Explorer | Dreamer | Discoverer
The power of moonshot thinking according to Elon Musk, explores the benefit of thinking big, using the power of business and embarking on quests to make a meaningful difference in the world. This short video reveals what it takes to be an exponential leader in a rapidly changing world.
Read More Moonshot Thinking According to Elon MuskIn October I was invited to deliver the keynote presentation at the Shell HSSE Annual Conference in Amsterdam. At the end of the session some really great questions were asked. As these questions were retained I’ve taken the opportunity to share my answers here, as they are applicable for leaders and businesses across the globe. 11 […]
Read More 11 Questions you should be asking about the future todayWe live in a world of uncertainty and disruptions. To survive in this world, organisations should be agile. The word agility is now everywhere. This would be the miracle solution, the antidote to a lack of innovation. But this is not the case. Agility is not what your organisation needs. Let’s see why. The principle […]
Read More Why Agility is Not The Only Thing Your Organisation NeedsIt was Sir Winston Churchill who once said the: “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” Whilst history does not neatly repeat itself and nor will looking backwards give you 20/20 vision looking into the future, the astute leader is resolute in refining their ability to look […]
Read More How to look backwards in order to see the future“In the future of work, we will all be moonshooters. Well the crazy successful ones will be.” Introduction Today Sam McCracken is the general manager of Nike N7, but it wasn’t always this way. He began working with the revered Nike brand in 1997 as a warehouse worker. Soon thereafter, Sam, – who is a […]
Read More Seven steps to becoming a Moonshooter and blasting your way to the top2016 and 2017 will be remembered as the years where the impossible became possible. Autonomous cars in the form of Tesla’s Autopilot entered the mainstream, and driverless truck made a beer delivery on public roads; the UK voted for Brexit and Donald Trump won the US Presidential race. For the first time on record, wind […]
Read More The Future CEOCustomers have changed, it’s not just technology current global turmoil, there has been a values shift in societies attitudes towards globalisation, business, finance and consumerism. Our research undertaken in TomorrowToday’s laboratory is revealing that values-focused businesses are the way of the future. If you want your business and brand to be part of a new […]
Read More This list of personal values are so flipping important for successLike most leaders, Google Execs had believed that the best teams were those that had the best people “” the right people, on the right bus “” You want to employ the best engineer, the best manager and the best scientist and give them the best resource. Right? This is logical, there you have it, […]
Read More What a two year long study by Google of their top 180 most remarkable teams revealed. It’s not what they expected.“I woke up this morning,” writes Bill Gate “and, like most days, I read the news. It’s grim. Hurricanes in the Americas have killed dozens of people and displaced far more. Mexico is recovering from its most powerful earthquake in a century. North Korea is threatening its neighbors. The civil war in Syria seems to […]
Read More Bill Gates says the world is getting better not worse. Should you believe him?Join now and create the future Here are some headlines from this story – $5 billion in illegal payments – 80 politicians under investigation including current and former presidents – 16 countries on 4 continents caught up – Petrobras shares lost $80bn in value – Odebrecht fined $2.6bn by the US Dept for Justice […]
Read More The 80 billion dollar reason for joining a remarkable movement powering business as a force for goodAre you the best in your industry at the things that matter most to your customers, partners and staff? Have you benchmarked yourself against your competitors with the aim of leading the pack? This may sound like a lofty grand goal, and when you achieve it you may want to stop and pat yourself on […]
Read More Are you the tallest amongst dwarfs or do you walk with giants?The story of a company that grew from zero to $200 million in three years. As markets go, it would be difficult to identify an industry much more mundane and uninspiring than mattresses. It is dominated by two companies Tempur-Sealy and Serta Simmons Holdings. This duopoly boasts margins as high as 50%. The buying […]
Read More Does your next killer business idea lurk amongst the stuff that sucks!?After months of intense mathematical exercises, Albert Einstein decided to give himself a break from the work one night and let his imagination wander about the concepts of space and time, say Guenther Knoblich and Michael Oellinger inThe Eureka Momentwritten for Scientific America. In the article, they describe how Albert Einstein finally hit on the […]
