About this item
Ten years after his bestseller Microtrends, Mark Penn identifies the next wave of trends reshaping the future of business, culture, and politics.Mark Penn has boldly argued that the future is not shaped by society's broad, general forces but by quiet changes within narrow slices of the population. He showed ten years ago how the behavior of one small group can exert an outsized influence over the whole of America. His bestselling Microtrends highlighted dozens of small, counterintuitive trends that have since come to fruition, from the explosion of Internet dating to recent splits within the Republican Party. Today, microtrends are on steroids. The world is in perplexing upheaval, visible in the disruption of markets, elections, media, lifestyles, and systems of government. In this environment, the impact of microtrends is far greater than just ten years ago, and the fine grain of Penn's work is more necessary than ever. Microtrends Squared makes sense of what is happening in the world today, and it illuminates the shifts that will be coming in the next ten years. Across business, politics, and culture, Penn examines over fifty new microtrends. He pinpoints the unseen hand behind new power relationships that have emerged - as fringe voters and reactionary politics have found their revival, as online influencers overshadow traditional media, and as the gig economy continues to invade new swathes of the economy. He likewise speaks to the next wave of developments coming in technology, new products, social movements, and even dating. Offering a clear vision of the future of business, politics, and culture, Microtrends Squared is a must-read innovators and entrepreneurs, political and business leaders, and for every curious reader looking to understand the wave of the future when it is still just a ripple.
About the Author
Mark Penn is the worldwide CEO of the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller and president of the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates.
Penn has been called "The Master of the Message" by Time magazine and "The Guru of Small Things" by The New York Times. He is credited with inventing both the overnight poll, now standard in high-profile elections; and the "mall test" - a method of showing shoppers prospective ads and learning their reactions in real time.
Penn has helped to elect over 25 leaders in the United States, Asia, Latin America, and Europe in addition to serving as chief adviser to President Bill Clinton in the 1996 presidential election and to Hillary Rodham Clinton through her Senate and presidential races. Penn also serves as strategic consultant to top Fortune 500 companies, including Ford Motor Company, Merck, Verizon, BP, McDonald's and Microsoft, and has been a key adviser to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer since 1998. In 2000 and 2004, Penn was awarded the highest honor in his profession, the American Association of Political Consultants' "Pollster of the Year" Award.
In September 2007, he released a book with E. Kinney Zalesne titled Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller which points out the power of small, counterintuitive groups in politics, business, and social change.
Since the end of Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign, Penn has returned to steering Burson-Marsteller and to writing - authoring a 12-part series in Politico and a Microtrends column with E. Kinney Zalesne in the Wall Street Journal online.
