The cities and countries where we live are defined by the houses and apartments we inhabit, the products and services we buy and sell, and how we exchange them with others. What this means is that arguably the three most important industries are real estate, manufacturing, and trading. They not only serve our daily needs but also drive economic development and prosperity.
As we keep that in mind, let us look with more detail at current trends in these three areas.
Real Estate: Property Management Systems
If you are the proud owner of one or several houses or apartments and you want to rent them out, your best bet is to hire the services of a reputable agent with letting experience. This individual will not only help you find the best possible tenants for your properties but also guide you on best practices in the industry, including rent terms and conditions, duration of the contract, guarantees, deposits, and several others.
Having said that, we can now explore one of the most important trends currently in the real estate industry. In case you haven’t guessed it, we are talking about property management systems.
Over the past half-decade or so, few areas in real estate have seen as rapid a level of growth as Airbnb and other online lodging marketplaces. Along with many other things such as a significant decrease in revenue for traditional hotels, what this has done is created an entirely new market for property managers.
In this day and age, you don’t need to own a house to make a living in rentals. Instead, if you have the right experience and background, you can work for a list of property owners, managing the daily ins and outs of the residences they have in the market.
Manufacturing: Automation and Remote Maintenance
On December 1st, 1913, American entrepreneur Henry Ford installed the first-ever moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire car. The result of his invention was a substantial reduction in the time it took to build a commercial vehicle, from around 12 hours to a little over 90 minutes. It also marked the birth of the automobile revolution and the first clear example of automation. Since then, machines have been able to perform tasks much faster, more efficiently, and with better results than their human counterparts.
Almost a quarter into the 21st century, the Ford Assembly Line is a relic, an ode to an ancient time. If one were to visit a modern production facility owned by a multinational corporation, one would find all kinds of machines and robots doing all kinds of things. Some of the most common examples include manufacturing and assembly, quality control, and even self-maintenance.
And it doesn’t stop there. Today, an engineer working for a car company in Berlin, Germany, Detroit, USA, or Tokyo, Japan doesn’t have to pay routine visits to a plant in China, Brazil, or India. Rather, he can simply stay in his apartment and, as long as he has a stable internet connection, properly manage all systems in different facilities at the same time.
Trading: A Multiplayer Environment
Glencore, Sumitomo Corporation, Cargill Inc, and Marubeni Corporation are the four largest trading companies in the world. One of them is Swiss, and one is American. The other two are Japanese. Each one of them holds at least 58 billion dollars in total assets.
Oftentimes, most people associate trading corporations with enormous companies having branches in all corners of the world. They think of firms trading a wide variety of products, from cars to food, toiletries, steel, crude oil and other metals and minerals, and everything in between. While this is certainly true, technological development has leveled the playing field, allowing medium-sized, small, and even microscopic, single-employee players to join the industry and get a piece of the pie.
You don’t have to work in an enterprise with a bottomless pit of financial resources to be successful. You also don’t need an office, a transportation vessel for containers, or packaging facilities. All that is required from you is a great idea for a product or service, a high-quality website with transactional capabilities, a Zoom account to hold meetings with existing and potential customers, and a lot of hard work. If you are willing to do that, you too can succeed.
Important trends in three of the biggest industries are property management systems in real estate, the automation revolution and remote maintenance capabilities in manufacturing, and a global trading area fit for all types of players. As human beings continue to innovate and technology makes things easier, faster, and more inclusive for everyone, they are sure to continue for the years to come.
