What the Future Now is a Strategic Foresight practice by futurist, economist, and business trend analyst, Bronwyn Ruth Williams. Bronwyn works with global private and public sector actors to convert forecasts into foresight. She holds degrees in future studies, commerce, and economics and am a published author and regular global keynote speaker and media commentator on the future of money, markets, and management.
Bronwyn has extensive experience in strategic management, trend research, and foresight, consulting clients in the public and private sectors, and more, recently, as a Futures Fellow with the UNPD, across the African continent and beyond.
Part economist, part strategist, her particular areas of expertise include fintech trends, alternative economic models, and sustainable future design.
She is also the co-author of The Future Starts Now, published by Bloomsbury UK, and a well-known media commentator on future trends and economic trajectories for network channels including CNBC Africa, Radio 702, and ENCA News.
Her most popular talk tracks centre around “futurenomics,” that is the future trajectory and potential of the social and political economic forces that shape our world and how we connect and trade with each other.
Her approach towards the future, positions the futurist as a professional “court jester”. The jester, of course, being the character that speaks truth to power and “rattles the cages” of the rich and powerful by presenting important ideas in an entertaining manner that changes the most hardened hearts using humour and wit, rather than brute force. The futurist’s role is therefore to make clients (and their constituents) comfortable with being uncomfortable.
As the infamous faux-Chinese curse suggests, we live in interesting times.
The future is a scary place – especially if you do not know what is headed your way.
So, what does the future hold for you, and for the work that you do? What are the opportunities and threats lying ahead, just hidden from view? How can anyone be certain?
Well, the truth is, you can’t. No one can predict the future. However, if you understand the repetitions of history and the predictability of human nature – and you are looking at the world through the right lens, you can make a pretty good guess. There are patterns hidden in the chaos. Economists call it Chaos Theory.
Chaos Theory is the science of predicting the behaviour of “inherently unpredictable” systems.
That’s what I do. As a futurist, economist, and trend analyst, Bronwyn is in the business of making sense out of chaos and making the unpredictable future understandable and accessible to you and team and your organisation.
She does this by asking three simple questions:
What?
So What?
And What Now?
She developed this methodology over the last 16 years, working, in various incarnations, as a marketing manager, business owner, consultant, economist, and trend analyst.
This experience, working predominantly with businesses in the financial and public sector, taught her first-hand how trends affect business strategy.
In addition to her hands on experience, she holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Masters degree in Applied Economics through the University of Bath (amongst many other diplomas and post graduate qualifications in subjects as diverse as Economics, Digital Marketing, Foresight, Future Studies, Fintech, Design, and Theology),
You may have seen her on TV, or heard her on a podcast talking about the future, or the books she is reading she is reading.
Bronwyn works in partnership with:
The Futurist Think Tank for Foresighted Economic, Corporate and Government Policy Guidance and Flux Trends for Business and Consumer Trend Research and Analysis.
Work with us
*all puns, fully intended
Hi Bronwyn
Last evening my girlfriend shared an interested perspective on the issue of graduates oversupply and low demand in the job market. I can’t get that tbought out of my head… It’s like a splinter 😁
What would be, in your opinion, be the best methodology to dive into this?
Your thoughts and advise would be highly appreciated.
From an upcoming researcher/forecaster/trend analyst/knowledge what what something something 😁
Hey – great question. I do have sympathy for that argument – although it’s not a pure numbers (“too many” graduates is too simple) game – it’s more to do with the value of the certificates we are graduating with into society – the return on time and money is tending towards showing diminishing marginal returns to society at large… there are solutions though – such as re-normalising the private sector funding skills-based eduction (MBAs, etc) rather than society (taxes) or students (debt) – and in that way re-linking risk and reward to the individuals putting in the time and cash investments.