Issues and Uncertainties
In this Business Times of India article, the GBN/Monitor authors maintain that our highly uncertain business environment makes leadership key to survival and success in next few years.
A continued, broad-based rise in commodity prices in the next five years is very likely, reflecting deep structural market shifts. The impacts will extend beyond price (to include value chain power, geopolitics, sources of wealth and competition, and access), driving significant strategic and operational challenges and opportunities for companies worldwide.
What will the Internet be like in 2025 and what forces and uncertainties will shape its path? "The Evolving Internet," a joint report from Cisco and GBN, presents four divergent, yet plausible, scenarios for the future of the Internet and examines the implications for both business models and policy choices.
This new report from our colleagues at The Monitor Institute explores the emergence of impact investing and how it might evolve as a potent force for addressing global challenges.
Addressing climate change will require U.S.-China collaboration and engagement, in terms of both policy and action. This report's recommendations were vetted at a GBN workshop with contributions from members of our network.
The original GBN Book Club (1988-2006) was created by Stewart Brand to provide "intellectual tools for the years ahead."
From 1988-2006 the GBN Book Club reviewed hundreds of books, reports, and other media that cut across disciplines, geographies, and points of view. These "Intellectual Tools for the Years Ahead" were chosen by cofounder Stewart Brand and other members of the GBN Network.
Despite the uncertainties surrounding climate change, businesses can and must act now; this summary from a June GBN/Monitor Group workshop suggests how to make climate change a competitive and adaptive advantage.
Report of a GBN Learning Journey exploring “biofutures”-- emerging developments in biotechnology and their convergence with other technologies.
Report of a GBN meeting on the drivers and themes that are shaping the environment in which branding will unfold, and the tools and approaches to branding and brands that might prevail in the future.
Report of a GBN meeting on how today’s emerging cultural changes may shape the global business environment of the future
Report of a GBN meeting on whether China will be a global rule maker or rule taker in the decade ahead, and how either—or both—roles might unfold?
The Earth is rapidly becoming a “city planet,” with dramatic, often counter-intuitive, implications for demography, economies, cultures, and the environment, according to GBN cofounder Stewart Brand in this strategy + business article.
Visionary perspectives on the future, culminating in an optimistic scenario. Commissioned by the SCI FI Channel, with a foreward by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Four scenarios, developed with the Arctic Council’s Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment group, contemplate the wide-ranging effects that continued climate change could have on Arctic waterways in the future.
Wired magazine's editor-in-chief talks to GBN about his theory of infinite niche markets, and why weak-signal detection and statistics are the power tools of the future.
In a world of growing uncertainty and complexity, leadership is more important—and more paradoxical--than ever before.
A multi-stakeholder scenario planning project on the long-term value outlook of the global pharmaceutical industry
Peter Schwartz argues that the developments underway in physics, biology, chemistry, and other disciplines signal a new scientific revolution.
GBN chairman Peter Schwartz, dozens of corporate leaders, and more than 20 big thinkers in the GBN Network gathered to explore the key questions that loom over our future and will shape the next 50 years.
Excerpts from The Success of Open Source (Harvard University Press, April 2004, $29.95) by GBN's Steven Weber—a look at how open source came about, why it has taken hold, where the phenomenon is going, and what it all means for our understanding of how property and economy work.
A GBN CLASSIC. GBN’s 1995 Scenario Book examines the very nature of change itself and the implications for business and society.
A pre-eminent scenarist reflects on what entrepreneurs and activists have in common.
A “worse case” scenario examining the possible impact of significant climate change on U.S. national security.
These four scenarios for the future of public education, were ultimately used to create a national policy conversation.
Report of a GBN meeting on the changes facing executive development in light of demographic shifts, the war for talent, and new organizational forms and demands.
An activist argues that human rights will become increasingly important on the business agenda of the future; whether companies see it as a threat or as an opportunity will shape the broader response.
This GBN report examines the dramatic changes that the field of independent media is experiencing and how the reverberations will be felt across every organization that uses media to communicate, connect, and create.
One of GBN’s first (and still relevant) public scenario projects: three scenarios for the future of higher education in California, developed with the National Education Association.
These scenarios for Japan, and the underlying research, were developed to catalyze a conversation on the country’s future.
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People
Frank Beal
GBN Network
Economic and community development advisor, Metropolis Strategies/Chicago Community Trust; former executive director, Chicago Metropolis 2020, launching infrastructure, justice, education, and quality of life initiatives; former president, Inland International