Growth is shifting, innovation is relentless, disruption is accelerating, expectations are high, and social tensions are rising. Making sense, and making use, of these dramatic forces of change will help you to make better strategic choices, shape markets to your advantage, and create a brighter future.

The “megatrends” may not surprise you, the question is how will they influence your future – both as challenge, and opportunity – and how, within your strategies and innovations, will you embrace the most significant forces of change?

I spent some time comparing the many different approaches to tracking and articulating these patterns of change, to find out which trends are the most common, and the most significant.

Isn’t it obvious? Technology is shaping everything? Yes, but its the implications of that, which matter.

Trends guide your future choices. It’s the oldest adage in investing, and it applies to projecting future business performance too. McKinsey’s recent analysis shows that riding the right waves of change, created by industry and geographic trends, is the most important contributor to business results … a company benefiting from such tailwinds is 4-8 times more likely to rise to the top of future performers.

Sci-fi author William Gibson is often quoted saying “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet”. That’s partly true. Add, the view of American computer scientist Alan Kay who says  “the best way to predict the future is to invent it”.

The real question therefore is how will you use megatrends to help understand the possibilities, and then how can you shape your future, in the way you’d like it to emerge?

So what is a “megatrend“? Trends are an emerging pattern of change likely to impact how we live and work. Megatrends are large, social, economic, political, environmental or technological change that are slow to form, but once in place can influence a wide range of activities, processes and perceptions, possibly for decades. They are the underlying forces that drive change in global markets, and our everyday lives.

There are many different sources of “megatrends” … here are just a few … but its how you interpret them, apply them to your current and future business strategies, and the posture you take in shaping them, that determines your impact:

Of course megatrends can sound like hype and hyperbole. Particularly when promoted by individual companies or consulting firms to promote their services. But megatrends are also valuable, insightful, critical signposts to the future.

Here are some of the most interesting recent reports, all exploring megatrends:

I developed a more detailed analysis of the 5 most significant megatrends shaping our world towards 2030. Since I started working on this in 2020, what has changed?

A pandemic has certainly shaken up our world. Healthcare and wellbeing came to the fore of consumer agendas. Add new conflicts, and their consequences economically, politically and logistically –  regionalisation or global fragmentation has become obvious, enhancing a trend towards nationalism – and then rising inflation, oil prices and stagnant growth have further challenged our norms.

Much of the 5 megatrends below, however, are still relevant, and perhaps accelerated by the most recent change:

Megatrend 1: Shifting economic power

Population growth is at the heart of the shift in economic power. The influence of emerging and developing economies will mean huge changes for business, society and the way we invest.

1. Emerging economies are now the growth markets

In less than a generation, developing economies have gone from being producers of goods for developed countries, to becoming an important destination for consumer goods and services in their own right. They now account for nearly 80 percent of global economic growth, and 85 percent of growth in global consumption – more than double their share in the 1990s.

2. China will be the new global superpower

Two centuries ago Napoléon Bonaparte said, “China is a sleeping giant… when she wakes, she will move the world.” How right he was. Only 15 years ago, China’s economy was one tenth the size of the US economy. If it continues to grow as predicted, it will be bigger than the US economy by the late 2020s.

As a result, China expects to have 200 cities with a population of over one million people by 2025. To tackle overcrowding in Beijing, China is building a new city – Xiongan New Area – from scratch 100km southwest of the capital. Initially it will be double the size of Manhattan and is expected to become twice the size of New York and Singapore.

3. Global demographics will change

In 2016, Asia’s population was estimated at 4.4 billion, having quadrupled in size during the 20th century. It is now forecast to grow to over 5 billion people by 2050. Asia benefits from a wealth of resources, and has an ecological variety which makes it well-placed to support this growth. As a result, we can expect to see further economic growth across this region.

Implications

1. Power shift from west to east

Despite some challenges for the Chinese economy driven by debt levels and property market valuations, the potential long term growth of the Chinese economy relative to the US and Europe looks likely. China is already on a path to replace the US as the world’s leading superpower. When it does, political agendas, global trade and the sphere of influence are likely to shift towards Beijing from Washington.

2. Chinese business growth is relentless

China now boasts at least 100 unicorns (private companies with a $1 billion valuation), and by the end of 2019 it is forecast to be the largest user of the international patent system. It currently lies in second behind the U.S. An impressive six million enterprises were registered in China last year, up from 2.5m in 2013. The fastest growing sectors included science and technology, entertainment, sport and finance, whilst the number of mining, electricity and gas companies showed a slight decline.

3. Time to learn from the east, again

The best ideas, the best partners, the best practices are increasingly from the east rather than the west. American institutions and corporate leadership is declining. Look at the number of Indian CEOs in Silicon Valley. The continuing liberalisation of the Chinese economy means the assumption that the world speaks English will likely become a thing of the past.

Megatrend 2: Resource scarcity

The impact of global warming is all around us. Rising temperatures could eventually have a significant impact on crop yields, causing food prices to surge, which in turn could impact poorer communities. At the same time, coastal areas will be increasingly susceptible to regular flooding as sea levels rise.

1. Increased strain on the planet’s resources

The global population is expanding rapidly and becoming increasingly prosperous. This is leading to significant demand for energy, water and food, which is putting a strain on the traditional, finite resources of the planet. According to The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the global population will surpass 9.1 billion by 2050, at which point they predict the world’s agricultural systems will not be able to supply enough food for everyone. And the UN projects that the global demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 40% in 2030, with some cities, like Cape Town, already suffering from ‘water stress’.

2. Increasing carbon emissions drive global warming

The average surface temperature of the planet has been on an upward path since the late 19th century and this trend looks set to continue. The burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of global warming. Carbon dioxide and other gases are released and trapped within the atmosphere, which in turn means heat can’t escape. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have rocketed since the time of the industrial revolution and show no sign of abating.

The graph shows CO2 levels during the last three glacial cycles:

Average temperatures are forecast to rise by more than two degrees before 2100, creating significant and irreversible damage and increasing strain on global resources. A study by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC)  estimates that this two-degree threshold could be reached as early as 2036.

Implications

1. More produce, less inputs

In order to meet the increased food demands of the future, the agricultural industry will need to continue to innovate to become more productive with less resources and inputs. Technology is playing a key role via the rising adoption of precision agriculture. Precision variable rate technologies such as one that can detect weeds with sensors and spot sprays could slash herbicide usage by up to 95%. McKinsey says that with a 20-40% adoption rate for precision, agriculture yields could be boosted by 10-15% globally by 2025.

2. Shift from oil to clean energy

Sustainable energy sources are increasing in importance as the rhetoric condemning fossil fuels continues and changes in commodity consumption occur. But change is also about using energy more efficiently in everything we do.

3. Decline of carbon-based mobility

As tariffs are placed on internal combustion engine vehicles, experts predict that by 2040 we will all be driving electric vehicles.11 And while the idea of driverless cars still feels like science fiction, the UK Government has set a target of having the first autonomous cars on the road by 2021, with companies such as Daimler planning ‘full production of autonomous vehicles by the early 2020s’.

Megatrend 3: Technological breakthrough

“We’re in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution, which will become known as the digital revolution.” says Klaus Schwab. The rapid advancement of technology, especially that of artificial intelligence and machine learning, is arguably at the centre of all megatrends.

1. The pace of change is exponential, not linear

The extent and pace of technological change is likely to have wide-reaching implications across almost all industries. People may be replaced with machines, and machines, robotics and AI may learn faster than humans. Think about linear growth compared to exponential growth – its impact multiplies at every year.

2. Data is the new oil

Data is the key enabler of this fourth industrial revolution. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine how powerful it could become. Jack Ma, the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba, likens data to the discovery of electricity. He said, “The world is going to be data. I think this is just the beginning of the data period.” The total amount of global data is expected to increase tenfold by 2025, the majority of which will be created and managed by business.

3. Automation of humanity

60% of all occupations could see at least 30% of their component activities automated. Many repetitive jobs can already be done by a machine, but with the rise of Artificial Intelligence, human expertise can now be learned and mastered by a system. Yes, this means that certain jobs will be replaced by machines, but it also means that the potential for new and emerging industries and opportunities is greater than ever before.

Implications

1. IOT drives connected living

By the year 2020, our world will be even more connected to the internet. Our cars, coffee machines, fridges and central heating will all be controlled from our tablets and smartphones. To put this into context, Gartner estimates that in 2014 there were 7 billion ‘things’ connected by the internet. By 2020, that will rise to 26 billion.

2. Improved standards of living through robotics and AI

As robots and artificial intelligence take on more jobs, costs should decrease, and more people will be able to afford better products. At the same time, dramatic improvements could be made to infrastructure, and transport costs might plummet.

3. Healthcare improvements

People will live longer and better lives, as healthcare technology improves patient outcomes and eradicates certain diseases. This will mitigate some of the issues of long-term care we discussed in the previous chapter.

Megatrend 4: Social change

There are already more over-65s in Asia than there are people in USA. By 2042 there will be more over-65s in Asia than the populations of the Eurozone and North America combined. Changes in global demographics (world population, density, ethnicity, education level and other aspects of the human population) will bring about significant social change, and therefore challenges and opportunities, for both government and business.

This megatrend underpins other structural shifts, such as technological development and shifting economic power. While the changes will vary by region, they will have a profound effect on local and global markets and societies.
1. Population continues to grow

According to the UN, the global population is forecast to increase by over 1 billion by 2030, with most of this growth coming from the emerging markets. By 2050, the UN estimates that 80% of the global population over the age of 60 will be in countries that are currently deemed to be ‘less developed’.

2. More old people across the world

In Japan 30% of the population is over the age of 60. Today in China, 29 million over 80 years old; by 2050, there will be 120 million. The UN’s latest demographics report forecasts that, by 2050, this will be the case in 55 countries. People will be living longer in retirement, which will result in the need for large-scale changes in government policy. This will also create a strain on healthcare services and providers, with many nations enforcing laws to ensure the elderly are properly cared for.

4. Fewer children

We’re having fewer children – particularly in wealthier and educated sections of society. This potentially has far-reaching consequences for business, including lower productivity, less labour-force participation, and less investment growth. Younger generations will be increasingly burdened with the expectation of looking after the elderly, which in turn could further reduce productivity.

Implications

1. Healthcare spending

In the US alone, healthcare spending is set to rise by 8% of GDP each year between now and 2040. That’s around $3,400 billion every year. According to analysis by the World Economic Forum, the retirement savings gap across eight major economies is growing by $28 billion every 24 hours and could reach $400 trillion by 2050 – around five times the size of the global economy today. There will be a renewed focus on saving for retirement and finding effective ways of drawing an income when people retire. As a result, there could be a greater need for financial help, and the rise of robo-advice solutions.

