Harvard Business Review on Rebuilding Your Business Model

Are You Ignoring Trends That Could Shake Up Your Business?

by Elie Ofek and Luc Wathieu

IT’S HARDLY A REVELATION that digital products and services are playing an increasingly central role in consumers’ everyday lives, that the Great Recession has made people more cautious about spending money, and that growing public concern about global warming is influencing purchasing decisions. But are you paying enough attention to the deeper implications of those trends? Are you accounting for the fact that heavy users of digital products and services tend to focus more on short-term goals, demand immediate gratification, expect to multitask, and are open to exchanging ideas with people they’ve never met in person? Or that the prolonged recession has unleashed ...