Urban Lifestyle Changes Create Unique Opportunities for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Says Expert

The urban lifestyle is changing, and the trends, products, and services adopted and favored by the young generation create unique opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation, according to Nimrod Kozlovski, partner at Israel-based law firm HFN and lecturer at Tel Aviv University. Kozlovski spoke Thursday at Calcalist’s WeTech Berlin 2020 conference, held in collaboration with Israel’s Bank Leumi Property Holdings PLC. It does not necessarily need to be technology-heavy or patent-protected entrepreneurship, he said.

According to World Bank data, 55% of the global population lives in an urban environment. That number is expected to reach two-thirds of the population within the next 15 years, Kozlovski said. With that change, urban life itself has changed, he said—the younger generation is more educated, but is expected to change jobs every two to three years and retrain several times throughout a career. Moreover, many spend more extended parts of their lives living alone or as part of alternative households. Many put less effort into saving money or collecting assets but instead focus on collecting experiences, he said.

Most importantly, the younger generation puts a more considerable emphasis than their predecessors on environmental impact and social causes such as inequality, lack of representation, and racial and gender discrimination, Kozlovski said. That affects both their choices of employment and their consumption.

Entrepreneurship can fit into all of that, Kozlovski said. If, for example, young people choose not to own cars but want to live in city centers and have a lower environmental impact, then creative ideas for better transportation are needed—such as bikes, scooters, and ridesharing. A preference for community aspects leads to residential units where amenities such as kitchens and living rooms are shared. The emergence of freelancers and small startups has led to a change in the way cities view business areas. The objective is multi-use for areas, Kozlovski said.