2. Robots will become our best friends

As populations age, it becomes increasingly likely that businesses will use technology to plug the shortfall in labour supply. Robots are more productive (they don’t sleep, get sick or need performance reviews, although they may have technical problems). As a result, there will be a greater need for skilled jobs such as data scientists.

3. Consumer preferences are changing the food industry

Consumers are increasingly focussed on what they eat, how they are eating it and how it is produced; creating significant changes in the food supply chain. For instance, organic foods sales in the US has risen 224% from 2005 to 2016. Fresh food is being preferred over processed foods and products with specific health related benefits, such as avocadoes and berries, have seen outsized growth. Consumers want their food to be more convenient, resulting in more online delivery, meal-kit solutions and convenient snacking options at supermarkets.

Megatrend 5: Rapid Urbanisation

More than half of the world’s population now lives in towns and cities, and by 2030 this number will swell to about 5 billion. Much of this urbanization will unfold in Africa and Asia, bringing huge social, economic and environmental transformations.

In 1990 there were only 10 cities in the world with a  population exceeding 10 million – the so-called ‘megacities’.  Today the number of worldwide megacities has nearly tripled to 28. Populations are increasingly concentrating themselves in cities and large urban areas. This will further drive technological advancement and impact climate change, having its own influence on other megatrends.

These large-scale shifts in population lead to both opportunities and challenges for society. The requirements of future urban populations will be remarkably different to the cities of today, with citizens demanding connectivity to everything – every device, every entity and every object. Wireless connectivity will be paramount to improving quality of life in cities.

1. Migration to the cities

Globally, more people live in urban than rural areas, and as the graph below shows, that trend looks set to continue. In 1950, 30% of the world’s population lived in urban areas, and that’s forecast to increase to 66% by 2050.2

Urban and rural population of the world, 1950-2050
2. Life is better in the cities

In the US, the patient-to-primary care physician ratio in rural areas is 39.8 physicians per 100,000 people, compared with 53.3 physicians per 100,000 in urban areas. This uneven distribution of physicians has proven to have an impact on the health of the population. With better healthcare outcomes likely, urban populations consequently grow faster than rural populations organically (without migration) as people are motivated to migrate towards them.

At the same time, urban areas tend to have better employment opportunities, better education and better access to social and cultural activities. This makes them more attractive places to live and makes it easier for businesses to flourish. In China, for example, the urban per capita income is more than double the rural figure.

Implications

1. Smart cities, new infrastructure

Cities will emerge, driven by modern urban populations that embrace technology to improve the efficiency of infrastructure and services. Mass migration will mean the need for new infrastructure and services. Transport infrastructure and networks will require upgrades due to the dominance of autonomous vehicles and the greater concentration of people.

2. Healthcare and security

As population density grows to unprecedented levels, existing healthcare systems will need to be radically overhauled to deal with this influx. Traditional hospitals will come under significant strain if they do not utilise new technologies available to them. With higher crime rates in cities than rural areas, governments will employ elevated levels of surveillance on citizens in cities, increasing connectivity means that every activity is logged and monitored.

3. Consumer behaviours change

In concentrated urban environments, the traditional symbols of progress will change – a car, a garage, a bigger house. Instead different priorities will emerge as we live in apartments. Products will need to be smaller, requiring less space or storage. Food deliveries and food replenishment will be fast. Traditional communities will not emerge like in villages, and so social lives will be less related to location and neighbours. Resources will be shared, from energy suppliers to mobility solutions. Group behaviour will dominate in new ways.

Sources: With thanks to Accenture, Blackrock, Deloitte, IFTF, PwC, WEF and World Bank for data in support of this report. 

Contact: peterfisk@peterfisk.com for more information on the Megatrends 2030 Workshops and Blueprint Programs.

Download: a summary of the keynote and workshop Megatrends 2020-2030 by Peter Fisk

We’re living through a time of anxiety and awe … economic uncertainty, relentless volatility, climate crisis, regional conflicts, social inequality, resource scarcity, rampant inflation, consumer distrust, lingering pandemic, new generations, B Corporations, digital centricity, virtual worlds … Yes, it’s a crazy time, but also a time for new thinking.

One certainty, is that those who sit around waiting for a return to how things used to be are deluded. The world has moved on for consumers, leaders, investors, everyone: new agendas, new practices, new expectations, new talent, and new priorities.

Now is the time to unlearn and relearn, to open minds and take new perspectives, to explore the opportunities presented by the biggest disruption of our business lives.

What are the world’s best companies doing now? In fact, who are they? How are their leaders adapting and innovating? What are the new strategies and techniques for success? Forget the old models that made GE or P&G great in the past, think instead about how Epic or Gymshark, Nio or Shein are thriving in fast, connected markets.

Of course, we shouldn’t throw out everything – there are many sound, enduring principles to build on. But it’s certainly a new environment, requiring new ideas and new ways to win.

Now is the time for business to step up. To see the opportunities of change, to provide a beacon of hope in a turbulent world – and to bring fresh, topical, practical insights and mindsets, tools and techniques, that will thrive in tomorrow’s world.

Below are a series of agendas, challenges and opportunities for business, and a range of new approaches which I have been developing with colleagues in order to respond:

Agenda 1: Developing “Performer-Transformer” Leaders

Leading through uncertainty requires adaptability, collaboration and resilience to keep the organisation focused and moving forwards; but it also requires courage to seize the opportunities of change, to disrupt markets and your own business, and to accelerate transformation. Leaders take comfort from short-term priorities, practical action. The best leaders do more, they “explore and exploit”, they are transformers as well as performers.

Agenda 2: Designing “Future Fit” Strategies

The best organisations dispense with evolution, with gradual improvements. Look at the auto industry: Volkswagen recently said it had lost 10 years of progress while trying to hang on to the old models and debate the new. Asian companies are particularly good at leap-frogging to the future. We need to connect purpose with foresight, new capability and new aspiration. And a new approach to strategies and plans, future proofed but also agile.

Agenda 3: Driving “Net Positive” Innovation

Sustainability is your best source of competitive advantage. It’s also the way to build trust in your brand, engagement with consumers, and find support in governments and society. But it’s much more than CSR, ESG and SDGs. Compliance is a start, but innovation delivers real impact. Innovating every aspect of business, from products and services, to processes and ecosystems. How can your business be a platform for good?

Agenda 4: Delivering “Human-Tech” Experiences

Digital technologies, from big data and AI, through to blockchain and robotics, continue to fascinate. As do new business models, built around consumers and platforms, new revenue streams and new partners. But the real potential comes from unlocking humanity and technology, enabling each other to be better. “Digital” is just one part of the best business transformations. But it is the new sauce that enables new possibilities.

You’ve probably recognised that each of these agendas are based on an apparent paradox. Like so many emerging trends, they challenge the existing polarities of thinking, and explore better ways of achieving success, connecting previously unconnected or often opposing concepts. As AG Lafley said, paradox is often the best source of innovation. 

Developing “Performer-Transformer” Leaders

Jim Hagemann Snabe, chairman of Siemens, vice chair of WEF, and one of our faculty, says “the best leaders should spend at least 40% of their time thinking about the future – thinking about what will happen next, or even after what happens next”. Too many leaders like to get into the fire-fighting, rather than empowering their capable people. Too many leaders wait for the future to happen rather than shaping it to their advantage.

Why? We bring together new ideas and insights to understand what it takes for leaders to create the future, and deliver today, at the same time. Topics include:

  • Think Again …  creates a framework for open-mindedness, to challenge assumptions and biases, and develop your critical skill of rethinking. We connect this to other concepts like behavioural economics and atomic habits.
  • Transformer 20 … Innosight’s global analysis of the world’s best transformational companies explores what they do. Adobe, Netflix, Microsoft, and many more. Scott Anthony and his team’s insights and toolkits are crucial for every leader.
  • The Upside of Uncertainty … Nathan Furr proposes a model for transforming uncertainty into a force for good. This starts with the psychology of reframing and priming. Time to rethink VUCA with a positive mindset.

What? We learn from some of the world’s most transformational companies, how they combine customers and technologies, teams and systems, to create better futures:

  • DBS … When CEO Piyush Gupta set about transforming the Asian bank, he created a blueprint for “the invisible bank” where people “bank less, live more”. From hackathons to an ecosystem of delivery partners, it’s now the world’s best bank.
  • Orsted … Over 10 years, the Danish wind energy business has transformed itself from “black to green”, public to private, a national laggard to a global leader. And it’s not stopping there, now developing energy islands to go further.
  • Ping An … The world’s second largest insurer sees growth beyond its core. Jessica Tan became Co-CEO tasked with building future businesses, now including Good Doctor, the world’s largest healthcare platform.

How?  New programs to inspire and enable you, building on these new insights, where I bring together global experts include:

  • Global Business Leadership … A flagship program to engage current and future leaders – “transform your business, transform yourself”. Faculty like Strategyzer’s Tendayi Viki from Zimbabwe, and 3D Leader Terence Mauri are key contributors.
  • Transform! … We think it’s the world’s best business simulation (see below), engaging participants to compete as exec teams. First to $60 billion market cap wins! Norway’s Christian Rangen, part of our team, ensures that it’s a lot of fun too.
  • Vision to Vitality … Leading in a world of relentless change is not easy. It demands personal vision, courage, fitness, and resilience. We bring together sports coach Mikael Trolle, chief wellbeing officer Steven Macgregor, and many others.

Designing “Future Fit” Strategies 

Zhang Ruimin, outgoing chairman of Haier, the Chinese world leader in home appliances, said to me recently “Within 5 years, all of our products will be free”. Imagine if every refrigerator was free. How will they make money? Services is the obvious answer, using IOT and digital platforms to replenish your home, help you cook better, improve your health. How much do you spend on a fridge? $400 every 10 years. On food? $150 every week.

Why? A “future mindset” is about building confidence and courage to go further, and then working backwards with agility to make it happen:

  • Terra Incognita … Inspired by futurists like Richard Watson (see his fascinating new map), we explore how the future will emerge, the critical uncertainties and trend intersections, from future mapping to scenario planning.
  • The Invincible Company … Alex Osterwalder’s articulation of an organisation that never stops innovating, is built on the dual portfolio of “Explore and Exploit”, to create a pipeline of business for a future-proofed business.
  • Design Futures … “Design thinking” has become incredibly popular, innovation built around deep human insight, but now it’s enhanced to explore the best future possibilities. We work with IFTF to deploy this powerful approach.

