Future Smart: Managing the Game-Changing Trends that Will Transform Your World

by James Canton

Game-changing trends are coming in business, technology, workforce, economy, security, and environment. Climate change, energy demand, and population growth will redefine global risk and power. Exponential new technologies will emerge in digital money, mobile commerce, and big data. An explosive new middle class of over one billion consumers will enter the marketplace. Every nation, job, business, and person will be transformed. To thrive in this future you have to become predictive, adaptive, and agile—to become Future Smart. Dr. James Canton, a renowned global futurist and visionary business advisor, illuminates the pivotal forces and global power shifts that everyone must understand today to thrive in a rapidly changing

Regenerative medicine will extend our lifetimes and rebuild our bodies
Robots and drones will drive our cars, teach our kids, and fight our wars
Smart machines will design, manage, and service 40% of all global businesses—energy, commerce, finance, and manufacturing—without humans
Digital consumers who live always connected will challenge every business to change its strategy
Climate change wars will redefine security and resources

Most of us are not prepared to meet the challenges the future will bring, but these changes are coming fast. Armed with knowledge, those who are Future Smart can take action to reinvent themselves, their businesses, and their world.

Genres: Society, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 27, 2015

About the author

James Canton teaches the Wild Writing MA course at the University of Essex, exploring the fascinating ties between literature and the landscape of East Anglia. He has run workshops to encourage writing on nature and landscape and is the author of Out of Essex: Re-Imagining a Literary Landscape, which was inspired by rural wanderings in the county.

Reviews

[Darren · Rating 3 out of 5]

If one could predict the future with certainty, just think of the possibilities. Yet even getting a bit of a lead to what might be around the corner can still be a good thing.

This book aims to give you at least a head start. The author has consulted his crystal ball and looks at what he says could be some of the most important game-changing trends and considers how the reader could react to and profit from them. In just a couple of decades, it is said, we could face major seismic shifts to our everyday lives. What won’t be changing? Health and medicine, technology and communications, the global economy, the earth's climate, energy and business all face big challenges.

The author seeks to help the reader “future smart” themselves. Guarantees are, of course, not given. Yet promises are. As the book notes by reading it:”… You could become Future Smart: be able to see the changes and signals that will create a trend or alter the future before that future emerges. I can promise you that the trends in this book may give you an inside track, an insight that may transform your life, work, and, of course, and transform your future for the better.”

Despite having an interest in this area, this book didn’t really do it for this reviewer. It has a lot of potential and great insights but it suffers from verbosity and a general lack of focus. Instead of being gripped by the forecast of change and its positives and negatives, one was just being turned off. It was getting tiresome, arduous and uninspiring. A feeling of being short-changed and disappointed. This is the exact opposite of what it should be! Could the book have been one-third smaller and one-third more engaging? You bet. Here is a great case to show that quality would trump quantity.

Please! If this book is even one-tenth as good as it proclaims, it needs a massive rewrite. It doesn’t need dumbing down, it just needs opening up. If we face such seismic, life-changing challenges in the future, why put barriers up to stop people learning about what might happen and seeking to prepare themselves for this tidal wave?

Future Smart: Managing the Game-Changing Trends that Will Transform Your World, written by James Canton and published by Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780306822865, 400 pages. YYY

[Jonathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reads like each chapter was a TED Talk - sentences repeated for emphasis and use of Capitalized buzz phrases. Could use a good editor to prune it by 50%, clean up the typos, and fix the incorrect data or word use (like GDP as a percentage, when he meant GDP growth - or a claim that the average age of a person in 2033 will be 130, somewhat mathematically impossible). But he does present a series of predictions that may have some validity, along with a few with which I disagree. Doesn't seem to address how Russia and other oil-producers might deal politically if oil use is reduced. Not a book I'd recommend buying, but worth a skim from the library

[Troy Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this startled my brain numerous times regarding different things I may want to consider implementing – without re-inventing the wheel- as the author has outline a strategy that generated income for him.

