Mark Esposito on “Understanding How the Future Unfolds”

Understanding How the Future Unfolds is the attempt that we have with my co-author Terence to study these large-scale trajectories that are unfolding as we speak. We study some of the trajectories that we think will be more likely to develop in the next few years. So by looking at this trajectory, we see how the future will look like, and we're hoping that by understanding how the future unfolds, we can empower decision makers or policy makers to take action that will either contrast the trajectory, if this is sort of like a trend we don't like to see, or to actually work with the trend because it will basically create synergies. The way in which we organize this trajectory was in D-R-I-V-E, which stands for DRIVE, and it's demographic, demographic changes, resource scarcity, inequalities, volatility, scale and complexities, and enterprise dynamics. And that's pretty much the overview of how the book works. So I think companies should have a system in place to determine which megatrends are relevant to their business and how do they integrate the learnings from the megatrends into a proxy system, some few GPS systems that allow them to identify that there is relevance, that we would like to talk more about this, we would like to integrate into our next strategic board meetings, and then take it into an action side. So how do we create action experiments, pilots, that really allow us to test if the assumption or the hypothesis that is emerging from the megatrends can be actually turned into a business opportunity or a business challenge. I think technology has the power to disrupt us, and this is something we need to be aware of, but technology can also be a great enhancer and a great empowerment. So if we think about technology as a way to maximize human well-being, we shouldn't be afraid. If we're thinking that technology is something that will replace us, then we should not let it happen in the first place.