What If We Hunted For Bulls

 

What If We Hunted For Bulls?

July 24, 2013

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After a prolonged winter, here in Paris we’ve been experiencing a heat wave. Meanwhile, it seems like the heat is on in world news: we have been assaulted with articles about cities falling into insolvency and the continuing Euro Zone crisis. It can be hard to stay positive, especially in a country like my native France where we are the most discontent people in Europe. However, I believe in optimism. I think it’s not just good for morale, but good for business. Despite stifling heat and global unrest, I was recently reminded of that Wall Street axiom: “There is a bull market for everything.” Below are three cases that I have found particularly inspiring.

Market Gaps

New ways to entertain

This past decade has been heralded as the new era for “premium television”. Suddenly the TV went from being scorned by the intelligentsia to being adopted by them, who today eagerly watch series like “Breaking Bad”, “Mad Men”, and “Game of Thrones.” Of course, now it’s no longer television that’s getting in on the act of entertaining the masses through serialized entertainment. Netflix, which was once a way to order DVDs by the postal service, has been creating high-quality content. From series such as House of Cards and Arrested Development Season 4 Netflix has been finding innovative ways to entertain their users. Now, Netflix is garnering Emmy nominations alongside major networks.
Ten years ago, cable networks were disrupting the entertainment industry, now it has moved to websites. Watch this space.

Family Businesses
The family-run business is getting shaken up, in part because of an economy that is laying off older workers and has few openings for young graduates. According to a recent New York Times article, family-run franchises are a growing trend for parents and children in need of employment but not fully fledged to start off their own start-up. While opening a restaurant franchise with your dad might not be every grad’s dream, this is an interesting solution between self-employment and structure. What’s more, it’s an interesting way to keep business in the family.
Of course, these three examples are just that: examples. What’s most important, I think is the ability to continue to take risks intelligently and to learn from one’s failures. The past decade has shown that we live in a world going through more and more changes. Resilience is perhaps the thing that we need most in an uncertain time.
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