What?  We learn from companies around the world with the most stretching visions, disrupting before they’re disrupted, and the courage to shape markets to their advantage:

  • Epic Games … Web 3 is rapidly evolving in the world of online games, Fortnite has become the world’s top music venue. It’s already more popular then real world for most GenZ. This is the real metaverse, but with a little less hype than Zuckerberg.
  • Revolut … Neo-banks are everywhere, but how are they more than just automated versions of old banks? We explore Nubank to N26, and many more, to understand how banking will evolve, and also link with superapp models like Jio and Rappi.
  • Nio … the Chinese lifestyle brand is often called the Tesla of China, but beyond its supercar EVs is a strategy to reinvent lifestyle brands. This is also a story of courageous leadership, intelligent technologies, and ecosystem platforms.

How?  Examples of new  program content which we can design and deliver as part of your own business events or development programs include:

  • Gamechanger Strategies … How to reinvent not just products, or businesses, but your entire market, to your advantage. Inspired by Oishii strawberries and Rapha cyclewear, we explore what it takes to dIsrupt and reimagine an industry.
  • Exponential Technologies … What’s the real potential of AI in your business? How could you move to a platform business model? Terence Tse is an AI wizard who can help, as is Ricardo Perez who specialises in platform futures.
  • TikTok Business Models … Social shopping, live streaming, is all the buzz. Shein is now a $100 billion business, retail built on “the haul”. Sharon Gai, former Alibaba digital leader is part of our team, helping us to make sense of digital opportunities.

Driving “Net Positive” Innovation

“One of the great misunderstandings of our time, is that companies can either be good for the world, or good for shareholders” said Marc Benioff of Salesforce in Davos. “The reality is that doing good is the best way to drive growth, to reduce risks, and create economic value”. He talked about businesses as platforms for change, platforms for good, and in particular how they have the power through customers to amplify impact many times over.

Why? Sustainability used to be about reducing impact, and particularly in reducing global warming. Now it’s about more, the ability to make a positive difference to the world:

  • Net Positive … Paul Polman has built on his transformation of Unilever, to create a new framework for business and its role in society, asking “Is the world better because your business is in it?”
  • Corporate Knights … Vestas tops the 2022 Global 100 ranking of the world’s most sustainable businesses, followed by Chr Hansen and Autodesk, with a deep analysis of what it does to do better.
  • Doughnut Economics … Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen – three cities who have recently adopted Kate Raworth’s model (see below) for economic development within the doughnut, doing less bad for the environment, and more good for society.

What?  We learn from some of the world’s top sustainable innovators, typically embracing new technology to address our huge challenges, social and environmental:

  • NotCo … In Chile, Matias Muchnick is using AI to reinvent food – for example, by combining pineapple and cabbage he was able to create an alternative form of milk, NotMilk. With Jeff Bezos’ backing, he’s now created many more healthy NotFoods.
  • Carbon … 3D Printing is set to revolutionise production, supply chains, and ultimately our whole relationship with products. Imagine subscribing to Prada, flicking through their IP catalogue, pressing print every time you want a new dress?
  • Schneider Electric … Last year’s world’s most sustainable business, Schneider is particularly focused on the battery technology to store and distribute clean energy. It’s also actively developing local micro-production with networks of “prosumers.”

How?  New programs and content that are all about innovation driven by harnessing the challenges of sustainability include:

  • Sustainable Advantage … How to reframe sustainability in your business to engage consumers and outperform competitors, drive profitable growth, and make a positive impact on the world. Mark Esposito works with me on this.
  • SDG-Driven Strategies …. The UN’s 17 SDGs provides a useful framework to explore how your business can do better, with practical tools and metrics. UN’s Jessica Lobo joins our program, to guide participants towards new thinking.
  • Connected Creativity … Biomimicry is one approach to reimagining innovation inspired by nature – from Bullet Trains to Vibram Gecko shoes. Innovation expert Ramon Vullings applies connected creativity, combining ideas from different places.

Delivering “Human-Tech” Experiences

The robots are coming to take over our jobs, AI to replace our brains. Lawyers are apparently most at risk, followed by accountants. This assumes that machines have empathy and intuitive, that they can dream and engage. As Elon Musk’s Neuralink business proposes, the future is much more about how people can enhance machines, and technology can enhance human capabilities. It’s about fusion, not about alternatives.

Why?  Man vs Machine, or rather Man and Machine, is one of the hottest topics right now, with a multitude of approaches from thinkers and advisors.

  • Humanocracy … Hamel and Zanini’s great book on “Creating organisations as amazing as the people inside them” has become a manifesto for a more human business. It connects purpose, responsibility, creativity, organisation and talent.
  • Radically Human … IDEAS – intelligence, data, expertise, architecture and strategy – is Daugherty and Wilson’s model to connect the best of human and technology capability within the organisation.
  • Hooked … Nir Eyal’s work on how to build habit-forming products has become crucial in a world of devices and interfaces. Playing games or searching data is largely intuitive, therefore digital anthropology and behavioural economics are key.

What? Companies are now recognising that technology alone isn’t the answer, it’s not just about “digital” transformation, but a more holistic human-centric approach:

  • Canva … Melanie Perkins’s online graphic design business has become one of Australia’s first unicorns, and empowered people everywhere to turn their creativity into real action, from posters and presentations to cards and crafts.
  • Valio … Finland’s leading dairy has seen huge decline in its traditional milk-based product sales, and so set about using human insights and new tech possibilities to create non-diary alternatives. Not the easiest plan, as it is owned by dairy farmers.
  • Nubank … Brazil’s neo-bank developed a strategy to serve the unbanked. This required more than a technology solution, and instead understanding the emotional barriers to access, and confidence in its services and use.

How? We’ve developed a range of program content focused on technology, humanity and their fusion, where I bring work with others include:

  • Exponential Humanity … What does it mean to be human in a digital world? Veronica Reyero is a digital anthropologist from Spain, working with us to understand people and technology, and how the two can better work together.
  • Human-Digital Transformation … We know that a business transformation needs to be holistic, customer-centric, human-centric, tech-centric. Alan Brown with two decades of Silicon Valley tech experience joins our expert faculty.
  • Ultimate Projects … Most ideas, innovations and transformations fail because of their poor implementation. Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, transformation director at GSK and author of HBR’s Project Management Handbook, helps you do it better.

Find out more at GlobalXED.com

“Leaders of business. This is your wake-up call. You’ve been living on borrowed time. Raping the natural world of its resources, and leaving a toxic mess in its place. These weather patterns are not freaks, they are the world you have created. Blinding the man on the street with your superficial innovations and image. What about the sweatshops, the emissions, the packaging, the greed? It doesn’t look good” 

Sustainability is the best opportunity for business to drive smarter innovation and profitable growth.

My book “People Planet Profit” explores how to address social and environmental challenges through customers and brands in a way that has more impact than politicians or environmentalists ever could. It introduces a more inspired, more balanced approach to business. Full of case studies and practical tools, it is the essential guide for managers.People do not trust business. They increasingly see companies as irresponsible, greedy and inhuman. Climate change and economic downturn have accelerated new expectations.

Businesses need to reengage people, to understand their new priorities, rethink their role and propositions, work in new ways, and enable people to do more themselves.  Resolving the many paradoxes faced by customers who want the best things but also to do “the right thing” and business leaders who want to grow but in more responsible ways.

There are many books about sustainability – mostly around the worthy themes of “reduce, recycle, reuse”. However this goes beyond that initial phases to “rethink” business.

It is positive not negative, about opportunities not problems, driven by creativity not compliance, a whole business challenge, not left to a few people. It is about connecting social, environment and economic challenges, to achieve a new balance, that is more different from competitors and inspiring your people. And its about building brands in way that builds capacity rather than just making sales, enabling people to do more for themselves and their worlds, rather than just buy your product or service.

People Planet Profit is about that these three agendas. But more importantly, about how they connect. How doing more for the Planet can create more for People and more for Profit. Innovation is about making new connections, and that is what this book is about, and why sustainability is the biggest catalyst, for more enlightened innovation, and more enduring growth.

  • Purpose beyond Profits : Business should be about making people’s lives better, defining an inspiring purpose and turning promises into reality.
  • Strategies for Growth : Business strategy must focus on finding markets with sustainable growth, creating differentiation by doing good and new business models for a new world.
  • Inspiring Leadership : Leaders of the new business world are the catalysts of change, the conscience of a better business, and facilitators of rethinking and innovation.
  • Conscience Consumers : There is a new consumer agenda, based around me, my world, and the world. Business must create more capacity, enabling people to do more.
  • Sustainable Innovation : Resolving the paradox between what people dream of, and what is good for all of us, between what makes most money and what is the right thing to do.
  • Engaging consumers : People are engaged through enlightened dialogue, building networks to enable collaborative actions, and delivering a more authentic consumer experience
  • Sustainable Operations : Businesses must learn to work better together – good sourcing, transporting and producing, embracing the power of sustainable energy and technology.
  • Delivering Performance : Certification, labels and sustainable impacts, linking sustainability to business results, managing business performance and reputation
  • Transforming Business : Making sustainable change happen, starting by articulating a better case for change, commercial and caring, and managing the implementation
  • Sustainable Futures : Leading in the new business world is about sustainable innovation and lifestyles, where business and brands are the new force for positive change

The book ends with a vision of the future business leader, Joachim Cruz, the CEO of BlueSky, an innovative travel business based in Copenhagen. He embraces the new agendas, the new technologies, the new capital markets. But he also has time to smile, to pick up his kids from school, and sit back and enjoy his home-grown glass of Tempranillo.

Covid-19 was a wake-up call

How has the recent pandemic challenged and heightened our thinking about these issues – purpose, sustainability, ESG and CSR, inequality, climate crisis and much more?

At the most fundamental level, Covid-19 has revealed three things:

1. Planet: Human activity is strongly related to climate change. The lockdown has resulted in rare sightings of blue skies from Beijing to Delhi, and worldwide CO2 emissions are predicted to fall by 8% in 2020.

2. People: COVID-19 has been hailed as the “big equalizer,” but the reality is that we aren’t equally resilient as a society. Socio-economic status is strongly related to vulnerabilities of all sorts, with the poor and underprivileged in harm’s way to a disproportionate extent.

3. Profit: We cannot survive for long without economic activity and the creation of financial value. Millions of businesses are failing in the face of the pandemic and as many as 40% of businesses may not reopen after this disaster.

In essence, we need to manage climate-related risks, strengthen our social fabric and inspire economic activity that creates value for humankind if we are to create a world that is sustainable and well-equipped to combat impending crises.

