2008: 4 Global Watching: Global Challenges
– The newsletter is published and distributed by Kairos Future International AB
Issue: 5, year 2008
Date: May 9, 2008
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CONTENT:
GLOBAL CHALLENGES
Feature: Energy shortage – the main threat to Global Growth
News:
- Can technology save our climate?
- CEO wake-up call: time for a big, big change
- The metropolis and the infrastructure challenge
- Tomorrow’s health consumers – individualists with no illusions
Upcoming events:
- Open lectures in Denmark
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Dear reader,
Rocketing food prices, climate change, economic turmoil, falling house prices, surging oil prices and Cyclone disaster in Burma: these are all top news and perceived as global concerns. How do we deal with global challenges? What are perceived to be the main threats to global growth? Are we prepared to meet them?
In this issue of Global Watching we present examples of Kairos Future’s work with a global dimension.
Enjoy your reading!
Best regards,
Sofia Johnsson
Editor
Kairos Future
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FEATURE:
Energy shortage – The main threat to global growth
What is the main threat to global growth? According to Kairos Future’s expert network, Futuretrackers, energy shortage and increased energy prices are the most imminent negative trends that risks obstructing global development within a ten-year perspective. This is one of the main findings from a recent survey by Kairos Future in collaboration with Futuretrackers: Global Growth 2008.
In the same survey conducted in 2005, terrorism was perceived as the most serious threat. Evidently these results reflect a shift in what issues that are most publicly exposed and debated. In 2005, the world talked about al-Qaida, the Madrid bombings and the war in Iraq. Today the focus has shifted to climate change, melting polar ice and alternative energy sources.
Read more about the results from the Global Growth Survey 2008, here!
Futuretrackers is a global network of experts representing various disciplines, sectors, managerial levels and different political orientations. By participating in surveys on different topics these experts receive a summary from each survey in return. Please contact Ms. Elin Åström for more information about Futuretrackers and the surveys.
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NEWS:
Can technology save our climate?
We are becoming increasingly aware of the threat that climate change implies both for us as individuals and for our whole society. But what do we need to do to cope with the growing discharge of greenhouse gases? Will new energy efficient techniques be enough? Or will we also have to change our lifestyles?
Can we do it?
Read the full article here!
For more information, please contact Mr. Per Florén, consultant at Kairos Future, by e-mail or Mobile: +46 70 899 04 30!
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CEO wake-up call: time for a big, big change
Finally, the global competitive challenges seem to have reached every single corner of the business landscape, even into the board rooms of the public sector, writes Mats Lindgren, CEO Kairos Future Group, in this article written exclusively for Kairos Global Watching.
IBM recently published their bi-annual global CEO study where 1130 CEOs across the globe were interviewed.
More than 8 out of 10 of the CEOs recognize a great need for change during the coming years in order to cope with global competition and increased customer demands, up from 65 % in year 2006. But fewer CEOs are confident that they will succeed.
Read Mats Lindgren’s full article here!
For further information about Kairos Future’s study, or for a benchmark of your own organization's "future excellence capability", please contact Mats Lindgren, CEO Kairos Future Group, by e-mail!
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The metropolis and the infrastructure challenge
The metropolis is the motor of our time. This is where new ideas and jobs are created. It attracts everybody, both young and old. But what does the future of the metropolis look like? Will it survive?
Read Per Florén’s full article here!
For more information, please contact Mr. Per Florén by e-mail or by Mobile: +46 70 899 04 30!
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Tomorrow’s health consumers – individualists with no illusions
Swedes have no illusions when it comes to public provision of preventative medicine and the treatment of illness, which are generally referred to as health and health care. Most of them currently see it as a right, but few of them believe it will be so ten years from now. The image of the future is almost identical regardless of political sympathy; most of the rights to receive health care will be limited, and at the same time there will be a right to choose to pay for better care. This future picture also applies for left wing voters, according to a study of tomorrow’s health care consumers carried out by Kairos Future.
Read the full article here!
Please contact project leader Mr Mats Olsson for further information, by e-mail or by phone: +46(0)708-670 570!
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UPCOMING EVENTS:
Kairos Future Denmark offers Open Lectures in our Copenhagen office!
Generational shifts – May 23, 2008
Challenges of Innovation – May 30, 2008
Re-writing the future – June 13 2008
Read more here!
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Kairos Future International AB is a Swedish futures research and strategy consulting firm that helps companies understand and shape their future. We have done youth surveys and values research for over a decade and possess unique methods to assess futures scenarios.
