Mark Penn on the Macro Power of Microtrends

Eleven years ago, Mark Penn, a pollster and adviser to President Clinton from 1995 to 2000, wrote a book showing how seemingly minor developments often exert outsized influence on society. It was called “Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes.” 

Today, Penn is a managing partner of the Stagwell Group, a private equity firm specializing in marketing services companies, and chairman of the Harris Poll. In the aftermath of Donald Trump's razor-thin election victory, and a number of technological innovations changing U.S. society, Penn revisited his earlier work. The sequel is “Microtrends Squared: The New Small Forces Driving the Big Disruptions Today.”