With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, Foresight Alliance recently completed an 18-month research project on the global future of work and workers. Our report,The Futures of Work, is intended to help the philanthropic and development communities understand and address the challenges that poor and vulnerable workers may meet going forward. But the changing nature of work…
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The threat of automation to jobs is one that generates a lot of media coverage these days, and there is a lot of anxiety over employment, job quality, and how automation (both software and hardware) could impact livelihoods. A November 2015 report from McKinsey found that of 750 jobs surveyed, 45% of the activities people…
DetailsFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Futures of Work: New Report Illuminates Global Opportunities and Disruptions WASHINGTON, DC, January 14, 2016—Workers everywhere will be affected by accelerating disruptions to the world of work—yet people in different economic positions will be impacted in very different ways, according to The Futures of Work, a groundbreaking new report from Foresight…
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Frederic Bastiat, author of The Seen and Unseen, was one the first economists to explore the interaction between policy and and unintended consequences: In the department of economy, an act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects. Of these effects, the first only…
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The not-yet launched social rating app Peeple recently caught the attention of the Internet, and the reaction was not kind. By the admission of its founders, Peeple seeks to be “the Yelp for people,” a succinct tagline that detractors immediately seized upon. According to its creators, Peeple seeks to consolidate reviews of ordinary people. Have…
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Foresight is all about the present. Sounds paradoxical, but I firmly believe it. Let me explain. What started me on this train of thought is a passage in The Screwtape Letters, 20th century scholar C. S. Lewis’ droll version of advice offered to a junior devil by his more experienced uncle Screwtape. In one of…
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It’s popular to talk of deepening consumers’ relationships with a brand. But most consumers just aren’t that into brands. Marketing guru Martin Weigel argues that savvy marketers will realize they can best boost sales by extending their brand’s reach—making more consumers more aware of the brand—rather than by building loyal fans. What’s driving this forecast……
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In 2030, the retail environment sees ubiquitous same-day delivery of online goods and autonomous-vehicle pickup and delivery of store purchases. Consolidation across e-commerce and retail industries has left only a handful of players that can combine logistical sophistication with a national footprint. Convenience and availability, not impulse, drive consumer purchasing in this future, making branded…
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Consumers in this future use a spectrum of venues and social media to voice their wants and define spaces that need new brands. The fastest and most innovative companies respond to this crowd expression with tailored products. This amplifies a trend that began in the early 2010s, in which companies used social media to test…
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Through 2030, values-based consumption rises among the increasingly prosperous middle classes of emerging markets, and they look to brands for cues. Ethical and ideological concerns carry more weight in brand choice, partially edging out value-for-money and conspicuous consumption as drivers. What’s driving this forecast… Growing middle classes. Global middle classes are adding hundreds of millions…
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