CF Kettering was an American inventor and entrepreneur, head of research at GM for 27 years and the inventor of the electrical start engine, to name one of his many achievements.
My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there. CF Kettering
Kettering’s approach is interesting but completely reversed to Einstein’s. Einstein said that he never thought of the future, since “it comes soon enough”.
A researcher might be able to live by that tactic, but never a business executive or organizational leader. To them, understanding the fundamental and transformative megatrends is crucial to success, and history is littered with examples of companies that failed to spot or respond to the tsunamis from the future.
Part of our business is about spotting and unfolding the consequences of emerging forces and megatrends. Megatrends often evolve like a slow tide, so slow that it sometimes even is hard to detect, although it might lead to disruptive consequences. Seemingly sudden it might grow to a tsunami by integrating similar phenomena and trends, and completely destroy industries and business models, or overturn political leaders.
Therefore, we constantly keep track of the most important economic, social, demographic, geo-political and technological forces and trends and on a regular basis update our megatrend “motherboard”. We also summarize our findings in reports, books and presentations. Together with individual clients and as part of more comprehensive multi-client studies we regularly dive into specific trends and topics to make a more complete exploration of the trend and its potential trajectory and consequences.
The question is: Have you got a full understanding of the megatrends that will set the scene for your business in 1, 3, 5 or 10 years from now?
Did you know that the turnings are the trends hardest to detect and comprehend?