What is the future for business leaders and businessmen? With a world that changes rapidly, how do you navigate a path to success? To have a better idea of where we headed, I met the futuristic Joana Lenkova de Futures Forward, who shares information about the leaders should be thinking about the future of their businesses.
Q: Tell me a little about you and what does a futuristic do?
Joana Lenkova: I have experience in fire, strategy, innovation and forecast within large corporations such as Walt Disney Company and now the Lego Group. In 2019, I founded Futures Forward, my own consulting, which allows me to work not only with corporations but also with non -governmental organizations, new companies and government institutions to imagine better futures for them.
Q: How should business leaders and businessmen think now and the tools available for them?
Lenkova: For me, the most interesting question is not what tools we are using, it is what these tools allow us to do. We live in an era of radical accessibility. Entrepreneurs and professionals of today, easy access to declines of low or not no Code, AI attendees, a global group of independent talents and direct distribution platforms to the consumer. I think that real change is in speed, access, autonomy, and with ia is agency. What used to require complete equipment and Big Capital can now be prototyped by a person in a weekend.
Q: What about the people who are about to start a company now? What advice would you give them, since they would give all this new technology?
Lenkova: I have a bone thinking a lot about that because we tend to be in love with technology. But what is the only thing that is as important today as in the past? Although the thesis tools have evolved, what really matters has not changed. It is still a clear vision, the ability to adapt and solve something significant.
So, someone by launching a business now, you should come to ask yourself, what is the true human need that I will serve? Many times companies start from a technology, you know, we develop this and experience and prototypes and see where it leads us. But in the end, it will be successful if it can be a solution for a significant future need.
Q: How should business leaders and starting founders be thinking of building teams, since now AI helps or replace many roles?
Lenkova: I think it starts with the problem and not with the technology it uses. You may choose to hire versatile hybrid thinkers instead of deep specialists, especially when you need innovative solutions and rapid adaptability as a business. Or of course, the context is important.
But this is exactly how futurists think: Weook for cognitive diversity. There is an interesting work of Scott Page, whose research shows that several groups of people can overcome homogeneous groups of experts.
Leaders sometimes tend to hire people who confirm their own prejudices unconsciously, but that is not healthy. You need people who can illuminate your blind points, not those who agree with you.
Q: Do you think we are living at a time when we will witness the first Sigeneur that uses technology and AI to become a billionaire?
Lenkova: I wonder if we already have. With creators such as Mrbeast, for example, who are building these personal media brands in such a different way, creating new IP, licenses, content and product lines. The Sigepreneurs are super enabled today to reach the global public and can occur overnight using the tools available intelligently.
But the most interesting thing for me is that there is a change in values. I really wonder if the next generation of founders aspires to be billionaires in terms of dollars, or perhaps this is just a hopeful scenario in which I am living, that they would do it because measuring success for impact or by freedom. Then, perhaps the first “multimillionaire” Sybrisy chooses not being one in the traditional sense.
Q: Do you think we are heading in a direction where everyone will need to become an entrepreneur or with the best moment?
Lenkova: Not necessarily, but we are in a world where business thinking is essential, in large companies. I think there will definitely be more experiments in new forms of government.
On the one hand, the change will manifest in a stronger connection with the purpose, maintaining the structure of the commercial organization but seeking to generate value between people and the planet in addition to the profits. I see this in the future as a hygiene factor. Think of regenerative systems.
On the other hand, we are also seeing more importance to the brands led by the community, experiments with decentralized governance forms, etc. But to allow thesis changes, you must remember the inherited systems and the ways of having a governance of sartos.
Q: Something you would like to share with people who launches a business at this time?
Lenkova: Yes, not only build a product, build a worldview, have a purpose. It is not enough to sell products, it really has to make a positive change to humans, the planet, to the community. Think about regenerative practices and look multiple future scenarios. Think about how the world will look, how you would like the world to look and make it happen. Think about the future needs of your interested parties and create solutions for those. What do you think about the future that others still do not see? Let that be your compass.