So what will it take to achieve this symbiosis between people, planet and profit – also referred to as the “triple bottom line” – in contrast to the single bottom line of profit alone?

For starters, we must accept a basic truism: in a world of finite resources, maximizing private gain inevitably leads to collective loss – that is, the loss of common goods, a phenomenon known as the tragedy of the commons. For example if, in a bid to boost profits, global multinationals build and run factories but do not pay for the pollution they create, we get global warming. The collective is more important than the individual.

If Covid-19 has taught us anything about how to surmount our socio-environmental challenges, it is that each one of us – as individuals, companies or governments – needs to take ownership of our future. Being a bystander is no longer an option. Yet, if you’re like one of the thousands of executives I have encountered over the years, you likely believe that sustainability – that is, the wellbeing of our planet and its people – is important, but it’s “someone else’s problem”. In companies with a sustainability department, everyone points to that department as being responsible for everything sustainability-related.

Why is it that something as important as sustainability is given short shrift by so many in the corporate sphere? Over the past years, I’ve visited dozens of large, publicly listed companies and spoken with hundreds of employees to try to find out. I’ve been to head offices, mines, stores and factories, travelling from Madagascar to India to Chile’s Atacama Desert.

1. Find more purpose

To take ownership of our post-pandemic future, businesses must start by asking the all-important question of corporate purpose – or “why do we do what we do”? Leaders must articulate how the firm creates value for all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and accept that profit is the consequence of such value creation. This process of defining purpose makes it clear that businesses exist to serve society and not the other way round, and the link to sustainability becomes clear. As Paul Polman, ex-CEO of Unilever, said: “Sustainability is totally driven by purpose. It starts with the overall firm belief that we are here to serve society … and only by doing that well, we can make all our stakeholders, including our shareholders, happy.”

How can leaders discover that “true north” – their company’s purpose? Often, it happens via epiphanies or first-hand experience on the front lines. Francesco Starace, the CEO of Enel, one of the largest energy companies in the world, had his epiphany while working in the Middle East in the mid-1980’s. He realized that an energy company’s job was not to foist new habits on people, but rather to enable them to do what they wanted to do in the first place. Crossing an emotional barrier, as Starace did in the 1980s, and identifying with a company’s purpose in a new and personal way enables leaders to build their own sense of sustainability ownership and address the critical problems of our world. “Sooner or later,” as Starace told me, “you have to face up to the facts about why you do what you do.”

2. Engage all stakeholders

Armed with a sense of purpose and a set of concrete sustainability goals, your company is ready to create motivation and ability among your stakeholders, and to help integrate those sustainability goals into their daily work routines.

Market sustainability to stakeholders as an opportunity to contribute to the future wellbeing of the company and the world. To entice employees and other stakeholders to engage in sustainability, appeal sometimes to the head (this is the smart thing to do), other times to the heart (right thing to do), and often both. Lisa Jackson, vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives at Apple told me: “The easiest and most fun part of sustainability is when you can go to the business – as we have done now several times – and say, ‘It will save you money to reduce the amount of scrap metal that is produced. It will save you money to think about packaging in a different way’.”

Alongside motivation, you also have to create the ability to act sustainably. Increase the capability of your workforce by putting systems, structures and training in place that make it easier to act sustainably. Give your stakeholders the tools, confidence and freedom they need. In a word, make sustainability everybody’s job. “If there’s one exception, everyone thinks they’re the exception,” said Keith Weed, Unilever’s chief marketing officer and head of sustainability at the time.

3. Achieve more together

Form broader industry collaborations to address complex problems. Such collaborations, often with traditional competitors, help create the systemic changes that our planet and its people need – and that businesses need, too. “If everything fails around us, we fail too,” said the chief sustainability officer of Marks & Spencer.

Topics such as deforestation, effluent in waterways, or buying minerals from the Congo can only be addressed by a consortium, in which each party, again, needs to rise above self-interest and think about the wellbeing of the collective. Paul Polman has been quick to point out: “We don’t have the right level of cooperation at the global governance level to deal with these issues, and I hope that the business community will step up and fill that void.”

Watching the pandemic unfold before us and seeing both the healing effects of our slowed economic activity on the skies and our planet as well as the horrific plight of our fellow human beings, leaves most of us “uncomfortably numb” and yearning to do something about securing the future. Issues such as global warming, inequality and poverty – as outlined in the SDGs – are gaining urgency. Taking ownership of addressing such issues should form the new leadership mandate.

Deloitte’s “The Sustainability Transformation” report focuses on this Covid acceleration of focus on sustainability, and also the shifts in thinking it has embraced:

The Deloitte report includes an excellent summary of the new ways in which organisations need to embrace sustainability – for competitive advantage, for financial performance improvement, and for more positive impact on our world.

More from Peter Fisk

More from outside

 

“If quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.” said Niels Bohr. Some years ago as a physics student I came across that phrase, and dismissed it. Some years later, when I had grasped the real ideas and implications of quantum mechanics, compared to classical atomic theory, I realised how true it was.

Quantum computing will profoundly shock you.

If you think of a classical computer as a bunch of coins on a table, heads and tails, ones and zeros, a quantum computer is what happens when you toss all the coins up in the air at once and watch them spin.

A new report The Business Potential of Quantum Computing, by ADL, shows how the technology promises to transform business through its ability to tackle so-called intractable problems with exponentially increasing complexity that currently are beyond the reach of conventional high-performance computers

These types of problems can be grouped broadly into four categories: simulation, optimization, machine learning, and cryptography. The use cases for business across the first three categories are almost endless, from fully digitalized drug discovery and new materials development through to logistics, supply chain management, and portfolio optimization.

Given the current state of play, companies that have not already done so take steps now to ensure they are not left behind. The Quantum Computing learning slope is steep. The ADL report sets out four steps companies should take to prepare for the future, including exploring applicability, monitoring technical developments, engaging with the ecosystem, and building knowledge and capability.

Quantum computing in action

  • Aerospace: By considering an exponential number of variables, quantum computing could help determine the optimal alternative for each route. It can also help find the best way to allocate resources so that the crew and passengers are impacted as little as possible.
  • Healthcare: Harnessing the power of quantum computing can significantly accelerate the timelines of various stages of the pharmaceutical research and development process. It can help life science companies by accelerating the speed of the pre-clinical phase and reducing the cost of drug development.
  • Finance: Quantum computing will be able to help solve the problems of customers in finance institutes. It can optimize investment portfolios and financial derivatives. It can also enable the institutions to accurately characterize anomalous transactions and rapidly detect fraud.
  • Chemistry: It is likely that quantum computing can be applied to simulate the properties and behavior of new molecular structures in chemistry. It can address the probabilistic challenges of quantum mechanics. In the future, quantum computing is expected to predict molecular properties for new molecules.

Here are 3 real examples – from BMW in automotive, Speedel in logistics, Qubit in pharma.

Physical prototyping is an expensive area of R&D. Automakers spend up to 30% of the total R&D expenditure to pre-test hardware components, assemble them, and test the final product. This motivated BMW  to contract a quantum computing technology developer, Pasqal. BMW wanted to learn how to apply the new technology to metal forming. With quantum computing in place, they now perform more virtual testing and have reduced the number of tests required. This has led to a 50% cost reduction in prototyping and testing.

Speedel is a UK B2B courier firm that works with aerospace and manufacturing companies. It uses hundreds of vehicles every day on multiple routes. This means billions of possible variants in route creation. A conventional computer can’t process so many shipment simulations, so the company decided to implement quantum computing. They developed a practical app running on quantum algorithms. The app calculates all the possible options in planning and routing (yes, those billions mentioned earlier), does traffic simulations, and, finally, identifies the best option. For a fleet of hundreds of vehicles, this means huge time and money savings. Now, Speedel gets more shipments delivered in a shorter time frame.

The French company, Qubit Pharmaceuticals, uses quantum computing to model how molecules behave and interact. It’s a small research team without the resources of big pharma. However, in March 2022, they launched an ambitious program for designing novel COVID-19 treatments. What’s more, their algorithms helped discover the most suitable compounds in just six months. Qubit Pharmaceuticals tested huge data libraries to find compounds that could help fight the virus. Their solution carried out simulations with drug candidates and modeled possible chemical reactions. In the end, they discovered two novel drug candidates and brought them to a further drug development stage. The research is ongoing. Over six months, the team has shown astonishing results, given the time and cost constraints.

Neuromorphic computing

However there is more.

The neuromorphic chip is a silicon chip designed to mimic the form of the human brain. This game-changing approach transforms the way our devices process information, moving them closer to the way our brains process information.

Neural networks can now be etched into silicon not unlike the billions of neurons and synapses that form our nervous system and brain. This means software and data no longer have to be processed on different chips, they can be stored and processed on the same chip—saving significant time, energy and space. In many ways, it is a great example of how our modern world, already powered by software, is about to change in a really big way.

Neuromorphic computation and quantum computing always seemed that they were years away. The fact is commercial neuromorphic chips and quantum computers are in use today. These two new technologies are going to change what looked like a straight path to Artificial Intelligence.

  • Aerospace and defense: Neuromorphic computing architecture can help in pattern recognition, event reasoning, and robust decision-making. It can also aid in adaptive learning and autonomous tasking for energy-efficient agile Air Force platforms.
  • Self-driving cars: Similar to space communications, neuromorphic computing enhances self-driving. In imitation of the human brain, neuromorphic chips attempt to think and learn on their own and then adapt their learning to unexpected scenarios on the road.
    While conventional computers run commands sequentially, neuromorphic computers process and store data almost at the same time. This makes self-driving cars more energy efficient. It can also help autonomous vehicles learn skills and execute tasks more efficiently.
  • Healthcare: Neuromorphic platforms can be used for the hardware-based implementation of ML methods in treating Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in home-care environments. Real-time analysis of data can be obtained by bringing data from the backend onto a neuromorphic chip. Furthermore, securing sensitive medical data on a single chip complies better with patient privacy regulations. Since neuromorphic platforms process data near a patient, it offers a large fault tolerance for medical applications. Moreover, hardware-based neuromorphic systems require less computational power making them perfect for PoC medical devices.

In a world of extraordinary information overload, how do you keep on top of a changing world, and make some sense of the future?

My good friend Ross Dawson, an Australian futurist, has just published his latest book Thriving on Overload.

He suggests that there is a clear set of habits, approaches and technologies that can help us to master the tide and keep on top of it all. Those who learn to thrive on overload will be true masters of the information age,

We’re all familiar with the massive information overload that is the defining feature of our age. The incessant deluge threatens to drown us, yet within its excess lies almost everything of value today.

