Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 72

How To Separate Macro Trends From Micro Trends

The team at WGSN produces some great trend insights primarily in for the fashion sector and recently launched their “Anatomy of a Trend” white paper which is worth a download. One element that was particularly interesting was their distinction between macro and micro trends and how they think about trends in general. As a fellow trend curator, I suspect you’ll enjoy reading about the process they use and what lessons that might have for your own work and insights.

Read the full story on WGSN...

What If Smart Home Devices Sold What They Know About You?

If your smart robot vacuum cleaner created a map of your home in the process of cleaning it, that data could provide new insights to help tailor smart home products to your specific living conditions. That’s the bold assertion of Colin Angle, chief executive of Roomba maker iRobot Corp. It does raise some clear privacy concerns over whether consumers will want to share that sort of data – but the potential upside (as this article explores) is very lucrative.

Read the full story on Reuters >

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Diamonds Are Still Forever. Especially If They Are Lab Grown

One of the side effects of social awareness among millennials is how many young brides are coming to embrace lab grown diamonds as equally beautiful but more ethically sourced alternatives to “blood” diamonds. It doesn’t hurt that the Gemological Institute of America qualifies these synthetic diamonds as “real diamonds” – but the significant discount may be the most important reason why these new man-made diamonds could take a real piece of the $80 billion diamond industry, and change the way...

IKEA Creates 72 Regional Versions Of Its Iconic Catalog … Here’s Why

This week IKEA will release its new 2018 catalog, and this timely piece looks at how a small internal army of hundreds of photographers, art directors, copywriters, proofreaders, prop masters, carpenters, photo retouchers, programmers and CGI specialists make the catalog globally relevant. From zooming in on kitchen photos (because Chinese kitchens are smaller than American ones) to changing the food that appears on tables to match regional palates, the catalog is a case study in making conte...

How To Break Up With Your Bank Over Ethical Differences

In a perfect example of Passive Loyalty (a 2017 trend from Non-Obvious), this article on discusses how to break up with your bank. While changing banks is notoriously inconvenient, the author of the piece was inspired to do so because of ethical differences with his bank (Wells Fargo) and its support of the Dakota pipeline. This consumer empowerment and the desire to do business with brands that align with our beliefs is among one of the most disruptive elements of the millennial mindset, and...

Your Next Camera Will Retouch Your Pictures While You Take Them

Starting with a set of 5,000 images that were retouched by five different photographers, Google and MIT built an algorithm that can automatically retouch a photo WHILE you take it. In a world already filled with “photoshopped” images which distort reality, advancements like this have the potential to further blur the line between real and fake and raise some interesting questions about the “truth” behind images. If my phone automatically retouches my selfie to make me look better, is that a f...

Chinese Mall Installs “Husband Pods” For Bored Spouses

The bored husband at a shopping mall is one of the most common stereotypes of suburbia and now a Chinese gaming company has a solution that is rapidly going viral. The so-called “husband pod” features seat massages, retro video games and virtual reality experiences. While there are no plans to expand this outside of China at the moment, it’s easy to imagine this being popular just about anywhere … and not just among husbands either.

Read the full story on CNN >

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The Future of Elevators Could Go Sideways

What if elevators went sideways? They might soon thanks to a new system invented and being tested by German elevator producer ThyssenKrupp which aims to get rid of cables altogether and build elevators more like magnetic levitation trains, which are common in Japan and China. The idea would allow people in a tall tower to go sideways to a nearby tower instead of having to go down and then back up again. The idea, if it takes off, could be interesting as a way to solve short commute traffic ch...

New Survey Finds Recent MBA Grads Don’t Want To Work On Wall Street

A new survey shows that jobs outside of Wall Street are increasingly being preferred by MBA graduates as just 19% of respondents selected Wall Street as their top employment choice – a drop of 7 percent from last year and the lowest level in the 8 year history of the survey. While the survey only included 200 students, it does raise the possibility that the growing shift toward purpose driven workplace cultures and valuing things other than the biggest paycheck are increasingly influencing wh...

6 Shifts In How Data Is Transforming Healthcare

The new PSFK Future of Health report is out and a central theme is that data is driving personalization of diagnosis, treatment and overall clinical intelligence. The idea of “cloud diagnosis” for example illustrates the power of tapping a vast reserve of knowledge to properly diagnose patients. Another is the ability to offer preemptive education to prevent illnesses – which the report calls “Omni-Care.” For a summary of other insights from the report and details on how to purchase it, follo...