Read More How to benefit from 7 remarkable steps that resulted in 7 remarkable achievementsWe benefit from looking at things differently. Sometimes that requires stepping back and looking not at the “what” or “how” but the “why”. Why do something that way? Do you ever wonder why your company (or a competitor) does things the way they are done? Is it good business or just legacy… In one of […]
Read More Why you can benefit from thinking like a Thought-ProvocateurPaul Cummins is a ceramic artist who lives in the city of Derby, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. He came across a poem written by an unknown fallen British soldier, it read: “The blood-swept lands and seas of red, where angels fear to tread.” Paul, who is dyslexic, said in an interview that as […]
Read More Why facts and logic are not enough to win your next big business pitchWhichever company’s vision wins out will shape the future of the economy The dilemma for the C-Suite at the helm as they look towards a rapidly changing future is this: Seek out promising new space to escape ever crowded markets, or face ever tighter margins and get replaced. But new is unproven and numerous experiments […]
Read More Capitalism the Apple Way vs. Capitalism the Google WayThree shifts are re-orchestrating many of the important components of competitive advantage, they require every leader’s attention SHIFT 1: THE POWER of SOCIAL “Through this new technology, people are now empowered to express their grievances and to follow people they see as echoing their grievances,” says The New York Times. And, “if it wasn’t for […]
Read More Why competitive advantage has shifted and the three driving forces changing everythingInnovation can be viewed as a process involving a series of discrete break-through inventions followed by incremental improvements which eventually leverage the full potential of the initial invention. It goes like this: Entrepreneurial start-ups experiment with their energy, time and capital, they take risks until they’ve cracked the profit code. Once the entrepreneur has done […]
Read More Are you ready to catch the next innovation wave?Studies by Oxford University suggest robotics and automation will replace 47% of knowledge worker jobs over the next two decades. So if you are not planning on retiring in the next ten to twenty years, and let’s face it with average lifespan on the up and pension pots on the down many of us may […]
Read More 6 ways to protect yourself from robotic replacementWe used to think big and have grand visions. It wasn’t that long ago that high-risk, big dream projects were the norm. In the 60’s and 70’s the Apollo programme brought humanity together and Project Mohole, an ambitious attempt to drill to the centre of the earth, demonstrated just how daring a species we were. […]
Read More We used to think big. Here’s why we need to again“Perspective is what enables each of us to transform the sum of our days into an epic journey. And it’s what improves our chances of together making the twenty-first century humanity’s best.” says Ian Goldin, ex-professor of global development at Oxford University, and what he says we “lack, and so urgently need, is perspective.” Lesley […]
Read More The Importance of Perspective in Leadership“Announcing his decision from the White House Rose Garden, Mr Trump said the Paris accord was an example of an international deal that hurt the US economy, and that he was fulfilling his “America First” campaign pledge to help American workers,” says the Financial Times The world media and twitter is in a furor, but […]
Read More There is nothing wrong with Trump quitting the Paris Climate Agreement. Here is why we should welcome itThis century should be rather remarkable. We have the potential to end disease and poverty. We might decode ageing and live forever-young. Through the ever-growing power of genetic technology and bioengineering we could revive extinct species like the woolly mammoth. Intercity travel at the speed-of-sound in hyper-loop, vacuum sealed tubes may become the norm. We […]
Read More We live in a remarkable century, but here is the problemThis century should be rather remarkable but it will not just happen, you have to create it. Ancient Greeks had two concepts of time, chronos and kairos. The former referring to the sequential progress of time; and, the latter, opportune moments – pockets of exceptional time, rare instants, seasons when people tuned towards change seize […]
Read More 7 steps to doing remarkable things and creating a freaking awesome futureEvery blog needs a story about Apple and here is ours. It’s probably one you’ve never heard because this is the remarkable story of a very young man, presenting his crazy idea at the 1983 International Design Conference in Aspen, long before he or his company were famous. At the conference, Steve Jobs said: “Apple’s […]