The capacity to thrive on limitless information is now the single most important capability for success, yielding not just powerful insight, world-leading expertise, and better decisions, but also improved wellbeing.

Ross shares simple actionable techniques for staying ahead in an accelerating world. It’s all about choosing to thrive on overload―rather than being overwhelmed by it. Develop the five intertwined powers that enable extraordinary performance in a world of overload:

  • Purpose: understanding why you engage with information enables a healthier relationship that generates success and balance in your life
  • Framing: creating frameworks that connect information into meaningful patterns builds deep knowledge, insight, and world-class expertise
  • Filtering: discerning which information best serves you helps surface valuable signals above the pervasive noise
  • Attention: allocating your awareness with intent―including laser-like focus and serendipitous discovery―maximizes productivity and outcomes
  • Synthesis: expanding your capacity to integrate a universe of ideas yields powerful insight, the ability to see opportunities first, and improved decision-making

In a business and working environment defined by excessive information, one of most powerful leverage points to increase corporate productivity is to assist individuals and teams to be more effective in how they deal with information overload.

Creating value from a superabundance of information is the foundational skill today for all executives, professionals, and managers. Few have ever been taught how to be effective at this, and everyone can improve their capabilities.

The role of a futurist as a leader

Through history there have been many wonderful visionaries, seers, and sci fi writers who have presented us with glimpses of the future. Here’s a list pulled together by Ross, which is worth exploring for its imagination, but also how they turned out years later:

Tools to explore the future

While foresight is largely based on human cognition and understanding, software can be very valuable in a variety of functions, including compiling, categorizing and connecting trends and themes, mapping systems, visualising change, and more:

The role of a futurist as a leader

A futurist’s aim is to encourage leadership on all levels. That is, helping people to think in a rich and structured way about tomorrow in order to act to day. Futurists are involved in sense making, giving people the ability to deal with information. Everyone is overwhelmed by the infinity of signals. Futurists help people to open their minds and think of things that they did not think before.

A vital point here is that the role of the futurist is not to provide outsourced thinking about the future.

The role of the futurist is to help everyone to become their own futurist, to think more broadly, to be open to different ideas, to stimulate and provoke into taking useful action.

We are at a critical juncture in human history, when actions we take – or do not take – today will shape our collective future to an extraordinary degree. The future is not predetermined. By understanding the nature of change we can act to create a better future.

Futurists, in grappling with these issues more than most, have a responsibility to help others to think forward and understand the potential impact of their actions.

In fact, in that all of us need to be our own futurists, we all have a responsibility not just to think about the future and how we will act. We also need to help others to think forward and in turn to act better today.

Jim Weber joined Brooks Running Company as CEO in 2001 and is credited for the Seattle-based running company’s aggressive turnaround story. The business and brand success caught the attention of Warren Buffett, who acquired Brooks and made it a subsidiary company of Berkshire Hathaway in 2012.

Weber’s new book Running with Purpose is about the story of Brooks’ transformation.

Brooks was founded in 1914, and originally manufactured shoes for a broad range of sports. “White hot” in the mid-70s, the company faltered in the latter part of the decade, and filed for bankruptcy protection in 1981. 

In 2001, Weber joined the company as CEO. The product line was cut by more than 50% to focus the brand solely on running, and its concentration on performance technology was increased. Brooks Running became the top selling brand in the specialty running shoe market in 2011, and continues to hold around 20% of the USA running shoe market.

Weber’s book is summarised on the back cover with this …  “Discover Brooks’ extraordinary challenger brand story as it went from near bankruptcy to finding its purpose and running to the front of the pack in the highly competitive global running market. Brooks is a turnaround tale for the ages on how a brand was re-founded and a passionate, determined team fueled its growth with performance gear and celebrating every runner’s run.”

The book brings together insider insights and inspirational stories for leaders, entrepreneurs, brand builders, “and especially the 150+ million runners worldwide who continually invest in themselves and put positive energy into the world”.

It starts with Jim Weber’s seventh-grade dream to run a successful company that delivered something people passionately valued. Fast forward to 2001, Jim became the CEO of Brooks and, as the struggling brand’s fourth CEO in two years, he faced strong headwinds.

A lifelong competitor, Jim devised a one-page strategy that he believed would not only save the company but would also lay the foundation for Brooks to become a leading brand in the athletic, fitness, and outdoor categories.

To succeed, he had to get his team to first believe it was possible and then employ the conviction, fortitude, and constancy of purpose to outperform larger brands. Brooks’ success was validated when Warren Buffett made it a standalone Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary in 2012. In the pages of Running with Purpose, you will find:

  • Brooks’ bold strategy and unique brand positioning that fueled its move from the back of the pack to lead.
  • The key to building a purpose-driven brand that is oriented around customer obsession, building trust, competing with heart, and having fun along the way.
  • The six clear leadership lessons Jim has learned along his path and applies at Brooks to develop staff into authentic leaders.
  • How Berkshire Hathaway’s support and influence provided a tailwind for Brooks’ business and brand to surge.
  • An inside look at the ups and downs of Jim’s personal journey, which led to his conviction that life is too short not to enjoy what you do and the people by your side.

 

What’s your big idea? And how do you explain it?

Whether you’re an entrepreneurial start-up looking for early investment, or a senior executive seeking to articulate where you want to take your business next, a “future story” is crucial.

It’s a carefully structured narrative that describes how you see the future, the way you see your business succeeding within it, and an overview of the path that will get you there.

It typically takes the form of a “pitch deck“. But don’t just think ppt presentation by start-ups. A pitch deck could indeed be a formal presentation, or a thoughtful letter, or a detailed strategic plan, or a powerfully spoken narrative.

The pitch deck structures your future story. It becomes the magic bullet that inspires, engages and convinces investors and other stakeholders, that yours is the future that they want to be part of.

Ultimately it’s about storytelling. And like any good narrative, it should be compelling, credible, and concise. Grab your audiences attention in your first slide and work to hold it as you describe the business concept, the market opportunity, and what it will take to make happen.

Here are some great examples of pitch decks, from entrepreneurs and corporates, to inspire your future story, your structure for telling it, and your future success.

Examples of start-up pitches

Airbnb Pitch Deck 2008

In 2007 Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were broke and looking to raise money to make their rent in San Francisco. They decided to rent out air mattresses in their apartment to attendees of a conference because all the hotels were booked. They called their service “Air Bed and Breakfast.” In a few years, this small experiment would create the hotel industry disruptor Airbnb.

Uber Pitch Deck 2008

Uber’s story began in Paris in 2008. Two friends, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, were attending LeWeb, an annual tech conference The Economist describes as “where revolutionaries gather to plot the future.” The concept for Uber was born one winter night during the conference when the pair was unable to get a cab. Uber was founded on a single idea: “What if you could request a ride from your phone?”

Linkedin Pitch Deck 2004

Reid Hoffman started out at Apple, launched his first business SocialNet in 1997, a matchmaking site based on leisure interests, and then joined PayPal as COO. In 2003 he launched LinkedIn as a social networking site for business people. Based in Mountain View, it was acquired by Microsoft in 2016, and now has over 900 million members in more than 200 countries.

Tinder Pitch Deck 2012

Sean Rad and engineer Joe Munoz built the original prototype for Tinder, “MatchBox”, during a hackathon in February 2012. Tinder is an online dating and geosocial networking application. On Tinder, users “swipe right” to like or “swipe left” to dislike other users’ profiles, which include their photos, a short bio, and some of their interests. In 2022, Tinder had 10.9 million subscribers and 75 million monthly active users.  As of 2021, Tinder had recorded more than 65 billion matches worldwide.

Revolut Pitch Deck 2015

Revolut describes itself as building the world’s first truly global financial superapp. In 2015, Revolut launched in the UK offering money transfer and exchange. Headquartered in London, it was founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. It offers accounts featuring currency exchange, debit cards, virtual cards, Apple Pay, interest-bearing “vaults”, commission-free stock trading, crypto, commodities, and other services.

Examples of corporate presentations

23andMe Investor Presentation 2024

Anne Wojcicki wants to change the face of healthcare. 23andMe, her personal genetics testing company. In 2021, 23andMe merged with Richard Branson’s VG Acquisition Corp (a SPAC), in a $3.5 billion transaction, to take the business public. A new business model is rapidly taking shape. Compared to the old world, where drugs were made generically, and pharma companies never connected with patients, 23andMe is now fundamentally disrupting that model.

Coca Cola Investor Presentation 2024

The Coca-Cola Company was founded in 1892 and produces Coca-Cola plus a large portfolio of other beverages, sold in more than 200 countries and territories. The company has operated a franchised distribution system since 1889. The company largely produces syrup concentrate, which is then sold to various bottlers throughout the world who hold exclusive territories. It describes its purpose as “To Refresh The World And Make A Difference”.

Tesla Investor Presentation 2023

Tesla is an automotive and clean energy company based in Austin, Texas, which designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles, stationary battery energy storage devices from home to grid-scale, solar panels and solar shingles, and related products and service. It was founded in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, with Elon Musk later joining them and becoming CEO in 2008. In the same year the Roadster sports car launched, followed by the Model S sedan in 2012, the Model X SUV in 2015, the Model 3 sedan in 2017, the Model Y crossover in 2020, the Tesla Semi truck in 2022 and the Cybertruck pickup truck in 2023.

Hello Fresh Investor Presentation 2023

HelloFresh is a meal-kit company based in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in November 2011 by Dominik Richter. elloFresh’s business model is to prepare the ingredients needed for a meal, and deliver them to customers, who must then cook the meal using recipe cards, which can take around 30–50 minutes. It generally provides about three two-person meals a week for about $60 to $70. Each week, about 45 recipes are offered for users to choose from.

Schneider Electric Investor Presentation 2023

Schneider Electric’s purpose is “to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all”. They call this “Life Is On”. The French company’s mission is to be your digital partner for sustainability and efficiency. It drives digital transformation by integrating world-leading process and energy technologies, end-point to cloud connecting products, controls, software and services, across the entire lifecycle, enabling integrated company management, for homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries.

Shopify Investor Presentation 2023

Founded by Germany’s Tobias Lütke, and based in Canada, the Shopify platform offers online retailers a suite of services, including payments, marketing, shipping and customer engagement tools. s of 2023, Shopify hosts 4.6 million stores across 175 countries. According to the company’s yearly financial report for 2023, its total revenue reached $7.1 billion. Shopify was founded in 2006 when Lütke sought to build Snowdevil, an online store for snowboarding equipment. Dissatisfied with the existing e-commerce products on the market, Lütke, a computer programmer by trade, instead built his own.

