Cecily Sommers
APF
MN, USA global trends analyst, Cecily Sommers helps organizations understand and prepare for the emerging technologies, markets, and ideas shaping our world. She is the author of Think Like a Futurist: Know What Changes, What Doesn't and What's Next and the founder of The Push Institute, a non-profit think tank that tracks significant global trends and their implications for business, government, and non-profit sectors over the next 5-10-25-50 years.
Many companies have benefited from the strategic foresight Cecily offers, Accenture, American Express, Best Buy, General Mills, HealthPartners, Kraft Foods, Motorola, Target, Wrigley, and Yahoo! among them. Whether an executive briefing, scenario planning, or designing an innovation program and training for a multi-national corporation, clients find Cecily's straight-forward approach a welcome and practical antidote to the complex challenges they face.
A popular speaker at conferences, business schools and retreats across the country, Cecily treats her audience to a guided tour of the future, noting key opportunities and challenges along the way. Cecily was selected as one of Fast Company’s "Fast 50 Reader’s' Favorites" and named by the Business Journal as one of twenty-five "Women to Watch." She is a semi-regular contributor to NPR’s "All Things Considered" and other media outlets, where she reports on emerging technologies, markets, and ideas shaping our world. Cecily is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists.
Cecily Sommers has been described as "one of those rare people who is destined to make a mark, who has that special blend of heart, foresight, and leadership" (Andrew Zolli, curator, PopTech and author, Reslience). In the words of Merle Minda, former Senior Vice President of Fleishman-Hillard, "she is catalytic and brilliant."
A global trends analyst, Cecily Sommers helps organizations understand and prepare for the emerging technologies, markets, and ideas shaping our world. She is the author of Think Like a Futurist: Know What Changes, What Doesn't and What's Next and the founder of The Push Institute, a non-profit think tank that tracks significant global trends and their implications for business, government, and non-profit sectors over the next 5-10-25-50 years.
Many companies have benefited from the strategic foresight Cecily offers, Accenture, American Express, Best Buy, General Mills, HealthPartners, Kraft Foods, Motorola, Target, Wrigley, and Yahoo! among them. Whether an executive briefing, scenario planning, or designing an innovation program and training for a multi-national corporation, clients find Cecily's straight-forward approach a welcome and practical antidote to the complex challenges they face.
A popular speaker at conferences, business schools and retreats across the country, Cecily treats her audience to a guided tour of the future, noting key opportunities and challenges along the way. Cecily was selected as one of Fast Company’s "Fast 50 Reader’s' Favorites" and named by the Business Journal as one of twenty-five "Women to Watch." She is a semi-regular contributor to NPR’s "All Things Considered" and other media outlets, where she reports on emerging technologies, markets, and ideas shaping our world. Cecily is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists.
Cecily Sommers has been described as "one of those rare people who is destined to make a mark, who has that special blend of heart, foresight, and leadership" (Andrew Zolli, curator, PopTech and author, Reslience). In the words of Merle Minda, former Senior Vice President of Fleishman-Hillard, "she is catalytic and brilliant."
Think Like a Futurist: Know What Changes, What Doesn't, and What's Next
In her presentation, Think Like a Futurist: Know What Changes, What Doesn't, and What's Next,
Cecily Sommers helps people make sense of a world gone flat, fast, and fickle. With tremendous clarity, Sommers shows how the social, economic, and environmental crises of our time spring from just four constant and predictable forces. Understand how they work together to drive change, she says, and you can stake out a territory that is yours to invent and own — for the long-term.
As...
The Art of Reinvention
One of the most common ways of describing what we’re looking for in life—at work, at home, and in social relationships—is a “good fit.” We may not know exactly what a good-fit job, place, or person will look like, but we trust that we’ll know it when we find it: it’ll feel both comfortable and stimulating and, in terms of outcomes, will generate satisfaction and success. In other words, we believe that finding what suits and supports our unique strengths, temperament, and interests (the...
Rethinking Retail
Who’d-a-thunk music and video would one day exist in the ether? Of course, the ether is now called the cloud, and all you need is paid access to plug in and play your own custom collection, accessible from any kind of computer, anywhere.
Well, the music, film, and video industries didn’t thunk it. They never anticipated such a shift in form and distribution of recorded content, and have been in a reactive back-slide into irrelevance ever since.
A shift in form and...
A Futurist's Approach to Strategy
Step away from the SWOT analysis! Too often what passes for strategic planning is simply a linear projection of current conditions, filtered through the myopic lens of industry best practices. To be truly strategic, foresight must be employed for a farther, wider look at emerging trends and their implications.
Establishing a map that answers “Where are you going?” is the first order of business in strategic planning. Next, research into the forces shaping the competitive landscape...
"But..." Busters
Whether clothed in justification, indecision, resentment, excuse, complaint, road blocks, blame, fear or tentativeness, a big “But...” can always be found at the bottom of circular conversations (how many meetings have been devoted to that questions/project/agenda?!) and stalled progress. No matter the shape or size, these “But...” s limit committed action, sometimes in very costly ways.
“But...” Busters rescues resolution and accomplishment from the torture of long kept holding...
INVENTING THE FUTURE: How to Build a Brand-Specific, Future-Focused Innovation Portfolio
At once inspiring and practical, Cecily's future-directed programs bring the power of strategic foresight to strategy and innovation. With new tools and models developed for a new world, you’ll discover fresh answers to ageless questions, "What's shaping tomorrow's markets?" and "Which opportunities give us the most advantage?"
Delivered in 3 hours, 3 days, 3 months, or 1 year, Cecily’s programs explore intersecting potentials—yours and those in the future— to find not only the Big...