Read More Why all great leaders have destinations and why you are lost without oneMarkets reacted positively when Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and Space X tweeted about his Second Top Secret Master Plan. Shares for Tesla Motors responded strongly and closed 4% up. Here’s why. Elon Musk’s quests have inspired NASA to use SpaceX rockets and thousands of people to buy his Tesla cars and in doing so […]
Read More What Elon Musk’s Master Plan can teach you about being awesomeThere are three reasons why you might want to invest 5-minutes reading this article: The world is at a crossroads, the outcome of this century will be determined over the next 2-3 decades and will depend on the action of people like you. Wouldn’t it be nice to know how and why? It’s never been […]
Read More Three reasons why This Remarkable Century Needs YouOn the 20 July, the day the Republican Party nominated their president elect, I predicted that Donald Trump would win. Here is what I wrote: Donald Trump has a better than not chance of winning. Actually I’m going to predict that he WILL win. Not because he is a good leader but because he has […]
Read More How the Quest Framework Predicted Trump’s WinAbout 25 years ago a young grad student at Stanford University was hungry. He wanted a pizza as he pulled an all-nighter. The internet was new and exciting in 1993 and he said: “oh, the web is great and what we really need to do is to be able to order pizza using the web”. […]
Read More The remarkable story of how Google almost become the pizza-by-fax companyOn the 20 July, the day the Republican Party nominated their president elect, I predicted that Donald Trump would win. Here is what I wrote: Donald Trump has a better than not chance of winning. Actually I’m going to predict that he will win. Not because he is a good leader but because he has […]
Read More Why Trump’s win holds so many important lessons for leaders“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has,” said Margaret Mead a cultural anthropologist. Here’s the thing: We are living in a world where breakthrough technology now means that the impossible is already – or quickly is becoming – possible. […]
Read More What is moonshot thinking and How can you benefit from itPHOTOGRAPH BY GEORGE STEINMETZ Quests begin with a simple question: What can we do better? By 2050 we’ll need to feed 10 billion, that is 2.5 billion more people. How can we do that without overwhelming the planet? Caleb Harper is an innovator and hacker operating out of MIT Media Lab OpenAg who has […]
Read More How to feed 10 billion people by 2050Meryl Streep, an actress who has achieved remarkable things, “slammed Donald Trump, honoured her late friend Carrie Fisher and praised a room full of Hollywood “outsiders” while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2017 Golden Globes” says Rolling Stones Magazine. Twitter and the media is awash with comments about her talk and […]
Read More Don’t f^%k-up the world, take your broken heart and do remarkable thingsThere are very distinct signs that humankind has entered the dawn of a new golden age of technology, a new Age of Discovery, one that has the potential to have as great an impact as the Renaissance. And, yet for the vast majority of people, the world we live in does not feel remarkable, it […]
Read More Why every leader needs to be an explorer in the 21st centuryOne of the questions I’m often asked is “what comes after Generation X & Y” Well I’d like to argue that it’s not Generation Z (Although there is a growing references to the “Z” generation) it’s GENERATION C. Generation C, can be defined as a generation of people who have grown up connected, communicating, content-centric, […]
Read More How to prepare for the rise of Generation CIf your organisation suddenly disappeared would it leave a hole no one could fill or would customers respond saying: “nah what hole?” Being efficient and effective no longer guarantees competitiveness, rather delivering meaningfulness does. Here are three steps that you can follow for delivering meaningfulness: Step One: Ask yourself, within my world of influence, what […]
Read More 3 Steps for creating sustainable competitive advantageThe Challenge The rules for success in the past often don’t apply in today’s world. We’ve built business rules, procedures and policies that worked in the industrial and information age but are no longer applicable in the digital revolution. Many rules linger in our businesses and in our lives that just should not exist. Why […]
Read More What to do when the rules just don’t apply anymoreIn a recent 60-Minutes interview with Donald Trump and Mike Pence, Lesley Stahl said, “I don’t remember the last time we’ve seen a world in this much chaos,” to which both candidates enthusiastically agreed. This is not surprising after all the Republican presidential nominee’s popularity spawns off a growing public sentiment of doom and gloom. […]