Intuitive Machines Investor Presentation 2022 

Intuitive Machines is a space exploration company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded in 2013 by Stephen Altemus, to provide lunar surface access, lunar orbit delivery, and communication from lunar distance. It holds three NASA contracts including one  to develop a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV). It became public in 2023, listed on the Nasdaq. In February 2024, the Odysseus IM-1 spacecraft landed on the Moon. It was the first privately built craft to land on the Moon, and the first American spacecraft to do so since 1972.

So what makes a great “pitch deck”?

A great story grabs you immediately. So does a great pitch.

In its 2004 pitch deck, Facebook started with this compelling quote from the Stanford student newspaper: “Classes are being skipped. Work is ignored. Students are spending hours in front of the computer in utter fascination. Thefacebook.com craze has swept through campus.”

In the opening slides of its pitch deck, Airbnb left no confusion about what it planned to do. “Book rooms with locals, rather than hotels,” the first slide proclaimed. By the third slide, the reader knew exactly why that idea made sense. “Save Money. Make Money. Share Culture.”

However it’s not just about a creative vision. People gain confidence from numbers – describe the existing market clearly, or if you seek to develop in a new space, use adjacent markets as comparisons. Then you can apply some logic to your future projections, how could it grow, what gives you this confidence. And ultimately, what’s the size of the prize?

Talk a bit about people too. Investors are human, and ultimately engage with people not proposals. And we all know that whatever great plan you have right now, is unlikely to work out quite in the way you imagine. Therefore its about the people, do they have the ambition, capability, resilience and creativity to find the better future.

There is no one structure that works best, but a typical flow might be

  • Title … start with a clear and interesting title or theme
  • Introduction … establish the context, where, who, what
  • Problem … what’s the problem to solve, the opportunity
  • Solution … the business concept, core products or services
  • Opportunity  … market size, trends, potential, and size of prize
  • Difference … who are competitors, alternatives, why you’re better
  • Roadmap  … a horizon-based plan with phases, milestones
  • Team … a bit about the key people, interesting, relevant
  • Testimonials … more confidence, support, endorsement
  • Next steps … what happens next, or what you need now

Of course, graphical presentation does matter – a diagram can tell a thousand words, a sketch prototype enables people to interact – and of course visually engaging images, colour and design layout can be powerful. But don’t go overboard. It’s the business idea, the logic, the story, that really matter.

I’ve worked with many entrepreneurs and corporate leaders on their pitch decks, and what always strikes me is how they get lost in the detail. Either they are too obsessed about the technology, or the financials, or the nifty graphics. What matters is a clear, compelling narrative.

Intelligent, imaginative, inspiring. A future I want to be part of.

There are hundreds of ways to explore your market, your customer and competitive context, and your business opportunities. I can already hear a collective yawn at the words Ansoff matrix or Porter 5 forces analysis. Consultants thrive on theme, MBAs survive on them.

Some will argue that the whole idea of strategic planning just doesn’t work in a world of relentless change, volatility and uncertainty. Yet in a world of incredible challenge, there is also infinite opportunity, so make choices, while retaining an agile mindset and deployment, still matters.

Don’t a slave to box-filling frameworks, but do use them to spark curiosity and creativity, to map out a path towards a future you seek, to embrace changes all around, to create a positive debate in your teams, and the courage to move forwards.

Here’s what you should, of course, know … but its always worth bringing them together, and considering which to use:

Porter’s Five Forces Model

Michael Porter’s Five Forces model is probably the best-known strategy framework out there. It is especially used when analysing industries. The Five Forces model helps determining how competitive an industry is based on five different factors: the rivalry among existing competitors, the threat of new entrants (potential competitors), the threat of substitute products (alternatives), the bargaining power of suppliers, and the bargaining power of buyers. If these forces are strong, competition can be considered high. In that case, a company might want to think twice before entering that specific industry. According to this framework, industries with little competition allow for greater margins and are therefore more attractive to enter.

Hambrick and Fredrickson’s Strategy Diamond

Unfortunately, Hambrick and Fredrickson’s Strategy Diamond hasn’t received the attention it deserves. The Strategy Diamond is an attempt to explain what strategy truly means and is a great framework to distinguish the different elements that make up a good strategy. According to this model, a strategy consist of five essential parts that together should form a unified whole: Arenas, Vehicles, Differentiators, Staging and Economic Logic. For each element concrete and deliberate choices have to be made on what to do and more importantly what NOT to do. In addition, choices made within one element should reinforce and match choices made in the other four elements. Only that way companies can achieve a sound and sustainable strategy.

 

Treacy and Wiersema’s Value Disciplines

The Value Disciplines framework builds upon the key message of Porter’s Generic Strategies (i.e. companies should have a clear focus in what they want to be known for and what they want to excel in). If a comany tries to excel in multiple (often contradicting) disciplines, it is likely to end up stuck somewhere in the middle. Treacy and Wiersema propose three value disciplines from which companies can choose from in order to become a market leader: Product Leadership (the best and most innovative product offering), Operational Excellence (the cheapest products through a cost-efficient production process), and Customer Intimacy (amazing customer service and customer relationship management). Choosing each one of the disciplines has tremendous consequences on how the company should be operating in terms of structure, processes and culture.

Value Disciplines Treacy and Wiersema

Ansoff Matrix

There are different ways of growing a business. Igor Ansoff identified four strategies for growth and summarized them in the so called Ansoff Matrix. The Ansoff Matrix (also known as the Product/Market Expansion Grid) allows managers to quickly summarize these potential growth strategies and compare them to the risk associated with each one. The four growth strategies are Market Penetration (offering more of the existing products to existing markets), Market Development (offering the existing products to new markets), Product Development (offering new products to existing markets) and Diversification (launching new products in new markets). The idea is that each time you move into a new quadrant (horizontally or vertically), risk increases.

Ansoff Matrix

BCG Growth-Share Matrix

The Boston Consulting Group’s product portfolio matrix (also known as BCG Growth-Share Matrix) is designed to help companies consider growth opportunities by reviewing its portfolio of products or business units in order to decide where to invest and where to divest. The matrix is divided into four quadrants based on two factors: market growth and relative market share. The four types of business units (or products) are Dogs, Question Marks, Cash Cows and Stars. Most business units start off as Question Marks with a relatively small market share in a high growth market. Depending on how well the unit and the industry is doing, it might end up as a Star or Dog. Eventually when industry growth is flattening, the unit becomes a Cash Cow that can be ‘milked’ in order to invest in more promising businesses. The BCG Matrix is therefore a great tool for portfolio analysis and corporate strategy purposes.

BCG Growth Share Matrix

Macro-level Frameworks

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory is a framework for cross-cultural communication, developed by Geert Hofstede. It describes the effects of a society’s culture on the values of its members, and how these values relate to behavior, using a structure derived from factor analysis. Over the years, this study led to six cultural dimensions on which nations can be ranked: Power Distance, Individualism/Collectivism, Masculinity/Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long-term/Short-term Orientation and Restraint/Indulgence.

Cultural Dimensions Geert Hofstede

More information:  https://www.hofstede-insights.com/product/compare-countries/
Source: Hofstede, G. (1984). Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Beverly Hills CA: SAGE Publications.

Porter’s Diamond of National Advantage

The Porter Diamond is a model that is designed to help understand the competitive advantage nations or groups possess due to certain factors available to them, and to explain how governments can act as catalysts to improve a country’s position in a globally competitive economic environment.

Porter Diamond Model


Source: Porter, M.E. (1990). The Competitive Advantage of Nations. New York: Free Press.

PESTEL Analysis

Originated as PEST Analysis, this framework is used in the early phases of strategy development to describe the landscape and environment in which a firm operates (PESTEL stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal). Note: It is sometimes transformed into SLEPIT (Social, Legal, Economic, Political, Intercultural, Technological), STEEPLE (Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Legal, Ethical) and DESTEP (Demographic, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Political). This tool is especially useful when starting a new business or entering a foreign market. It is often used in collaboration with other analytical business tools such as the SWOT analysis and Porter’s Five Forces to give a clear understanding of a situation and related internal and external factors.

PESTEL ANALYSIS

Industry-level Frameworks

Industry Life Cycle

Product Life Cycle


Source: Porter, M.E. (1980). Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. The Free Press

Porter’s Five Forces

Porter’s Five Forces analysis is a framework that helps analyzing the level of competition within a certain industry. It is especially useful when starting a new business or when entering a new industry sector. According to this framework, competitiveness does not only come from competitors. Rather, the state of competition in an industry depends on five basic forces: threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products or services, and existing industry rivalry.

Porter's Five Forces Model


Source: Porter, M.E. (1979). How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review 

Value Net Model

The Value Net Model is an alternative to Porter’s Five Forces and recognizes the importance of competitors’ as well as complementary products in the industry. The model focuses on the four main groups that influence a company’s direct environment: Customers, Complementors, Competitors and Suppliers. Customers and Suppliers are described in similar terms to Porter’s model. Competitors however entails the Existing Rivals, New Entrants and the Substitutes in this model. The Complementors are a new element to the model.

Value Net Model


Source: Brandenburger, A.M. & Nalebuff, B.J. (1996). Co-Opetition: A Revolution Mindset that Combines Competition and Cooperation. Crown Business.

Corporate-level Frameworks

Acquisition Integration Approaches

This framework distinguishes four different approaches to Acquisition Integration or Merger Integration depending on a company’s need for Strategic Interdependence between the acquirer and the target firm and the need for Organizational Autonomy: Preservation, Symbiosis, Holding and Absorption.

Acquisition Integration Approaches Merger Integration Framework


Source: Haspeslagh and Jemison (1991). Managing Acquisitions: Creating Value Through Corporate Renewal 

A.T. Kearney Strategic Chessboard

A.T. Kearney proposes four distinct strategic approaches using these two dimensions—predictability and a company’s ability to shape or adapt to its industry.

at-kearney-strategy-chessboard

More information: http://www.atkearney.com/paper/-/asset_publisher/dVxv4Hz2h8bS/content/playing-on-the-new-strategy-chessboard/10192 or https://www.kearney.com/strategy-and-top-line-transformation/article?/a/the-a-t-kearney-strategy-chessboard
Source: A.T. Kearney (2010). Playing on the New Strategy Chessboard.

BCG Growth-Share Matrix

The BCG Matrix (also known as Boston Box) is a framework to help decision making on existing product lines. Developed in the 1970s, it has been used to evaluate how a company should think about its portfolio based on two criteria: the relative market share of a product and the market growth rate resulting in four archetypes: the Dogs, Question Marks, Stars and Cash Cows.