[Ellen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sounds just like a consultant...spin city everywhere. Not cohesive. Sent back to the library after 40 pages.

[Reem_pH · Rating 3 out of 5]

(خلاصات كتب المدير ورجل الأعمال - إدارة دوت كوم)
——————

ما يلي ليس مراجعة للكتاب وإنما الخلاصة التي قد أود مراجعتها أو استذكارها لاحقاً.

على المؤسسات الحالية إعادة النظر في أهدافها وتوزيع المسؤوليات الإدارية داخلها. وكذلك الانتباه لتغير سلوكيات العملاء عما قبل، والاطلاع على توجهاتهم وكيفية استقطابهم في العصر الحالي. فعلى سبيل المثال، العملاء الحاليين يتوقعون أن تكون اهتمامات المؤسسات التي يتعاملون معها هي ذاتها اهتماماتهم.

أربعة عناصر للاستعداد بذكاء للمستقبل:
1. الأفراد
2. المنهجية
3. المنتجات
4. التكنولوجيا

لا تعين الموظفين ولكن عيّن رواد الأعمال، دعهم يعملون مع المؤسسة وليس لديها.

ورد في الخلاصة عن كون التكنولوجيا تعمل حالياً كرد فعل لنا وليست استباقية متنبأة. ونظراً لكون هذا الكتاب قد نشر في عام ٢٠١٥، فهذه الحقيقة تغيرت كثيراً الآن، فجوجل على سبيل المثال يسألك هل تعني كذا، ويخبرك أنك تتردد على مكان محدد كثيراً ليسألك هل هو مكان عملك، وغيرها الكثير.

كيف نستعد بذكاء للمستقبل من الناحية التعليمية:
1. تعليم كيفية وضع قواعد جديدة ودور الرياديين بذلك ومدى أهميته
2. العلوم الشاملة المتطورة
3. الريادة وإدارة الأعمال، بحسب لكتاب يجب على كل فرد أن يتعلم كيف يصبح رائد أعمال وأن يتعرف على كافة المقومات الرئيسية لذلك ويكون لديه الحد الأدنى من المعرفة بهذا الخصوص.
4. إدارة التغيير والتعامل مع التغييرات السريعة المتوقعة مستقبلاً
5. القيادة في القرن الـ ٢١ وصناعة القرار
6. عقلية المبتكر وتعليم التلاميذ على كيفية الابتكار بحد ذاته وكيفية حل المشكلات.
7. فهم العولمة
8. مناهج تعد لمستقبل ذكي، وإعادة دراسة الأهداف المعدة لهذه المناهج ومدى ارتباطها من عدمه بالمستقبل.

المستقبل الاقتصادي هو لهندسة المعرفة ولعلم هندسة البيانات.
"قيمة المعرفة هي ما سيصوغ كل أشكال التجارة الالكترونية في المستقبل."

[Jose Mari · Rating 3 out of 5]

First learned about James Canton when he visited Singapore maybe around 2010. According to him, if Singapore continuous to think within tangible terms, for example its geographical limitations and small population, how it will become will be limited by the same tangible characteristics. However, if it moves beyond the tangible and obvious physical limitations into the intangible possibilities of a knowledge economy, its potential is limitless. I think this idea is very powerful especially in the context of innovation and even at a personal level. It was very powerful for me at that time because it was the same period i got interested in futurism and my then subscription to Stratfor by George Friedman, and the subject of competitive intelligence.

Moving back to this book, i felt it could have been shrunk into half. Lots of repeat information that makes you say not again. But do not discount the fact that it shares significant insights that is food for people who wants to peek into the crystal ball.

Not many people can tell their lunch next week, and far less number of people can determine the relevance of their job, company, country, society in 2030. This book is worth your time if you value seeing a glimpse of tomorrow and do some preparation to move to the next version of humanity. Otherwise, maybe a chapter is enough to have a sense of the entire book. Choose one of the topic on nano, bio, neuro, quanto or cogno is enough.

