Most people would say to this… Well, that’s pretty obvious. I agree with that whole heartedly. Still, even if it is obvious, most of the time, we pay no attention to the meaning behind it and the repercussions it can engender in our lives. This is especially true when one deals with a topic as dynamic as the Future.

Let me give you examples of what I mean…

Did you know that Saudi Arabia granted citizenship to the first humanoid robot this week?

Did you know that a small asteroid or comet moving through our solar system may have come from elsewhere in the galaxy?

Did you know that according to scientists our universe shouldn’t exist?

We are already seeing rapid personal gene sequencing, photonics, robotic surgery, synthetic blood, bio-enhanced fuel, volumetric 3D screens, appliance robots, self-healing materials, tidal turbines, solar geoengineering, cyber-warfare, gesture recognition, near-field communication, speech recognition, pervasive video capture, flexible screens, organ printing, fuel cells, commercial spaceflight, natural language interpretation, mesh networking, augmented reality, biometrics sensors, smart toys, graphene, photonics, machine translation, machine vision, virtual currencies, biomarkers, self-driving vehicles, smart drugs, multi-segmented smart grids, sub-orbital spaceflight, personal fabricators, and standard desalination, just to name a few. Yet, ten years ago, none of these were more than the seed of an idea. Think back to Jules Verne and man going to the moon in 1865… This was conceived as a notion… And then it happened.

These are just a few of the changes we are witnessing in science, technology and innovation. What impact will these have on our way of life? How will these affect our businesses? What do they mean for us individually and on a socio-economic basis? Where will this lead our social evolution? How will these transform us? How do we adapt to them? These are questions we need to address to stay ahead of what is coming towards us, whether we are aware of it or not.

We have reached a phase in our evolution where every advance will be exponentially faster, and we will need to keep up, otherwise we will soon become obsolete. This is not just about us as humans, but also the impact these changes will have on our companies. Remaining fluid and adaptable to these new paradigms is essential not only for our own survival, but for companies which want to thrive in this new environment.

For instance, the future landscape of the workplace will be greatly impacted for both workers and organizations, changing the global marketplace forever. This evolution will trigger pain points in all sectors, globally. These need to be anticipated and thought through if companies want to succeed to become the leaders in their space, to not only maintain a relevance in the future but to drive profitable growth.
Dominique Luchart