these Microtrends, particularly what it means in terms of impact to society and businesses. Someone with a keen sense can pick out Microtrends early (before they explode) and quickly capitalise on the business opportunity in serving this group of trenders. But to do so would mean that I'd have to be actively plugged into all the trends that's going on around the world. Or that I'd need to have alot of luck to be at the right place at the right time to get hit by the right idea. I think the certainty of the former makes it a more attractive option.

Overall, what does it mean for me? On a personal note, I'm certainly glad that I live in an era where I can see all the colours and richness of the world for what it is ... it is more exciting to be immersed in a sea of multi-coloured strands of ideas than to be swimming in an orderly school of fishes. (This IS a very bad analogy, but it is getting late. Hahah.) As for my business aspirations, this means that there is potentially alot more opportunities out there ... but to spot these trends early and accurately, I would have to be sufficiently exposed to a wide range of ideas. I think the key to this is to talk to people. Taxi drivers, security ppl in guardhouses (xm would know why i said this!), people in the coffeeshop, friends who work in banks, law firms, IT companies, etc. And the other is to read widely. All in all, this coincides with what I believe is the crucial success factor in the knowledge economy today - knowledge (duh! hahaha), or more specifically, the accumulation and speedy access to quality knowledge.