Identifying Opportunities in Economic&Regulatory Trends

1Economic Trends: The Thai Baht Reached a New 6-Year High

·       Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-25/the-thai-baht-reached-a-new-6-year-high-here-s-why-it-s-surging

·       I believe that this means there is an opportunity exists here for Thai importer and those who need to buy inventories from overseas because they can lower the costs when buying merchandise from the overseas brand because the Thai Baht has becoming more stronger (we use less Thai Baht to purchase the Us dollars or the Euro). Consequently, we can enjoy the higher profit margin if we remain the price or we can give some rental discount to attract customers but still be profitable.

·       The prototype customers are actually those who are more price elastic such as university students and young adults. They could be easily attracted by the discount rental fees (in case they give promotional discount or lowering product price)

·       I would say that this is an easy opportunity to exploit but only in a short term because the baht could one day be weaker, and the exchange rate is very hard to predict as it depends on several macro factors. We can surely enjoy this economic trend in a certain period; however, in the long run, there are more to focus such as the marketing campaign and good customer services in order to attract customers.

·       The reason I see this opportunity is because I have an investment background as I always purchase stocks and the key principle is to “Buy low, Sell high.” This basically could be applied the decision making in the import sector: when is the right timing to buy the inventory.

2Economic Trends: The oil prices were low throughout 2019 and would remain in the near future.

·      Source: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/The-Real-Reason-Oil-Prices-Remained-Low-In-2019.html

·       I believe that this means there is an opportunity exists here for nearly every business except for the oil related industry. The transportation costs play an important role in today’s business especially for online and ecommerce business. This means that the costs of operation will be lower.

·       The prototype customers could be nearly every people who has to commute, travel, buying some goods because oil is a macroeconomic factor that will affect the industry as a whole. A clear example is an airline industry that their operating margin has spiked during the past few years.

·       I would also say that this is the same case as above because oil prices are very cyclical, which could be benefit in a certain amount of period: could be a year or two.

·       The reason I see this opportunity is because oil prices have an effect on the world’s holistically especially for some business that use oil for operating services/products.

3Regulatory Changes: Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)

·      Source: https://www.mcguirewoods.com/client-resources/Alerts/2019/2/expect-environmental-regulation-2019

·      I believe there is an opportunity here because a lot of business and organization nowadays plays an important role to be a good leader of society on climate change. A lot of firms have doing CSR activities about environmental issues-Starbucks no longer use plastic straw. With this trend, firm can adopt this regulation as a part of their company mission to make stakeholders happy and do good things to the society.

·      The prototypical customers are those who have concern about environmental problems and support company that doing green business such as fewer chemical substances and clean energy.

·      I think this is could be hard to exploit for some companies since they might have to restructure their operating systems to reduce toxic substances. This might require costs to hire engineers, for example.

·      I found this interesting because customers demand more than good products and services. They like firms that do good thing to the society. Some conglomerate firms can be more powerful than some government agency.

4Regulatory Changes: More than 40 U.S. states could allow marijuana by the end of 2020.

·      Source : https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/20/marijuana-legalization-federal-laws-100688

·      I believe there is an opportunity here because, apart from enjoyment, marijuana can be used has treatments for illness which already have scientific proven. Thus, legalizing marijuana could lead to a new business development in that area, creating new products related to marijuana.

·      The prototype customers are those who want marijuana for enjoyable or health treatments.

·      I think this could be easy to exploit and there are not many competitors if someone want to start a business about marijuana; however, there are still laws and regulations about the use of marijuana.

·      I found this interesting because this could bring a positive change to the society if we use them correctly and within appropriate limit. Everything is good if it is in balance.