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New business opportunities
Sustainable wellness
Executives struggle with
identifying growth
opportunities, particularly in the long-term. I have always looked at forecasting as entertainment but as long as one does not take them seriously, talk about the future can provide some pointers.
I recently come across some excellent analysis by Battelle and what they call as the "Future Consumer Value Zones." They define these as emerging value zones where changes (technological, demographic, new products, etc.) converge to create particularly rich opportunities for consumer value.
The first of of the three is called "sustainable wellness." For those of us who have monitored the high-value growth opportunities for materials companies, we know that they have discovered a huge growth opportunity in making life more enjoyable for us. If one looks at
personal care (particularly all natural and organic categories), the spa and
medispa businesses have exploded and personal care companies have launched a series of high-value products. We have also seen the tremendous growth in
biotech/pharma sector with a strong focus on diseases that do not affect as many people but have no cures.
But according to Battelle, sustainable wellness is more than
health
care. It involves sickness prevention as well as disease cures. Today the
health care industry equals more than 15 percent of the entire Gross Domestic Product of the U.S. The health fitness and maintenance market increases further the total spent on medical and pharmaceutical care to more than $2 trillion per year.
Battelle is forecasting that this will continue for at least another 20 years as the U.S. population ages.
Already plastic surgery is more commonplace as a way to preserve youth and the appearance of wellness. Just take a look at the
reality television dedicated to plastic surgery. Other sustainable wellness breakthroughs in the next 20 years could include genetically engineered organs for transplants, skin replacements, micro-surgery, highly targeted treatments for cancer, vaccinations for a broad spectrum of diseases, and nutritional regimens tailored for individual requirements.
And in my opinion, these growth opportunities are not just for the United States. Even companies in other parts of the world can create value as we are already seeing in
healthcare and pharma
research. Plus, medical
tourism is booming.
Questions,
comments, feedback, and suggestions
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