The New Abnormal

Series ThreeThis episode of #TheNewAbnormal podcast features Phil Rowley, Head of Futures at Omnicom Media Group UK.  In addition to this, he's also a Media Futurist, Tech Advisory Board Member, AdWeek Columnist, and Power MBA lecturer.  Phil specialises in talking to brands about the future, turning thought-leadership and emerging tech trends into actual strategies.  He has over 22 years’ experience working in London, Dublin & Auckland – and is a recipient of ‘The Internationalist’ Agency Innovators Award. In this episode, we discuss a series of the latest reports from OMG Futures, and therefore discuss a range of macro issues including 'The Next Decade', 'The Future of Wellbeing' and 'The Future of Sustainability' alongside specific subjects such as 'How to be a Bad Futurist' (and how to be a good one), 'Why the grey market is THE market' and 'Tech for Truth'. 

Series ThreeThis episode of #TheNewAbnormal podcast features a fascinating interview with a renowned futurist, Tom Lombardo. He's a Director at the Center for Future Consciousness,  which offers educational experiences that challenge and stimulate the mind, expand conscious awareness, empower creativity, deepen understanding, enhance ethics and promote social growth.  Tom is also an Exec Board Member and Fellow of the World Futures Studies Federation, and Editor at the Journal of  Futures Studies. In this deeply interesting and wide-ranging conversation, Tom discusses issues including the history of futurism, his best-selling books, notable futurists / philosophers / psychologists / authors, along with contemporary leading-edge thinking into the overall subject of futurism, foresight and scenario planning.So...I hope you enjoy listening to his viewpoints as much as I did! 

Series ThreeThis episode of The New Abnormal podcast features Sylvia Gallusser,  who is a renowned Global Futurist and the CEO of Silicon Humanism. Based in San Fransisco, she's an inquirer of our future, conducting foresight projects on the future of health, well-aging, and social interaction, the future of work and life-long learning, as well as transformations in mobility and retail. Sylvia closely monitors the future of the mind and transhumanism, investigates Artificial General Intelligence and AI ethics. She's also involved in the future of our oceans and sustainability, and supports positive ocean tech startups. Over the past year, she focused her research on mental health in the workplace and remote work environments, and the future home. Sylvia has launched an "Ethics and Philosophy of Futures" think tank within the Association of Professional Futurists.  She's also a Go-to-Metaverse Strategist, helping brands enter the metaverse and web3 strategically and ethically, and co-designing focused metaverse brand activation. An author of Speculative Fiction , Sylvia teaches MBA classes, and facilitates workshops on go-to-market strategy, competitive analysis, futures thinking, worldbuilding, and entrepreneurship.So...as you can no doubt imagine, I really enjoyed listening to her viewpoints - and I'm sure you will too! 

Series ThreeIn this episode of #TheNewAbnormal podcast I interview the incredibly dynamic Alice Charles,  who leads the World Economic Forum's cities work streams, inc the Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization and its workstreams on City Climate & Resilience, Urban Inclusion, City Digital Transformation and City Financing. She's also created the City Dialogues series, which enables curated discussions between city leaders and leaders of business, civil society and academia on the city's future vision and collaborative action. Alice provides advice and direction on a variety of Forum initiatives inc the Future of Real Estate, BiodiverseCities 2030, Net Zero Carbon Cities and Sustainable Timber and the Built Environment.  In addition, she leads the production of cities related content and events at WEF Summits, including Davos. So, and as you can imagine, we cover a lot of ground covering the above issues. I found her viewpoints absolutely fascinating and hope you do too!

Series ThreeThis episode of #TheNewAbnormal features Henry Coutinho-Mason, who is obsessed with new perspectives on the biggest question in business: "what will people want next?"I've been lucky enough to have been given an advance copy of his new book “The Future Normal: How We Will Live, Work & Thrive In The Coming Decade” which was written in conjunction with Wall St Journal bestselling author Rohit Bhargava and is out soon.  The book is the focus of our conversation, hence discussing issues such as 'How we will connect, get healthy and thrive / How we will live, work, and consume / How humanity will survive''.(The ex-Managing Director of Trendwatching, Henry's previous book "Trend-Driven Innovation" formed the basis of their research, content & product.) He's also co-founder of 3Space, an innovative solution to generating social value from empty commercial property. Finally, he was also mentioned as one of GQ's Most 'Connected Men in Britain'.  As they say, what's not to like? 

