Mega Trends

Vol 9, Issue 12

Starting from the birth, people have experienced number of trends in their lives. Generally, a change or a development of something is called as a ‘trend’. That can be a lifestyle, fashion, technology, vehicle or simply anything.  The most significant characteristic of these trends is they are changing time to time based on human perceptions and needs. However, there’s another concept called ‘Mega Trends’ emerging in the society which is broad and vary from the general trends that the society knows.

‘Mega Trends’ can be simply explained as the long-term forces which transform and shape the world. These mega trends are broad and connected one to each other most of the time. They have a significant influence on factors such as economic, social & environmental. At the same time these mega trends are driven by the factors such as technological advancements, environmental changes, demographic and social attributes. There are some common behaviours of these mega trends which are long term and has the probability to run for decades or centuries. Also, they affect a wide range such as social, political, cultural and economical aspects.  Another major point is they can transform human lifestyles and do a significant impact to our day-to-day activities.  Moreover, mega trends are inter-connected and create advantages, disadvantages, challenges as well as opportunities. 

Globalisation is one of the popular and important mega trends. The world accepts interconnection as a key to development of economies and societies rather than closed-country policies. As a connected part of globalisation, the global migration has also become a mega trend. People don’t want to spend their lives stagnant in the same place like before. They have a high likelihood to move from one country to another due to factors such as education, economic situations, political, legal etc. Environmental changes could be taken as another example for mega trends. The scarcity of resources is clearly visible in fossil fuel, fresh water, fresh air etc. Climate changes and loss of biodiversity can be highlighted under this. Technological development is also a key mega trend which is viral now. Artificial Intelligence has become a major development factor in every industry by revolutionising the modern world. Even the traditional finance markets are now being converted into blockchain based crypto markets by surpassing boundaries.

It is clear that mega trends contain both plus as well as minus points. Entrepreneurs, policy makers, businesses, governments and every individual should be aware about these mega trends and their influence to the respective scope. And it is important to go along with these mega trends and adapting to them in order to achieve long-term goals and objectives.