The Trendsetters of 2016 Who Will Continue to be The Newsmakers Of 2017 Trends define the future of the economy but it is people who define the trends.
By Ritu Marya
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Scott Cook, a founder and former CEO of Intuit, once stated, "Even some of the greatest technology-led revolutions, or allegedly technology-led, really were only made possible because of trends already present."
What are business trends really?
These are new directions created by people who are rethinking known ways of doing things. Trends and people can never be separated. Actually, there is a math, a thought, passion and fire in the belly of such people which gives birth to idea, which becomes a trend. Though, trends define the future of the economy but it is people who define it. Entrepreneurs are the future. The two are inextricably connected. Trends without the intellect are just numbers. And, as the famous Wall Street saying goes: "The trend is your friend…until it ends". Trend following is not a holy grail, it is not some passing fad or hyped-up secret black box either. Beyond the mere rules, the human element is core to the strategy and can add so much value when you learn to execute it with sophistication at the right time.
If we needed any reminder about the unpredictability of "politics in economics', we got it last month in the wake of Prime Minister's demonetization drive, which got more than half of India to become poor overnight. It may be a long-term blessing, but in short-term, it has forced the business community to change its future course; and it is a hardship in mammoth proportions to u-turn your business value systems. However, it also got this one person, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of Paytm, out there in the open and his company is all set to be at the top in 2017.
It also reinforces my earlier point that many will regard it as a simple strategy –to identify great investments to start a digital wallet enterprise, much on the lines of Paytm business model. But in reality, the pain of demonetization calls for a "cash rethinking' through an innovative, sophisticated, multi-dimensional and vital technique and take advantage of the investments which will come around in that span of time.
There are people and there are trends. Behind both, there is a thought. And the reinvention of thought is what gets you to up your game. The final issue of 2016 celebrates both people and trends and the opportunities they create. We have looked at the choreography of new ways of thinking, and the unexplained magic of the intellect behind it.
