Trendspotter

Why?

The Trendspotter helps the students generate new ideas to the problem, based on broader, societal perspectives. Societal forces or market forces will often create new opportunities for innovation as they create disequilibrium in the market. This makes it especially valuable to consider them during idea generation.

How?

The teacher asks the students to brainstorm on ten key trends in society and write these down on a sheet of paper (e.g. demographic, political, technological or environmental trends or changes). Inspired by this list, the students are now challenged to generate new ideas by combining these trends with the problem: for example, ‘How can we combine the sustainability movement with the problem in order create a new solution?’ or ‘In the light of a fast-growing Asian economy, how can we address the problem at hand?’

Tips

The students can also use the method in order to define the current problem: for example, the ageing population is a demographic change that needs urgent solutions.

In order to stimulate the process, the teacher presents the students with various inputs from, for example, newspapers, scientific journals, reports, or a presentation.

Literature

Shane, S. (2003) A General Theory of Entrepreneurship: The Individual-Opportunity Nexus. Edward Elgar Schumpeter, J. 1934. The Theory of Economic Development. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.