Philip Quenby (MA Cantab.)
Author, film-maker and
commentator, partner at international law firm Lovells for almost
ten years (1992-2001). He has worked in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
Taiwan, Russia, Jamaica, South Africa, Cuba, the United States and Abu Dhabi,
as well as in several western European countries.
Operating across sectors as diverse as shipping, commodity trading, oil and gas, port development, trade finance, insurance, and asset recovery, this was globalisation before globalisation was a thing. He speaks fair French and German, with a smattering of Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch.
"Omar Khayyam wrote, "But leave the wise to wrangle, and with me the quarrel of the universe let be. And in some corner of the hubbub couch'd, make game of that which makes as much of thee." While Marx said, "Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the important thing, however, is to change it."
Whether we can change the future is a moot point, but we can choose how we react to it. To give ourselves the best possible preparation and the greatest chance of riding out events rather than simply enduring them, we need to think carefully about what is coming, and prepare for it. This is where Fast Forward Futures comes in.
David Lindsay (BSc Southampton)
ACA with Price Waterhouse.
Former Army Reservist. He has extensive commercial, financial,
strategic and operational experience, gained from roles in central and
local government, business and the voluntary sectors.
He has lived and
worked professionally in Germany and Australia and
travelled internationally as an internal auditor for a US multi-national
within central and Eastern Europe, Asia and the USA. He is currently a
local councillor, community and civic leader and a former Mayor in a
London borough. He speaks good German and respectable French.
Harold Wilson once quipped "A week is a long time in politics", while Lenin allegedly observed, "There are decades when nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen". We are in a season of acceleration, and much is happening in greatly truncated timeframes. Sixty years ago, JFK said, "May you live in interesting times". If that was true then, it is even more true now.
We are seeing unprecedented change everywhere: some trends will slow, others quicken; some will continue their current trajectory, others shift in new directions. The overall result will be a fundamental reset of agendas and a transformation of what looks possible or even desirable. The future always has surprises in store, but Fast Forward Futures can help you to ride out the coming storm.
