TALK 02
Signal or hype? Which trends will actually change your business
Leaders are told every year that everything is about to change. Some of it is. Here is how to tell which.
WHAT THE AUDIENCE LEAVES WITH
01How to tell a structural shift from a change in tools, and both from marketing
02Two tools for reading trends with discipline, weak signals and inherited assumptions
03Five questions to ask the next time a trend reaches the board agenda
Business leaders are surrounded by predictions. AI will replace whole professions, a new platform will make an industry obsolete, this year's technology will change everything. Some of these shifts are real and some are noise, and guessing wrong costs you either way. You can invest too early in a fad, or you can dismiss a real change until a competitor has built on it.
Futures studies offers a more disciplined way to read trends. It separates what is already happening at the edges, the weak signals, from what is merely being talked about. It asks who benefits from a prediction being believed. And it looks for the assumptions a business has inherited from investors, competitors or its own past, which shape what it notices and what it ignores.
The talk applies these tools to the trends leaders are being told about now, AI first among them, and shows how to sort them into what is changing the structure of a market, what is changing only the tools, and what is mostly marketing. It ends with a short set of questions any leadership team can use the next time a trend lands on the board agenda.
Dr Jackie Nagtegaal is a futurist with a PhD in futures studies, a lawyer and a founder, and was named one of the top five women in legal tech. The talk works as a keynote, a panel contribution or a briefing for a leadership team.
FORMATS
Keynote, 30 to 45 minutes
Panel or fireside conversation
Leadership briefing
SUITS
Leadership teams, business conferences, panels and media
SHAPED TO THE EVENT
Length, format and emphasis are agreed with each organiser.
ENQUIRIES
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I speak on other subjects and prepare talks to fit the event, its audience and its theme. Tell me what you are planning.