Looking Ahead with Resolution

It was interesting reading over the past month or so, the many pronouncements and assessments about the past year, actually the past decade.

As usually happens, it’s only when one looks back, reconsidering all of the events and milestones of the first 10 years of the 21st century, that you can realize that the changes we’ve seen are really a series of individual things, comings, goings, major and minor developments that bring us to the place where we are now.

That’s why this New Year seems to be accompanied by an unusually widespread sense of resolution: to modify, clear, revisit, rethink so many aspects of life and, yes, business.

Technology, to me, and the pace of it, is one of the most momentous components of this change, since it affects so much and so many of us in things commercial and societal. When our editorial team here at Vision Monday met to talk about which 10 trends were emerging to offer growth opportunities to optical retailers and eyecare professionals, the common thread among them was technology as a catalyst and solution to coping with change.

The other essential thing underlying many of them was the new mindset of the consumer, an attitude change which has evolved over the course of a bumpy 18 months of tough economic news and the impact of all that technology and media, which is creating new information resources, information sharing and outlook shifts toward products, services and those who deliver them.

We hope you gain something from these insights. And if you have your own to share, please email us or visit us on Facebook. Here’s to a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year for all. ■