When banks were failing and bread lines forming during the Great Depression, cosmetic sales rose 25%. In 2008, as the global economy collapsed, Lego posted record profits. In 2020, as the pandemic shuttered industries, the pet sector grew 16%.
These industries weren’t selling products. They were selling joy. And in every moment of profound collective anxiety, that turned out to be the most recession-proof offering on the market.
Trend analysts have a name for what’s happening now, at scale and with new urgency: the Joyconomy. And for leaders who are still running their organizations on fear-based operating assumptions, it represents a more fundamental disruption than AI.