[Dan Pfeiffer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books of this nature can sometimes suffer from techno-utopianism. This is slightly the case here but it is a compelling read with ample supply of factual background to support the author's forecasts. What I found especially compelling was his description of the coming interconnectiveness of the IoT, AI, Big Data and mobility which will form what I pompously coined an "intelligent info-membrane" back in 2013. Canton does a much better job of describing it than I do, then again I haven't really tried by writing my own book. Anyhoo, this is coming and its implications, good, bad or indifferent are yet to be fully realized as we are going into uncharted territory. The future my friends, is the undiscovered country. Which is why we're lucky to have forecasting futurists such as J. Canton to help guide the way.

[Nick Woodall · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Canton writes a fast-paced nonfiction account of futuristic trends that will be shaping our world in the non-to-distant future. He covers the range of topics, from climate change, IA, energy, and much more in this semi-scary account of where we are headed.

[Vedat Guven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kitap eski olmasa da konular o kadar hızlı gelişiyor ki kitaptaki bilgiler çok genel geçer bilgiler haline gelmiş bile. Yine de derli toplu sunulmuş konuları okumak bir görüş katıyor okuyucuya. İnovasyon, ARGE, yetenek yönetimi, ortak çalışabilme, teknolojiye dayalı ilerleme ve bağlanabilirlik konuları anlatılıyor. Tabi ki bulut, 3B yazıcılar, nesnelerin interneti, robotlar, yapay zeka, akıllı web, akıllı makinalar, akıllı fabrikalar kitapta bolca bahsedilen konular. Öngörü (prediction), akıllı ve mobil; yakın geleceğimizi şekillendirecek üç önemli anahtar kelime. Günümüzde internet görünmez durumda; yani her anımızda ve her aşamada mevcut. Ayrı bir varlık değil. Yakın zamanda bilgisayarlar da fiziksel bir cihaz, ayrı bir cihaz olmaktan çıkacak, her uygulamada, cihazda, alette, giydiğimiz ve kullandığımız eşyaların içine gömülmüş olacak; yani görünmez olacaklar. Benzer bir gelişme de robotlar için yaşayacağız. Bu hızlı, teknolojik ve inovatif gelişmelere eğitim sistemi ayak uyduramıyor. Üretim bantlarına işgücü yetiştirme amaçlı kurgulanan eğitim sistemi hem verimi düşük hem de amaca yönelik değil artık. Eğitimi sistemi bilgi depolamaya yönelik değil bilgiye ulaşma, kritik düşünme, problem çözme, iletişim kurma amaçlı kurgulanmalı. Mevcut sistem geleceğe yönelik insan yetiştirmiyor. Geleceğimizle ilgili bir diğer soru işareti ise çevre ve iklim; temiz hava, temiz su, temiz toprak. Sorunun çok farkında olmamıza ve geri dönüşü olmayacağını bilmemize rağmen işe yarayan önlemler ve kısıtlamalar uygulamıyor olmamız şaşırtıcı. Güneşten direk enerji transferi, denizden metan hidrat, dalga ve gelgitten enerji, soğuk füzyon, toryum; bunlar enerji üretimi için iklimi katletmemizi bitirecek geleceğin projeleri.

[Dr Ariel Rainey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea of Future-oriented planning and trend scanning is an important component in any strategic foresight. This book covers MANY different aspects of society, and for my own business interests, it was overwhelming to have so many chapters on medicine, education, and so on. But in general, I like his perspective.

[Scott Shjefte · Rating 4 out of 5]

The future is ours if we want it, lots of technological trends are investigated, many future problems are pointed to. Borrowed from Libby Library. Read Kindle book using Alexa audio asset.

[Roxanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about how most are not too well prepared for the future technology our country is going to get. Robots will start doing things, cars will drive themself, a box on a table will take your food order, the climate is changing, and the whole world is going up to new levels. He sees these trend ahead of time.