Mafia Deals: Economy and Geopolitics in the Age of Trump 

Structures and Ideologies after 1945 now get crashed. What now? Ungovernability, end of party systems, industrial policy? Win-Win is over, just win-lose and the law of the jungle? Meaning what for Europe, the West, and Switzerland? 

Growth – Freedom – Sustainability.

Where wo de go with our economy and our society?

Growth compulsion means more stress for employees and companies, but also more pressure to calculate externalities and include them in our strategies - and therefore get more expensive (cf. ESG, environmental, social, governance). Regulation takes off. Where is entrepreneurial freedom and motivation left?

Hope and Fear.

How do we successfully survive in uncertain times?

Humans need hope to survive. Fear is ok, but only to the degree that it makes us improve our self awareness. If fear gets too strong, hope dies. Feelings are always stronger than reason or hard facts. Hope means the wish to have a better life. Typical hope markets include technology, finance, health, food, and beauty. Can this happen if pessimism gets ever stronger?

The Future of Retail: 
The new core competencies. More speed, more precision, more flexibility. 

That’s the direction. But at the same time, we observe the opposite: Slowness, Multiplicity, and Determination. Convergence of the digital and the analog. Vulnerability of all channels is increasing. Customer centricity redefined. The right definition of convenience and simplicity more important than ever. 

The End of Consumption.
Will virtual consumption swallow real consumption? A visionary outlook.

Platforms and Cloud, Data and AI are radically changing consumption patterns. Blockchain based Metaverse Web3 frames the hype, that progressively the virtual world is dominating the real world. What kind of perspectives emerge out of that? Meaning what for brands, consumers, human beings?

The Future of Energy.
Our economy is only an energy conversion system. No energy, no economy. What will the energy world 2035 look like? Digital, electrified, and decarbonised? Transparency and cost truth? Technology openness or ideologies and culture wars? What new materials will become more important? How will we define energy sustainability? How will this affect the economy, our society, and politics?

Techno-Optimism. 
Digitization, A.I., Blockchain, ChatGPT and the Metaverse. What is hype, what is going to be real?

The digital economy is now an imaginary world full of directed and accidental narratives. Crypto currencies like Bitcoin. EVs like Tesla. Metaverse and NFTs. ChatGPT and communication. How can we understand craziness, see investment opportunities, without succumbing to stupidity like FTX?

Workquake: 
Demographics, leadership, and employment in a changing business world

Work is losing its key value as a meaningful anchor in our lives. This will dramatically transform our economy and our society. Part timers, quiet quitters, the emergence of the laptop class, early retirement, bot bosses ... What is the role of age and experience? What is the role of start ups and young entrepreneurs?

Cave Man again – High Tech Indoor people with garden and balconies

How the present crises from climate change and pandemics to digitization create new lifestyles - and livingroom arrangments. How values change and how they favor the retreat into caves again, but with a hypermodern tech twist combined with old fashioned behavior. Cinema as role model in semi-darkness, with all the flashy devices, but a view towards nature with garden romance and fancy balconies. 

Entangled Life: 
Health, Food, and Sustainability in the networked world

When everything is intertwined with everything else, humans, animals, plants and the environment, viruses, bacteria and fungi become equal partners in the survival game. We are learning to see the world in a new light. How artificial will future food become? How are we going to redefine health?

Soft Power - Smart Power - Hard Power

Europe is above all Soft Power: Lifestyle with great urban spaces, phantastic museums, shopping and restaurants, all key luxury brands, football, the alpine world and beautiful coasts, and all guaranteed in freedom and with democratic institutions. But the U.S. and China are basically Smart Power: Artificial Intelligence, Platforms, Persuasion with Social Media. And Russia is teaching us that Hard Power - military enforcement - is coming back into the world of generous lifestyles. What does that mean for our economy and society, consumers and citizens? 

Change, Transformation, Disruption – how do organizations and human beings adapt? 

Modern men are organization men. How do organizations change, how fast, and how sustainably? What is the difference between change, transformation, and disruption? Do excellent companies need disruption? Can you really change humans, and culture?