In the session, participants will explore the dynamic relationship between emerging technologies and interdependent geopolitical forces. During the session, participants will hear a selection of highlighted Forces of Change, which will help shape our business environments over the next 5 to 10 years. They will also get a sample of key accelerating technologies from the applied research community at SRI.
What is a "force of change?" Chris Cowart uses this term to describe potential opportunity areas when a technology accelerant collides with a business sector or domain. They are robust areas in which attention is and should be applied to unearth significant opportunities for innovation. He will provide a framework and capabilities to identify forces of change in order to continue to innovate and adapt. In this session, Chris will highlight a set of forces of change that are challenging the world in 2024 and examples of innovations that have embraced adaptation to create impactful solutions.
As leaders of businesses, we are required to develop strategy and an execution plan. However, it is increasingly necessary for us to add the capability of future forecasting in order to develop an adaptive and resilient organization in the face of massive change. In 2023, Chris forecasted that the 3 megatrends of the decade would be – the climate era, the age of AI, and an unsteady phase of geopolitics. The first half of 2024 confirms and amplifies how critical these areas will continue to be for global leaders. Unfortunately, the complexity and interconnectedness of these areas make them radically more unpredictable, difficult to navigate, and subject to surprising changes. During this time of increasing uncertainty and volatility, organizations are forced to prioritize their stability by playing to their strengths. They also need to build the capabilities to recognize relevant trends, threats, and opportunities, run low-risk experiments, and adapt quickly.
During the interactive part of these sessions, participants will be guided on a number of future forecasting techniques and exercises in order to help identify and articulate the most influential variables, forces, and implications that will chart the future. Participants will work together to develop a point of view on these forces and share those insights across the group. The interactive sessions will close with a summary of forces and an action plan to explore and experiment with these new opportunity areas.
