Thinkers 50: Future Thinkers: New Thinking on Leadership, Strategy and Innovation for the 21st Century

CHAPTER 1

What the Future Looks Like

Where do the best business ideas come from? Fifty years ago executives largely didn’t care. Businesses were managed and led in ways that were pretty similar to those that had been employed for many decades. Steadiness and consistency were the hallmarks of that period. If the question was pushed, executives of the 1960s might have pointed to the illustrious portals of the Harvard Business School, Stanford, and the like, and felt fairly confident that those schools had the answer. In their lecture theaters and seminar rooms best business practice was understood and future practice was likely to be shaped by their honed minds.

Things change.

Executives today are more keenly aware than ever before of the importance ...