Read More In A Doom-Laden World Here is Why You Should Be Optimistic.At just past midnight (GMT), on the 20th July, Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination for US president. When Donald Trump announced his intention to run for president, many people dismissed his candidacy as a joke. Seems that Trump is having the last laugh now. Over the past year, the property developer from New York […]
Read More Trump and BREXIT did the impossible. Now it’s your turn to shock your MumAt the age of nine, Elizabeth Holmes, an innovator and entrepreneur, wrote to her father saying: “What I really want out of life is to discover something new, something that mankind didn’t know was possible.” It was clear from the onset that she was always going to be a quester leader. Inspired by stories of […]
Read More Elizabeth Holmes, the Story of a Fallen Quester“The present state of affairs is really a perversion of the proper workings of capitalism. It is all wrong to have billionaires before you have ceased to have slums. Capitalism has done enormous good and suits human nature far too well to be given up as long as human nature remains the same. But the […]
Read More Perversion of the Proper Workings of CapitalismDemographics is the quantifiable study of populations based on factors such as age, race, sex, economic status, level of education, income level and employment, among others. It is typically one of the slower moving forces of change but as we look to the near future, demographics will become a most potent force of disruption. Demographic […]
Read More Migrants, economic meltdown or boon?How can Great Britain fix great problems, contribute significantly to the progress of the world and be a great nation? These are good questions, aren’t they? By answering these questions, the politicians on both sides of the BREXIT debate would have created a vision of the future that inspires. By answering these questions, the politicians […]
Read More How leaders can succeed in a changing world – Lessons from BREXITThere are good reasons behind believing some things are impossible especially when they have been built into the societal or organisational psyche. Greg Satell, a Forbes journalist and unconventional thinker explains, “We spend a good portion of our lives learning established models. We go to school, train for a career and hone our craft. We […]
Read More Why do we believe things are impossible?Ernest Shackleton’s Trans-Antarctica expedition of 1914 – 1917 is one of the most incredible adventure stories of all time. When the great explorer advertised for men to join his expedition this is the advert he posted: Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and […]
Read More Your Destination Defines Your Destiny and how you live life. So why don’t you have one dipstick?The 21st Century has the potential to be humankind’s greatest century. Indeed, innovations over the next four decades have the potential to dwarf the innovations of the past 200 years. But this version of the future will only become true if leaders are courageous enough to take giant leaps forward. According to the New York […]
Read More Want to proactively create your future? Here is how Major TomIn my TIDES of Change presentation I suggest that digital and mobile technology is not the real revolution and that there is something even more powerful driving disruptive change. The real revolution – and it explains most of the ground-breaking technology innovations we are seeing – is this: We now have the ability to gather […]
Read More Now you can Speak a foreign language, without ever having to learn itA recent study shows that the dinosaurs were already in decline 50 million years before the meteor strike that finally wiped them out. “We were not expecting this result,” says Dr Manabu Sakamoto, a palaeontologist from the University of Reading, who led the research. “Even though they were wiped out ultimately by the impact of […]
Read More Don’t wait for a meteor to wipe you out, Re/Evolve and adapt now.“Last month, one of my employees invoiced the company $300, plus tax, for French lessons. Another one billed us for a $190 real estate course. And then there was the surprise bill for $82 worth of pottery making classes. I signed off on each expense with a smile on my face,” says Caren Maio the […]
Read More Give your employees free dosh: $1,000 to Do (Almost) Whatever they WantDisruptive forces are growing in complexity, velocity and impact. One of the slower moving forces is demographics and this force is now a growing tsunami which will crash on the shores of both developed and developing economies. No region or country will be immune to the impact of demographic disruption over the next 50 years. […]
Read More Some stunningly disruptive demographic stats about the world population by 2060