Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Today's Big Changes

Why the smallest groups have the biggest impact? In "Microtrends", Mark Penn, one of the most respected and sought-after analysts in the world, articulates a new way of understanding how we live. He reveals the real trends wielding large influence on society today and tomorrow. In every case these are small patterns of behaviour involving as little as one percent of the population, yet they can transform a business, tip an election, or spark a movement. These are the microtrends.

Relying on some of the best data available, Penn identifies more than 70 microtrends in religion, leisure, politics, and family life that are changing our lives. Among them are how people are retiring by continuing to work, why the most influential millionaires are the most shy, how the new geeks are the most sociable people around, and how even some of the most basic trends are being overlooked - like how women are driving technology and how Dads are older than ever and spending more time with the kids than in the past.

People have never been more sophisticated, more individualistic, or more knowledgeable about the choices they make in their daily lives, yet little is done to find the logical patterns that underlie their choices. Mark Penn believes that you have to look at and interpret the data to know what is going on, and that conventional wisdom is almost always wrong. In "Microtrends", he shows how we can all become better trendspotters. A groundbreaking book, "Microtrends" is an invaluable tool in the quest to better understand our world and a remarkable portrait of the 21st century, where the most important trends are the smallest ones.

Dubbed "the most powerful man in Washington you've never heard of" by the Washington Post, Mark J. Penn is the worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller. He was pollster to President Clinton in his successful 1996 re-election campaign, and has been an adviser to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, numerous corporations, and 25 foreign heads of state.

E. Kinney Zalesne has served as a White House Fellow, Counsel to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, and Executive Vice President and President of two national social-change organizations.