BCG Matrix

More information: https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/corporate_strategy_portfolio_management_strategic_planning_growth_share_matrix_bcg_classics_revisited/
Source: Henderson, B. (1970). Growth-Share Matrix. BCG Perspectives.

GE/McKinsey Matrix

The GE McKinsey Nine-Box Matrix offers a systematic approach for the decentralized corporation to determine where best to invest its cash. Rather than rely on each business unit’s projections of its future prospects, the company can judge a unit by two factors that will determine whether it’s going to do well in the future: the attractiveness of the relevant industry and the unit’s competitive strength within that industry.

GE McKinsey Nine Box Matrix

More information:  http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/enduring-ideas-the-ge-and-mckinsey-nine-box-matrix
Source: McKinsey & Company (2008). Enduring Ideas: The GE–McKinsey Nine-box Matrix. McKinsey Quarterly.

McKinsey 7S Model

The McKinsey 7S Framework is a management model developed by business consultants Robert Waterman Jr. and Tom Peters in the 1980s. The 7 S’s are Structure, Strategy, Systems, Skills, Style, Staff and Shared values. The model is most often used as an organizational analysis tool to assess and monitor changes in the internal situation of an organization. The model is based on the theory that, for an organization to perform well, these seven elements need to be aligned and mutually reinforcing. So, the model can be used to help identify what needs to be realigned to improve performance, or to maintain alignment (and performance) during other types of change

Afbeeldingsresultaat voor mckinsey 7s

More information: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/enduring-ideas-the-7-s-framework
Source: McKinsey & Company (2008). Enduring Ideas: The 7-S Framework. McKinsey Quarterly.

Strategy Diamond

The framework (developed by Donald Hambrick and James Frederickson) puts the economic logic at the center of the analysis. Five dimensions are analyzed: Arenas, Vehicles, Differentiators, Staging and Economic logic. Strategy is about making important choices, and the real power of the Strategy Diamond is that it integrates important choices into a bigger picture instead of as a piecemeal approach.


Source: Hambrick & Fredrickson (2005). Are You Sure You Have a Strategy? The Academy of Management Executive.

Business-level Frameworks

Ansoff Matrix

There are different ways of growing a business. Igor Ansoff identified four strategies for growth and summarized them in the so called Ansoff Matrix. The Ansoff Matrix (also known as the Product/Market Expansion Grid) allows managers to quickly summarize these potential growth strategies and compare them to the risk associated with each one. The idea is that each time you move into a new quadrant (horizontally or vertically), risk increases.

Ansoff Matrix


Source: Ansoff, I. (1957). Strategies for Diversification. Harvard Business Review.

Bartlett and Ghoshal’s Matrix

An often used framework to distinguish multiple forms of internationally operating businesses is the Bartlett & Ghoshal Matrix (1989). Bartlett and Ghoshal clustered these businesses based on two criteria: global integration and local responsiveness. The resulting quadrants can be labelled with businesses having a: global strategy, transnational strategy, international strategy or multidomestic strategy.

Global Transnational Multidomestic International Strategy Bartlett and Ghoshal


Source: Bartlett, C.A. & Ghoshal, S. (1989). Managing Across Borders. The Transnational Solution. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Business Model Canvas

The excellent work by Alex Oesterwalder opens the door to companies that need to rethink their business model. It offers a practical step-by-step process to find new ways to create value and analyze a company’s current model.

More information: http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/ or http://alexosterwalder.com/
Source: Osterwalder et al. (2004). The Business Model Ontology: A proposition in a Design Science Approach.

OLI Paradigm/Eclectic Paradigm

The OLI Paradigm is a tool that helps management choose between several foreign market entry-mode strategies such as exporting, licensing and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). According to this framework, a company needs three advantages in order to be able to successfully engage in FDI: Ownership advantage, Location advantage, Internalization advantage. If any of these advantages is not present, management might want to choose different entry-mode strategies such as exporting or licensing instead. The framework was initially developed by John Dunning in 1979 under the name Eclectic paradigm. Dunning draws upon theories such as the internalization theory and the transaction cost theory to validate his framework.

Eclectic paradigm OLI


Source: Dunning (1979). Toward an Eclectic Theory of International Production: Some Empirical Tests. Journal of International Business Studies.

Porter’s Generic Strategies

Porter’s Generic Strategies describe how a company pursues competitive advantage by positioning itself in between its rivals. There are three generic strategies for competitive advantage: Cost Leadership, Differentiationand Focus. A company chooses to pursue one of two types of competitive advantage, either via lower costs and thus a lower price or by differentiating itself along dimensions valued by customers to command a higher price. A company also chooses one of two types of scope, either focus (offering its products to selected segments of the market) or industry-wide, offering its product across many market segments. Combined these strategies offer four potential ways of companies to position themselves. Companies that try to excel in all of these ways would end up somewhere ‘stuck in the middle’, according to Porter.

Generic Strategies Porter


Source: Porter, M.E. (1985). Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. Harvard Business Review.

Profit Tree

The Profit Tree is a simple but very effective way to structure a company’s revenue and cost streams. It allows a company to see where improvements can be made in case of profitability issues.

Profitability Framework Revenues - Costs

 

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis (Strenghts, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) is a structured method to analyze both internal and external factors that are likely to affect a company’s success. This framework needs little introduction as it has been used and overused in virtually every strategic planning discussion. It needs to be combined with the TOWS matrix  to gain additional insights.

SWOT Analysis

 

Value Chain Analysis

A systematic approach to analyze your value chain, and identify where to create the greatest value for the customer.

Porter's Value Chain Analysis


Source: Porter (1985). Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. Simon and Schuster.

Value Disciplines

In their book ‘The Discipline of Market Leaders‘ M. Treacy and F. Wiersema argue that no company can succeed today by trying to be all things to all people. It must instead find the unique value that it alone can deliver to a chosen market. Companies can choose between Product Leadership, Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy.

Value Disciplines Treacy and Wiersema


Source: Treacy, M. & Wiersema, F. (1993). The Discipline of Market Leaders. NY: Addison-Wesley

VRIO Framework

VRIO Framework (formerly known as VRIN) is a business analysis tool that helps assessing the internal sources of sustainable competitive advantage and is therefore part of the Resource-Based View (RBV). According to this model, resources and capabilities should have four attributes that lead to sustainable competitive advantage. Resources should be Valuable, Rare, Inimitable and Organisation-wide supported: VRIO.

VRIO ModelSource: Barney. (1995). Looking Inside for Competitive Advantage. Academy of Management Executive.

Product-level Frameworks

AIDA Model

The AIDA Model is a well-known marketing tool to help base advertising decisions on for customers in different stages of the decision-making process. In every stage marketeers will have to adapt their marketing campaigns in order to help customers move from one stage to the next.

AIDA Model


Source: Strong, E.K. (1925). Theories of Selling. Journal of Applied Psychology.

Marketing Funnel

The Marketing Funnel is a great tool that helps visualizing the customer journey or the path that prospects take as they become more familiar with your company and products, from awareness to purchase to (hopefully) the advocacy stage.

Marketing Funnel

 

Technology Adoption Life Cycle

The Technology Adoption Life Cycle describes the adoption or acceptance of a new (technological) product or innovation, according to the demographic and psychological characteristics of these 5 distinguished adopter groups.

Technology Adoption Life Cycle Crossing the ChasmSource: Rogers, E.M. (1962). Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press of Glencoe

Product Life Cycle

The Product Life Cycle (PLC) is a marketing framework that helps visualizing and understanding the sales evolution of a product category over time.

Product Life Cycle with Product ExtensionSource: Levitt (1965). Exploit the Product Life Cycle. Harvard Business Review.

Management-level Frameworks

Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid

Blake and Mouton proposed a two-dimensional Managerial Grid based on a manager’s concern for production (task-oriented) and concern for people (relationship-oriented). Each axis on the grid consists of a nine-point scale with 1 meaning a low concern and 9 a high concern. Depending on a manager’s score on each of the two axis, you can assign different types of management styles to managers.

Blake and Mouton Managerial GridSource: Blake, R. & Mouton, J. (1964). The Managerial Grid: The Key to Leadership Excellence. Houston: Gulf Publishing Co.

 

Fiedler’s Contingency Model of Leader-Situation Matches

Fiedler believed that people’s natural leadership styles are fixed and cannot be changed (easily). The most effective way to handle the situation is to change the leader itself based on certain situational factors or to change the situation to suit the leader. Fiedler’s Contingency Model helps determining what type of leader is most suited for what type of situation.

Fiedler Contingency Model of Leadership


Source: Fiedler, F.E. (1967). A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Styles

Hersey and Blanchard developed a theory (Hersey and Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory) that suggests that the most effective leadership style is affected by the circumstances leaders find themselves in. The model helps leaders deciding on what type of style is most effective with a certain type of follower.

Hersey and Blanchard Situational Leadership Model


Source: Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K.H. (1969). Life cycle theory of leadership. Training & Development Journal.

Kotter’s Eight Steps of Change (Management) Model

Kotter 8 Steps Change Managment

 

Sustainability is one of my big topics, and in vogue with every business, yet still lacking effective models for strategic thinking and effective implementation.

We all know the challenges. During the last 150 years, we have stressed the oceans, warmed the planet and overextended almost every natural resource. Now we live in a world of extreme challenges and consequences. Relentless financial crises. Extreme inequalities in wealth. Remorseless pressure on the environment.

Anyone can see that our economic system is broken. But can it be fixed?

Here are some of the most interesting books I’ve read over the last year, seeking to curate and connect the best ideas so that I can practically help business leaders to embrace sustainability in a way that creates a better world, but also drives sustainable profitable growth and value creation.

Blue Economy 3.0: The Marriage of Science, Innovation and entrepreneurship Creates a New Business Model that Transforms Society.

Gunter Pauli describes the Blue Economy as “10 years – 100 innovations – 100 million jobs”. He rejects the green economy as too limited, but instead sets out the concept of a “Blue Economy business model” that has the potential to radically change our society from scarcity to abundance, tackling issues that cause environmental problems from new angles.  He demonstrates his vision with a new business model which he came across in China where novel paper production turns crushed rocks, including mining waste that has piled up over centuries into sheets  for printing, writing and packaging without the use of water, without cutting down a tree, and recyclable forever. It details how thistles, considered a weed, is turned into a plastic, a lubricant and a herbicide converting an old petrochemical plant into a biorefinery.

Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

Kate Raworth has created a simple model for growing sustainably, which is currently being adopted in cities across the world – from Amsterdam to Berlin. She says that trapped by its own powerful but outdated myths, mainstream economics is profoundly unfit for tackling 21st-century challenges – from financial instability to climate change and widening inequality. It’s time for Doughnut Economics, a new model which debunks these old myths, replacing them with seven new insights. She identifies the seven critical ways in which mainstream economics has led us astray – from selling us the myth of ‘rational economic man’ to obsessing over growth at all costs – and offers instead an alternative roadmap for bringing humanity into a sweet spot that meets the needs of all within the means of the planet. Ambitious, radical and provocative, she offers a new cutting-edge economic model fit for the challenges of today’s business.

Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming

Paul Hawken brings together an international coalition of leading researchers, scientists and policymakers has come together to offer a set of realistic and bold solutions to climate change. All of the techniques described here – some well-known, some you may have never heard of – are economically viable, and communities throughout the world are already enacting them. From revolutionizing how we produce and consume food to educating girls in lower-income countries, these are all solutions which, if deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, could not just slow the earth’s warming, but reach drawdown: the point when greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere peak and begin todecline. So what are we waiting for?

Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature

Janine Benyus says that nature has had 3.8 billion years to perfect its inventions. Biomimicry is the idea that we should use nature’s insights and ideas to solve the problems we face in the 21st century. This book is a “Seed Bank of Best Practices” exploring the current biomimicry thinking, methodology, and tools for naturalizing biomimicry into the culture. We believe there is no better design partner than nature. But biomimicry is more than just looking at the shape of a flower or dragonfly and becoming newly inspired; it’s a methodology that’s being used by some of the biggest companies and innovative universities in the world. While reading this text you’ll be immersed into the world of Biomimicry the “verb”, you’ll gain a competitive edge, and a fresh perspective on how the world around us can, does, and should work. After reading the text, you’ll be well on your way to thinking in systems, designing in context, identifying patterns, and most importantly seeing the millions of organisms around us differently.

Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take

Paul Polman is the ex-Unilever CEO who increased his shareholders’ returns by 300% while ensuring the company ranked #1 in the world for sustainability for eleven years running has, for the first time, revealed how to do it. Teaming up with Andrew Winston, he shows business leaders how to take on humanity’s greatest and most urgent challenges—climate change and inequality—and build a thriving business as a result. They explode our most prevalent corporate myths: from the idea that business’ only function is to maximise profits, to the naïve hope that Corporate Social Responsibility will save our species from disaster. These approaches, they argue, are destined for the graveyard. Instead, they show corporate leaders how to make their companies “Net Positive”—thriving by giving back more to the world than they take. Net Positive companies unleash innovation, build trust, attract the best people, thrill customers, and secure lasting success, all by helping create stronger, more inclusive societies and a healthier planet. Heal the world first, they argue, and you’ll satisfy your investors as a result. Is this win-win for business and humanity too good to be true? Don’t believe it. The world’s smartest CEOs are already taking their companies on the Net Positive journey and benefitting as a result. Will you be left behind?

Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism

John Elkington, dubbed the “Godfather of Sustainability”, explores new forms of capitalism fit for the twenty-first century. Green Swans is a manifesto for system change designed to serve people, planet, and prosperity.  If Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “Black Swans” are problems that take us exponentially toward breakdown, then “Green Swans” are solutions that take us exponentially toward breakthrough. The success–and survival–of humanity now depends on how we rein in the first and accelerate the second. Green Swans draws on Elkington’s first-hand experience in some of the world’s best-known boardrooms and C-suites. Using case studies, real-world examples, and profiles on emergent technologies, Elkington shows how the weirdest “Ugly Ducklings” of today’s world may turn into tomorrow’s world-saving Green Swans.

Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism

Fumio Sasaki says ‘There’s happiness in having less. If you are anything like how I used to be – miserable, constantly comparing yourself with others, or just believing your life sucks – I think you should try saying goodbye to some of your things”. Sasaki is in his thirties and lives in a tiny studio in Tokyo with three shirts, four pairs of trousers, four pairs of socks and not much else. A few years ago, he realised that owning so much stuff was weighing him down – so he started to get rid of it. In this hit Japanese bestseller, he explores the philosophy behind minimalism and offers a set of straightforward rules – discard it if you haven’t used it in a year; be a borrower; find your uniform; keep photos of the things you love – that can help all of us lead simpler, happier, more fulfilled lives.

More from Peter Fisk

More from others

 

Yesterday I watched Kilian Jornet, the world’s greatest mountain runner, run slowly through the streets of Chamonix.

The 34 year old Spanish ultra runner, who is now based in Norway, because the mountains are bigger, probably took longer for his last kilometre than any of the other previous 170 kms that he’d just covered. He weaved his way through the town’s narrow streets, high-fiving the huge crowds that awaited him, and celebrated yet about “ultra” victory.

He crossed the finish line of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) in a course record of 19 hours 49 minutes, his fourth victory in the event, and the first time anyone has completed the full distance in under 20 hours.

Last month he had also won the Hardrock 100 in Colorado USA, a gruelling 100 mile trail run for the 5th time. In between, early this month he had also taken in the Sierre Zinal mountain race. And trained every day in between.

UTMB is the world’s leading mountain ultramarathon, a distance of approximately 171 km (106 miles), and a total elevation gain of around 10,040 metres (32,940 ft). Starting and finishing in Chamonix, France, it takes runners an a circular route through Switzerland and Italy, and is widely regarded as one of the most difficult foot races in the world, and one of the largest with more than 2,500 starters, although massively oversubscribed.

Born in a Pyrenean mountain hut

Kílian Jornet Burgada is a 34-year-old Catalan ultra-distance runner, and arguably the most famous, prolific, and dominant mountain athlete of all time.

He has won pretty much every major ultra race, smashed numerous endurance records, and pushed at the limits of what anyone thought was possible in the mountains.

His obsession is less about winning races or setting speed records, and more about the joy of nature, of mountains, and the challenges they provide.

“I am just a person who loves the mountains. I spend every day in the mountains,” he says, “I love them because the landscape is amazing and full of challenges but I think the mountains gives a lot back. When you are in the mountains, you feel that you are nothing. When you have nothing you have everything to discover.”

That passion stems from his childhood. He grew up in a mountain hut, in Refugi de Cap de Rec, in the Spanish Pyrenees, where his father worked as a hut keeper and mountain guide.

From a young age, he lived and breathed mountain life. “The first time I walked for five hours alone in the mountains I was two years old!” he says. He went on to climb his first 3,000m peak aged three. “I have conditioned my body to long distances from an early age!” he says.

It clearly paid off. These days he is known for dominating not one, but two mountain sports – ski mountaineering in winter and trail running in summer.

As a trail runner he’s proved himself to be one of the world’s best – dominating ultras and setting a slew of records from the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc to the Hardrock 100 and dozens of races.

In an interview with Runners World, he says “I had a normal childhood, just that my playground was the forest and mountains instead of the streets”.

The family would spend weekends and holidays trekking and climbing local mountains. By the age of 3, he had climbed the 3,011m mountain, Tuc de Molières. At 5, he climbed the highest mountain in the Pyrenees, Aneto (3,404m). At 6, he climbed the Breithorn (4,164m) in the Italian/Swiss Alps. When he was 10, a family holiday was to hike for 42 days across the Pyrenees. By 13 he had taken up ski mountaineering, and by 16 he had joined the Spanish national ski mountaineering team.

He says the most important lesson that his parents taught him and his sister growing up was  “to be conscious that we’re a part of nature, to understand how it works and respect it.”

The world’s most prolific mountain racer

  • 4x winner of the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc
  • 6x winner of the Sierre Zinal
  • 5x winner of the Hardrock 100
  • 9x winner of the Zegama Aizkorri
  • 2019 – Golden Trail Series Champion
  • 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018 – Skyrunning World Cup Champion
  • 2012, 2013, 2014 –  Ultra Running World Cup Champion
  • 2014 – Vertical Kilometer World Champion
  • 2014 – Skyrunning and Vertical KM World Champion
  • 2008, 2011, 2013 – Skyrunning, Ultra and Vertical Kilometer European Champion

In his excellent book Run or Die, he writes “Winning isn’t about finishing in first place. It isn’t about beating the others. It is about overcoming yourself. Overcoming your body, your limitations, and your fears. Winning means surpassing yourself and turning your dreams into reality.”

“In one race I can finish first, and because it was not a competition or I wasn’t happy about my race, not feel like a winner and see after 20 hours someone reaching the finish line in 1,299th position and see he is crying of happiness to finish. This is a winner.”

Beyond Limits

Jornet sets his goals higher than most people.

After years of claiming first place at the world’s most prestigious races, he came to the realisation that he had completed all of his race goals.So, to find new ways to push himself, he started to create his own challenges.

Combining running, skiing, and climbing, he began a personal project in 2010, to set the fastest known times for ascending seven of the world’s most famous mountains. He called the challenge Summits of my Life.

The project included Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc, Matterhorn, Denali, Aconcagua, Elbrus, and Mount Everest. A movie of his epic challenge now features on Netflix.

He summited Mount Everest at midnight (local time) on 22 May 2017. Climbing without supplemental oxygen, he reached the top in 26 hours from base camp.

Upon finishing his first ascent of Everest, and unhappy with his time of 26 hours, he found the idea of resting and recovering boring saying “I don’t like to spend time in the base camp doing nothing, so it was like ok what do we do for the next week?” On 27 May he reached the summit again from advanced base camp in 17 hours.

Training for elevation not distance

He doesn’t have a coach or a prescriptive training plan, but prefers to train in accordance with how he feels, and usually its far, twice a day, every day.

Training is a goal in itself, not something that must be done to achieve a goal. He measures his efforts not in distance, but in elevation. In a typical year, he can log up over 1,000 hours and some 55okm of elevation gain.

He sees the year in two seasons – the ski season, and the trail running season.

During the ski pre-season, November to December , he  trains between 20-30 hours a week on the slopes. He takes in 20-25 races, combined with high volume training and periods of recovery, meaning that his weekly activity can range from 10-30 hours.

From May to October, he runs.  He trains between 20-35 hours a week, typically training twice a day, and spends 80% of the seasons training running, and 20% on cycling on his road bike.

Pizza and Nutella

Eating and drinking properly play a massive part in an ultra-runner’s success, and yet he is no stranger to break-in the rules.

In a 2011 interview with Salomon, he said “my diet mainly consists of pizza and Nutella”.  More recently, he says he opts for a carb-heavy plant-based diet centred around whole foods – pasta, potatoes, bread, and a wide variety of vegetables.

His wife Emelie Forsberg is also an ultra-runner from Sweden, and also competes in ski mountaineering and skyrunning events. In 2016, they set up home in Rauma in Norway, “where the mountains are steeper, and the air is purer.” They now have two young children, who have just started running.

His books:

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