Series ThreeThis episode of #TheNewAbnormal podcast features the designer, urbanist and strategist Johanna Hoffman, who explores the ties between design, planning, fiction and futures. She's the founder of California-based Design for Adaptation, a studio using strategic planning, interactive storytelling and speculative design to survey the impacts of potential futures and spur proactive adaptation. Johanna also works with other firms, implementing foresight assessment, futures research, story and strategy to help people, cities and organisations understand what future changes mean for them, and develop actionable plans in response.In this episode, she explains how the emerging field of speculative futures can help us dream - and build - better, sustainable, and more equitable cities for everyone. Her new book 'Speculative Futures: Design Approaches to Navigate Change, Foster Resilience, and Co-Create the Cities We Need' is out now! 

Series ThreeThis episode of #TheNewAbnormal podcast (available on all the usual platforms) features Ian Peters MBE, Director at Institute of Business Ethics; which has a guiding purpose of championing the highest standards of ethical behaviour in business. Ian is a specialist in business policy and strategic communications, and is highly experienced in media & government relations, and business policy. All organisations need to demonstrate they are trustworthy, and the IBE is an important partner to any business wanting to preserve its long-term reputation by doing business in the right way.  In the interview, Ian outlines subjects including 'how to build an ethical culture', illuminates issues impacting leadership & role modelling, gives practical guidance around purpose, ethical values, organisational culture and behaviour; along with detailing practicalities around both establishing and demonstrating a code of ethics. 

Series ThreeThis episode of #TheNewAbnormal podcast features Laura de Moliere, Partner and Co-founder at the Germany-based consultancy, Decision-Context. She's also the ex-Head of Behavioural Science  at the UK Govt's Cabinet Office, before which she's was in senior roles at other Government Departments. In this podcast, she gives a fascinating overview of decision sciences, social psychology and behavioural economics. Therefore, we discuss everything from Nudge Theory to being 'Predictably Irrational' and specifics such as confirmation bias, social proof, loss aversion, disinformation, and System 1 & 2 thinking. In particular, she explains her current obsession with ChatGPT from the perspective of applying AI to personalise, evaluate and predict optimal interventions regarding behavioural change.  Finally, we even talk about the dreaded 'B' word. Yes, as in Brexit...

Series ThreeThis episode of 'The New Abnormal' features  Florencia Lujani, a Strategy Director based in London who specialises in brand & creative strategy. She started her career a decade ago at TBWA Buenos Aires, where she learnt about 'Disruption Planning' before moving to the UK. She's since worked at JWT London, We Are Social, and Ketchum PR, before joining Media Bounty, one of the leading ethical creative agencies in the country. Florencia works with brands and the climate sector developing strategies that help shift the world to a sustainable economy. (She recently completed a Master’s Degree in Cultural Studies from Birkbeck, University of London, where she studied the intersection of culture, the economy, advertising, the climate crisis and consumer culture). Florencia also publishes her Substack newsletter 'Cultural Patterns' where she writes about cultural phenomena, new forms of creativity, the climate crisis, emerging consumer behaviour and their impact on brand strategy. She's written for WARC, The Drum, Contagious, The Guardian, Marketing Week and her thinking has been published in the UK, Spain, Germany, the US, and Latin America. In this episode, we discuss a range of issues relating to her specialist knowledge, and in particular, some of her latest thinking regarding "if you don't have a climate plan, you don't have a business plan".  

Series ThreeIn this episode of #TheNewAbnormal I interview the incredibly dynamic Stephanie Benedetto.  A corporate attorney turned climate fintech entrepreneur, Stephanie is the Co-Founder of Queen of Raw, no-code enterprise software to intelligently resell and recycle unused inventory on Raw Chain, measure, report, and turn pollution into profit. Prior to starting Queen of Raw, Stephanie worked as a lawyer in the fashion, media/entertainment, start-up, and technology industries and co-founded a sustainable textile manufacturing facility. An advocate for women in business and sustainability, her companies have been featured in NPR, Good Morning America, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Entrepreneur. Stephanie is a 2020 Inc. Female Founders 100, an MIT Circular Economy Solver, an LVMH Innovation Award Finalist, and an Accenture and World Economic Forum Circulars 2022. She's also a Member of Pledge 1% and Founding Member of New York Circular City Initiative and Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network. So...as you can probably imagine,  this episode is a great example of someone who went out there to build a business and change the world for the better...