Blog #2 4 Global Forces breaking all the trends

The article titled The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends (by Richard Hobbs, James Manyika and Jonathan Woetzel) is a short article but very interesting. Even the article was published in 2015 but it doesnot seem to be out of date in 2018. While I was reading the article I would like to ask a few questions to help me learn more about strategy development in general.

First,  What are the new global forces that this article didnot or was not able to cover in 2015? Is it possible that some of  the most significant world economy and political changes are shaping the the world economy's operating system today but was not included in the authors article?

I think the article did a good job covering a few very important global forces but it might fail to locate more specific details. For example, the second force mentioned the accelerating technological changes. Several examples were mentioned but mostly as a general concept of "internet". However, I would like looking back after a few years, we would be able to see AI (artificial intelligence/machine learning etc) will be playing very important role in the present and in the future. Any companies/organize wish to grow should not ignore this force.

Second,  I would also like to mention the first factor which the authors identify as "the age of urbanization" . I think the concept is misleading here. It seems what the authors really meant to say is the "emergency markets" such as Asia (China) and other new growing markets in the world.

China is playing very important roles in terms of its huge economic size and fast growing economy. China has been experience very rapid economic growth since 1990s. All the major companies in the world could not ignore the Chinese market.  Many of them set up their factories, companies, campus in China.  While the article mentioned Shanghai, but the scale of the change has been way more than just Shanghai but the whole China.

Third,  I like the article mentioned the aging population.The world population is getting old and people are living longer.  This population trend provides both challenges and opportunities. I know some companies are investing new project for old people's community/neighborhood. I know life scientist are developing new technology to improve old people' health and the quality of life... Some companies are moving fast to catch this trend and grasp the new opportunities this might provide for them.

Overall, I think this is an very interesting read. It is great that we keep these global forces in mind when we continue to study some companies's strategy issues.