Group items tagged

1 - "Disciples of the Cloud": Businesses control all intellectual property and determine where and when work takes place. 2 - "Electronic Cottages": Businesses control all intellectual property, but workers are able to determine where, when and how they work. 3 - "Replicants": Businesses depend on specialist consultants, their expertise and intellectual property. Work is much less predictable and reliable, but workers are free to choose where, when and how much they work. 4 - "Mutual Worlds": Businesses operate as cooperatives of independent contractors. Intellectual property is controlled by workers, who focus on small local ventures, often connected to networks of similar ventures elsewhere to give scale."

There is a crisis of meaning in the world of business, especially for millenials.  They're asking the question, "Why am I doing this?"  And I think businesses are not providing great answers to those questions, and I think that's why you're getting more and more talented millenials picking a career that is non-business or quasi-business in part for foundation or some NGO.  And I think it's partially tied into this whole shareholder value maximization theory.

"The last year I presented TEFMIBO in Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology - PICMET 2012. This research shows a methodology for technology foresight in order to achieve better implementation and to overcome its problems. With Technological Foresight Model for the Identification of Business Opportunities, I intend to provide a tool to support managers and entrepreneurs to improve the decision making process that address the future of their business."

"Global Foresight Associates is a futures research and consulting firm that offers ideas and insights about the future to help our clients determine the strategic implications of change for their business and industry. Our uninhibited thinking offers a unique perspective - a big picture view of the future that explores the current trends and emerging issues reverberating throughout society and business. This view from the "outside in" helps clients innovate existing products, identify new areas and markets for growth and explore the possible, probable and preferable futures for their business."

As he approaches the end of his tenure as president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Björn Stigson says China is embracing the green economy and leaving the West behind

"Watch an exclusive interview with Rafael Ramirez, Director of the Oxford Scenarios Programme and Fellow in Strategy at the Saїd Business School and Green Templeton College, Oxford University. A world expert on scenario planning and a founder of theories on the aesthetics of business, work and organisation, Rafael Ramirez has worked in over 25 countries, spanning many corporations, governmental and inter-governmental organisations, trade union federations, NGO's and professional associations. As Director of the Oxford Scenarios Programme he leads one of the most highly respected programmes on the subject in the world."

Scenario Thinking for Small Business Survival with Professor George Cairns, RMIT University.Thursday, September 01, 2011 from 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM (GMT+1000)Melbourne, Australia

Title: Scenarios 2040Location: The Bell Tower on 34thLink out: Click hereDescription: More vivid and dynamic than forecasting or visioning, scenarios are stories based on rigorous research, analysis and community interviews that help us understand how the powerful driving forces that affect our world - and the choices we make right now - could affect our region's future decades from now. In 2009, the Center for Houston's Future embarked upon Scenarios 2040, the largest public-interest, business-led, regional scenario project in the country. The resulting scenarios will describe different future worlds we might face in the year 2040, and will be used to generate wide public discussion that will help individuals, organizations, business, and government identify their own options and responses to different future worlds. These scenarios will help us learn how to protect and nurture what we value, and achieve what we want to achieve - a healthy balance between competitiveness and sustainability. Start Time: 18:00Date: 2011-10-04

The making of an eco-city is more than just putting technology and ideals together; it requires a degree of practicality and should be able to be replicated elsewhere, said experts at the opening day of the International Green Building Conference (IGBC).

"Prof Castells suggests we may be about to see the emergence of a new kind of capitalism, with businesses growing out of the counter-cultures of the last 20 years. Here are some extracts from their conversation. "

What's Next is a trends report offering clear, concise and non-sensationalist commentary on trends in society, business, science & technology, government and the environment. Each issue covers trends across twelve sectors and speculates about future risks and opportunities.

"...the message from Star Simpson, who stopped by the Institute yesterday to talk about TacoCopter, her in-joke turned viral juggernaut. The idea behind TacoCopter is relatively simple, but irresistibly futuristic: order tacos from your smartphone, and your friendly neighborhood unmanned drone will deliver them to your exact GPS coordinates within minutes. Star created tacocopter.com in 2011 as a joke to a friend, then promptly moved on to other projects. It wasn't until March of 2012 that the popular blog Hacker News discovered her site, at which point every 21st century media outlet jumped onto the story of the business that would change restaurants forever. It didn't seem to matter whether TacoCopter was real or not - it was an idea whose time had come."

"Great expectations and a virtual world are among the megatrends changing the role of museums and arts organisations. The megatrends, identified by CSIRO trend analyst Stefan Hajkowicz, are a major shift in the cultural, economic, social, environmental and technological milieu that are expected to radically change the context of everything we do over the next 20 years. Some of the trends go to the very nature of why people come to museums, raising the possibility that museums, galleries and theatres could replace shops as the 'third place' where people congregate. Others will change the processes by which our organisations operate and the subjects on which we focus. Speaking at the Musuems Australia National Conference in Canberra on Shaping the Future of Museums, Dr Hajkowicz said while some changes were 'black swans' - phenomena never seen until a major change of environment - many were more like a 'kangaroo in the headlights', who sees the car coming but remains frozen. He gave the example of Eastman Kodak, which was involved in the development of the digital camera in 1975 but failed to change its business model from dependence on film and filed for bankruptcy in 2011."

" On November 11th 2013 researchers, innovators and creators will gather in Amsterdam for the co-working unconference LaFutura. The goal of this meeting is to map the business of trend research and future insights in order to create a framework for this new industry. The theme of this event is 'NOW NEW NEXT Building the future industry'. "

Our role is to build citizenship by awakening people to the value that social responsibility creates for us - individually, in our businesses, in our communities, in our countries and in the world. To build a solid foundation for the future, we have to find the balance between what we take and what we give. If we believe this, we must remain critical of our actions and choices.

"Car owners invest huge amounts of time and money into an asset they barely use. Cars are driven only 8% of the time, while potential drivers walk past block after block of underutilized cars. We are here to connect the dots... to help people get around. Getaround is a social car sharing service. We enable car owners to safely rent out their underutilized cars to a community of trusted drivers. People in need of a car can rent one by the hour using the Getaround website or iPhone app. Imagine a world with fewer cars, without traffic jams, and with less pollution. We are a team of successful entrepreneurs, hackers, and business people passionate about using mobile technology to create sustainable transportation solutions. We want to empower people to travel more efficiently and cause a shift from personal to shared transport. "

"Clients are provided with tailored advice and practical tools for starting, scaling or sustaining their initiatives. Consultancies can cover areas such as creative brain storming, 'asset-mapping' and brand clarification, through to exploration of appropriate legal and business structures - including social enterprise - and how to creatively market and fundraise on a shoestring budget. Where relevant, clients are steered towards free tools, sent customisable documents and introduced to relevant individuals within the consultant's network."

Forum for the Future is a non-profit organisation working globally with business and government to create a sustainable future. We have 15 years' experience inspiring new thinking, building creative partnerships and developing practical innovations to change our world. We aim to transform the critical systems that we all depend on, such as food, energy and finance, to make them fit for the challenges of the 21st century.

"It is much easier to engage with the World System Model through experience and interaction. The IFF World Game provides a way in which the players can engage with the complexity of the global problematique in a fun, non-threatening, interactive and highly creative way. The players may be groups in a business context, community groups, students or individuals seeking to broaden their capacities."

" Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, will lead a meeting in Oxford today of international business, government and other leaders to address the gridlock in international and national attempts to deal with key global problems. The meeting launches the Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations. The Commission seeks to address the growing short-term preoccupations of modern politics and identify ways to overcome today's impasse in key economic, climate, trade, security and other negotiations."