Assignment 6

1)     Climate Change is Causing More Natural Disasters

a)      The Balance is a financial advice and news website. This is a page on some economic trends to expect. https://www.thebalance.com/top-usa-future-economic-trends-3305666

b)     Natural disasters require lots of coordination between people and tools to combat the disaster.

c)      I think the prototypical customer would be emergency management departments in local, state, and federal government.

d)     I think the opportunity is relatively easy to exploit, you just need to have good timing with the natural disaster for people to buy the product. However, perhaps the gov’t would rather stick with one manufacturer of product and maintain a long-term relationship.

e)     I saw this opportunity actually from a previous discussion with a friend who has an internship in emergency management. I was helping him brainstorm with ideas for an assignment in a different class, and I mentioned B2B for emergency management. I have been trying to expand my horizon from B2C solution to B2B as well.

2)     Interest Rates Have Leveled Off

a)      The Balance is a financial advice and news website. This is a page on some economic trends to expect. https://www.thebalance.com/top-usa-future-economic-trends-3305666

b)     Costs of loans have stabilized. There could be an opportunity for businesses/banks to provide/advertise more loans since consumers would feel at ease going into a loan right now (or with factual evidence, consumers could be reassured about how interest rates are working currently).

c)      Not entirely sure how to describe this, but businesses may be the “customer” of the idea to provide loans even though technically the ultimate consumer is the customer of the business purchasing the loan.

d)     The opportunity would be relatively easy to exploit, as it’s just about advertising and reassurance/informing customers.

e)     I can’t think of a clear reason why I thought of this opportunity. Maybe there was a little influence from my Business Finance class!

3)     Trump Administration Plans to Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes

a)      This is an article from the New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/health/trump-vaping.html

b)     If flavored e-cigarettes are banned, then the youth will find the next thing to get hooked on (unfortunately). If we use the same logic that the youth went towards vaping because of the available flavors, then maybe flavored water vapor with natural components that could be filled into the vape pods could attract customers while being healthier.

c)      Customers would generally be younger, casual vapers for flavor and not because of nicotine or trying to wean off traditional cigarettes.

d)     Opportunity seems simple enough, but I’m not sure about how the chemistry of the solution would work. I’ll give it a medium difficulty.

e)     I saw this opportunity because I have some people in my inner circle that do vape for flavor. I am worried about the dangers of vaping and hope that a more natural solution can perhaps satisfy the craving (if one doesn’t already exist).

4)     State price transparency reporting on drug pricing

a)      This came from an outlook on regulations in the life sciences industry from Deloitte, a multinational professional services network. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/regulatory/articles/life-sciences-regulatory-outlook.html

b)     Transparency and additional reporting require a certain type of personnel to do that work. Firms that provide these services can find more customers if they focus on states with these policy changes.

c)      Customer would be firms in the life science industry that must make sure that their reporting is up to code.

d)     I think this opportunity is relatively easy to exploit, once you see the change in policy, you just make sure you make yourself known to the firms affected in the life science industry.

e)     I saw this opportunity because I knew that there were firms for auditing and reporting, so why not shift into drug pricing?