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Last month, Kedge had the honor of partnering with branding firm, Picnic, to host The Future of Brands event in Madrid, Spain. Marketing professionals, brand executives and creatives from across multiple industries joined us for two days of thought-provoking foresight imagining the future worlds that brands will need to prepare for. The topic is timely as most organizations we partner with share that maintaining relevancy is leadership’s top concern.

An abundance of questions surrounds the future of AI. Is it a threat or opportunity? Will it destroy or enhance humanity? How will it affect politics, laws, jobs, health, transportation, business and other facets of our lives? Will our AI future bear more resemblance to a utopian unfolding of The Jetsons or develop into the dark, dystopia displayed in The Terminator? AI technology promises to alter every industry and field as it transforms our individual lives – and even possibly…

Most of us cannot fathom the profound changes that are at our doorstep. Following are just some of the disruptions that will transform the nature of innovation and breakthroughs in today’s organizations.

Have you ever read an action-thriller novel or watched a mystery movie that kept you on the edge of your seat, only to learn near the end of the story that things are not what they seemed? This famous literary technique known as the “plot twist” jolts an audience’s perception, introduces a surprising conflict, or radically alters the context of the story in order to produce an unexpected outcome.

In 2018 Central Florida launched an ambitious plan to reconceptualize economic development through participatory foresight. Kedge had the privilege of partnering with the region’s local economic development organization, The Orlando Economic Partnership (the Partnership), to advance its mission for broad-based prosperity using foresight. The project launched with an immersion phase (including targeted interviews, a survey and extensive trend research).

We are no stranger to the question, “Do you have a case study about X foresight work you conducted with X organization?” While over the years we’ve had a variety of briefs detailing transformation in strategy, city development, innovation, change, and culture via our foresight toolkit, we did not have a start-to-finish case study in writing. 2019 is the year that changes!

Excuse me, have we met? Weren’t you the one questioning leadership at the last company town hall? The so-called “squeaky wheel” that’s forever pushing back on the status quo? The person that the organization has learned to avoid, undermine or even silence? Oh, yeah, we definitely know you, and we feel your pain.

The first two decades of the 21st Century have proven to be a time of radical change and transformation for humanity. Healthcare has made incredible leaps in eradicating age-old diseases through bioengineering and genome editing. Global economic development has lifted unprecedented numbers of people out of poverty. Clean energy solutions are reducing our carbon footprint and arming us in the fight against global warming.

Over the past several years, many organizations have told us that they see the long-term value of foresight and futures thinking, but are unsure of how to translate that skill set into immediate action and outcomes. This is where I inform them of the ultimate value of foresight: it’s ability to create the future today. This can mean introducing brand new ideas, strategies and innovations for the organization to implement, as well as ways in which the present strategies and…

Many business professionals are not aware that the secret to success in today’s fast-paced environment is having a better understanding of the future. However, that’s exactly what former Walt Disney International VP of Human Resources Richard Ramsey learned when being tasked with leading the WDI Global Futures Team for six years.