Free Essay: Opportunities and Threats of Social Trends to Business in High Tech Industry

The high-tech industry is a sector that requires cutting-edge technologies. Companies in high tech industries depend on highly advanced technology that is not readily available to the rest of the public. Examples of high tech industries include autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, robotics, computer manufacturing, telecommunication, and aerospace industry. There are also social trends that influence these companies' mode of doing business. Social trends refer to the shifts in human behavior. Examples of social trends include immigration, increased use of smartphones and preference for green technology. Social trends present both opportunities and threats to businesses in the high-tech industry by influencing the demographics, and preferences.

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Demographics is a broad term that covers several aspects of the population such as migration trends, the population age, and even the wealth distribution. One of the social trends in the demographics that will influence businesses in the high tech industry is rural to urban migration. According to a report by the United Nations (2016), 54.5 percent of the world's population currently live in cities, but that number is expected to rise to an all-time high of 60 percent by 2030. That shift in social trend is an opportunity for high tech companies to source experienced labor force. As more people move to cities, they increase the availability of labor which will prove useful for the high tech companies. On the downside, such a social trend presents a challenge to high tech companies in the energy sector. As more people move to urban areas, there is an increased strain on the power grids of the urban areas. Energy companies will continuously have to upgrade their grid lines to handle the increased energy capacity because of the increased demand for electricity. Car manufacturers also have to build smarter and easier to drive cars that can move around in congested cities without collision. At the same time, car companies are also under the threat of being less relevant due to the adoption of public transport systems such as metro systems that are faster, and cheaper.

Social trends could affect the high tech industry through preferences. One preference, in particular, is the going green movement. As the push for climate change regulations intensifies, the general populous is adopting the 'zero concepts' (Singh, 2014). The zero concept refers to products and services that have zero carbon emissions. The people will prefer cars with zero emissions, cities and buildings that are carbon neutral and transportation means that have zero accidents and zero fatalities. For high tech companies, the challenge will be achieving the zero carbon emissions. Companies that rely on the traditional sources of energy such as oil will be under the threat of going out of business unless they innovate. A good example is a company that manufactures drilling equipment for oil companies. As people's preferences move towards green products, companies will start adopting green renewable sources of energy. Such shifts will leave oil companies with nowhere to sell their oil. The oil companies will have to adopt renewable sources of energy or move out of business, and the same trend will carry forward to the drilling equipment manufactures. Despite the threat, a shift in people's preferences presents a good opportunity for high tech companies to innovate. Renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind power are cheaper, therefore, lowering the cost of production, especially for tech companies. It also provides an opportunity for high tech companies to venture into other fields such as manufacturing wind turbines instead of oil drilling equipment.

References

Singh, S. (2014, May 12). The 10 Social And Tech Trends That Could Shape The Next Decade. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarwantsingh/2014/05/12/the-top-10-mega-trends-of-the-decade/#6dee259aa62c

United Nations. (2016). The World's Cities in 2016. New York: United Nations.