Daily Inspiration: “Every trend is both a threat and an opportunity. Disruptors recognize the former and minimize the latter!”

“Every trend is both a threat and an opportunity. Disruptors recognize the former and minimize the latter!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Word of mouth is critical in the business of insight.

In this case, the CEO of the National Automatic Merchandising Association CEO saw me speak at a retail event and told me she immediately determined that I should come in and headline one of their events — in this case, their annual Coffee, Tea & Water conference. The topic? Fast-changing consumer behavior, the rapid evolution of taste trends and brands, the impact of social media, intelligent packaging, the Internet of Things, and more! Here’s one of my ‘Daily Inspiration’ posts on this event from several years ago to give a bit of sense of my topic.

Trends? Fun fact – my DNA has me engineered for coffee! It’s true! And so I’ll often tell the story on stage that the organization didn’t just select me because of my content and global reputation, but because I’m wired for coffee!

But that in itself is a trend – from a healthcare perspective, the fact that one individual might have a different glycemic index for an apple from another person leads us down the path of DNA-profile specific food consumption and planning. I wrote an extensive trend post on that issue in my ’19 Trends for 2019′ series:

19 Trends for 2019: #8 – You Are What You Eat. Soon, You’ll Eat Who You Are

From that post, consider the scope of this particular trend:

When four industries come together to pursue a trend, you’ve got something big happening. And that’s what’s going on as healthcare, the food industry, the agricultural and technology industries come together to pursue one of the biggest trends of our time.

A hot trend? We are seeing the birth of an industry of customizable, programmable, AI based, real time food planning based on instant health assessment!

Yup, that’s a thing, and it’s going to be a big thing.

Increasingly, you’ll be eating food that aligns to your particular DNA, and based on real time body insight. It will be highly customized. As I state on stage, my glycemic index for an apple might be different from yours.

In 2018, I spoke at another food conference on tnhis trend – a conference dedicated to functional foods and more. In my pre-keynote video overview, I spoke about the significance of this trend.

Want to have some fun?

Watch the multi-billion dollar investments that major food, science, healthcare and tech companies are making within this new, fast exploding sector.

Here’s a hint – look up Nutrino. Go!

A trend – is it an opportunity or a threat?

You decide.