TRENDS, strategic foresight & INNOVATION
Trend Watcher, Spotter & Analyst, Futurist and International Keynote Speaker, Pedro Gaspar Fernandes takes you to awe-inspiring moments that change the way we live, work and do business.
"The goal of forecasting is not to predict the future but to tell you what you need to know to make meaningful action in the present." - Paul Saffo
Our clients are companies that want to keep up with the latest changes and trends in the world in order to make better strategic management decisions.
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Today companies need to look outwards and towards the future. However, we live in a world saturated with information, where it is difficult to decide what to pay attention to, and it is very easy to fall into the trap of fads. In this context, we act as an independent observatory. Free from further commercial interests, we scan the environment in search of signals of the future of work and organizations, identify trends, analyze technological and methodological novelties, and translate the latest research into the language of companies.
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We go exhaustively through the latest innovations and trends to tailor solutions to the needs and context of each organization. This approach ensures that we intimately understand what kind of changes that make sense, are the most adequate and ultimately make a lasting impact.
To this end, we design activities through which the teams explore those changes, come in contact with the latest innovations, discover inspiring organizations and events, learn from experts in different dimensions of the possible future, and share their experiences and ideas with colleagues and other teams/departments.
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Trends presentations
Our trend presentations inform you in an inspiring and fast manner about the most recent developments. Always with the aim of informing and inspiring. What's going on now? What will become important in the coming times? And how can you incorporate this into your own strategy and business?
Tell us a little bit about your current reality and we'll provide bespoke presentations adapted to your context and needs.
Trends Bootcamp for creative professionals
I hope you know how much you could do with a good overview of current and emerging trends...
You may ask though:
Nice those trends, but what can I actually do with it? How can you distinguish what is important and what is not? How can you apply those trends so that they improve your product or service?
The good thing is; you can experience that! Learn to spot, analyse, categorize and apply.
In the trend Bootcamp, we will talk, work and play around the most important trends of today and how they apply to your position and within your company. That way you always have all the necessary knowledge to develop new ideas and futureproof existing ones.
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Trends Insights
Too busy to keep up with what's going on?
Then this is probably the right option for you if you prefer to get some bite-sized trends notifications and insights.
By means of a custom-made newsletter or compact trend report, you regularly stay informed of trends that are important for your reality and sector. This way you stay informed of important developments to keep your company up to date. Request a free quote for your personal trend messages/reports.
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Trends & Innovation Workshops
Need to know & apply the latest trends?
Or solve a specific business problem?
We help our clients build some of the world’s most agile businesses and brands—designing for the future while maintaining relevance today.
We analyze the most relevant innovations, forecasts and reports, the global trends that we think are most important for businesses and brands to act on in the coming times.
Discover new opportunities by deep diving into the most relevant consumer trends, then build a strategy, grounded in those, to ensure your organization is fit for the future and relevant to the present. By using our insights, Trendwatching’s Consumer Trend Radar and the Trend-Driven Innovation Toolkit, you’ll be able to design a visual roadmap of your strategic plan or your next big idea and immediately start implementing them to solve a specific problem or simply build customer-centric thinking.
After that, you’ll probably realize that you can take the next step and empower your team to go further by catalyzing a creative trend-driven innovation culture.
Employing the method and tools that we will provide you with, you’ll have everything to lead and empower your teams to design and create their own innovation sessions, again and again.
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strategic foresight & FUTURISM
Look closely at the present you are constructing. It should look like the future you are dreaming.
- Alice Walker
If somebody tells you they can predict the future, don't believe them. Nobody can predict large socio-technical transformations and what exactly these are going to look like.
One way to think about this is to look at the difference between waves and tides. Waves are what we see on the surface. They are fleeting events, they come and go, appear and disappear. But there is something bigger underneath that is causing these waves. Underneath the waves is the tide, causing all kinds of disturbances of which waves are just one sign. Our work involves trying to understand those tides, the deeper forces underneath the waves.
In many respects, futurists are like gardeners. We cultivate insights and ideas by drawing on a broad range of expertise, skills and talents. But we begin by cultivating ourselves!
Futurists don’t have a crystal ball or a basket of fortune-cookie predictions. Rather, futurists discipline themselves to question the status quo. They regularly scan external trends, adjacent industries and underlying forces. They consider diverse perspectives. And they boldly tell stories about the future before all of the data is available to back it up.
Futures thinking is about readiness and new possibilities and can be built using five components: understanding, forecast, foresight, modification and anticipation.
The future doesn't just happen to us. We have agency in imagining and creating the kind of future we want to live in, and we can take actions to get us there.
Futures thinking is not about predicting the future; rather, it is about engaging people in thinking deeply about complex issues, imagining new possibilities, connecting signals into larger patterns, connecting the past with the present and the future, and making better choices today. Futures thinking skills are essential for everyone to learn in order to better navigate their own lives and to make better decisions in the face of so many transformations in our basic technologies and organizational structures. The more you practice futures thinking, the better you get by not focusing on predictions, uncovering signals, understanding historical trajectories, weaving together larger patterns, and bringing diverse voices into the conversation—should help you on your journey of making futures thinking a way of life for you, your company and community.
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Strategic foresight serves to quiet the noise and amplify relevant weak signals. It involves mediating a system of systems and connecting people with trends and revelations not previously addressed.
Thinking about the future is a collaborative and highly communal affair. It requires a diversity of views. We need to involve experts from many different domains.
Once an organization has been introduced to the power of futures thinking through workshops or short-term training that transforms innovation and creativity, informs resilient strategy, or delivers breakthrough business growth, they often want to step up and build a “future-ready” competency throughout the entire organization. Let’s make that happen?
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Creativity
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Stuck in the land of the status quo, we've forgotten how to think.
Thinking can no longer be exclusive to the creative team or lead strategists. Rather, a culture of questioning and curiosity must be fostered among the organisation to shake up the standard practices, from unproductive meetings to go-nowhere strategic planning. This revolution can and will awaken our ability to think, and ultimately, to innovate and grow.
Unlock the innovation potential of your organization using a refreshing and simple approach. From our extensive curated library of innovation resources and contents to our forward-thinking trainers, we inspire and enable entire organizations to think differently, drive change, and achieve innovation success.
This involves both risk and trust: to allow all employees the opportunity and environment to be curious and inquisitive—even challenging and provocative when the situation calls for it. Too often, this type of behaviour is seen as threatening but several studies and research have proved that cognitive diversity and psychological safety are essential for unleashing creativity, innovation and performance.
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