What Does Our Future Hold?
What's Next for America?
Richard Worzel, speaker, consultant, and one of today's leading futurists on what's ahead:
People are feeling edgy right now.
Markets are doing strange and scary things. Parts of the U.S. economy look rocky - and that's on their good days. Globalization is reshaping the world, and some people say it's for the better, while others swear it's destroying our jobs and our economy. Technology is changing all the rules, and new devices seem to pop up faster than our ability to adapt to them.
Moreover, although all these gadgets promise more convenience, they all seem to eat away at our private lives in one way or another. Businesses have a hard time deciding what to do with looming shortages of skills, unsettled economic prospects, and rising levels of competition.
How do you make sense of all this?
I'm a professional futurist, and making sense of it, and where we're going, is what I do for a living. I'm not a fortune-teller, and I don't try to predict the future because the future is, frankly, unpredictable. But what I can do is make it possible for organizations, corporations, and governments to plan intelligently for the uncertainties we are facing. Indeed, there are ways of capturing this uncertainty and putting it to work for you.
I do this in several different ways, but principally through consulting, through leading people through workshops, seminars, and extended strategic planning sessions, and by speaking at conferences for clients, members, prospects, or key employees, executives, or boards of directors.
Let me provide you with some evidence
Before I started consulting and speaking as a professional futurist, I worked in the investment business as an institutional investor, so I know that talk is cheap, but evidence is critical.
That being so, let me provide you with some evidence:
Richard Worzel,
strategic planner and futurist,
works with organizations to help
them plan and prepare for the
uncertainties ahead of us.
Videos
First, see and hear for yourself: I have several video clips of past presentations available online.
Next, I have over 10 years of testimonials from conference organizers who have put down hard cash to hire me to speak to their people, or work with them in a seminar setting. They talk about how I've inspired, amused, engaged, intrigued, entertained, and informed their audiences - and how easy I am to work with, and the depth of my customization.
Thank you for being so engaged during the development phase of the workshop. Your desire to ensure that your presentation met the unique and varied needs of our membership was appreciated; and the resultant end product was very well received. You delivered a perfect balance of theoretical and practical information, a refreshing change from the all-theory material we typically see. Your pragmatic and common sense approach to risk management and scenario planning was simple enough to incorporate into the business planning cycle of any organization and yet complex enough to ensure the value of the effort. The positive learning experience was punctuated by member feedback which included:
Richard's presentation was awesome! He totally knew his subject matter, spoke off the cuff and with complete candor. His insights [although somewhat terrifying to consider] prompted out-of-the-box thinking.
As usual, you provided me with your full speaking notes for review (you are still the only keynote speaker ever to do this for me) and then ensured that you and I took the time to have a substantive discussion regarding the content and my concerns. Just as you had done in the past, you worked very hard to hit just the right note on a cold winter day in New York City.
I've also written articles on the future of a wide variety of issues, and my archives go back for years.
You can read through some of them, and see if I've made sense in the past - and whether you think I'll make sense of the future.
Or, you can read through the descriptions of presentations I've made for clients in the past few years, descriptions I've usually written specifically for a particular event. The future is my field of study, which means I'm not a specialist on a single subject, but instead a generalist with a broad knowledge of a wide range of fields.
I use this background to create a big picture of what's going on around your organization now and in future, tie all the lose ends together, and provide new information and insights that makes the presentation both intriguing and useful to your conferees.
Over the past 15 years, I've helped my consulting clients prepare strategic plans to cope with the uncertainties of the future. Because I wanted to leave them with material they could use when I wasn't around, I gradually evolved a set of detailed notes that would allow them to walk, step-by-step, through the planning process without me.
I recently formalized these notes into a 25-page handbook (it's actually 32 pages long, but the additional pages are mostly formatting), entitled Risk Management and Scenario Planning: How to Avoid Problems and Spot Opportunities. It will tell you a lot about the way I think and the quality of my work. It's yours (in electronic form) for the asking.
Finally, you can interview me yourself to see if I have the knowledge and background - the straight goods - you need for your organization.
I understand that you need to know you've got the right fit, and if I'm not that guy, I'll tell you. Like you, I'm only interested in being involved in a successful relationship.
There's no obligation, so if I've said something that might make sense to you, make the call: 416-489-4511. It's a direct line, straight to my desk.
For more than 18 years I've worked with pharmaceutical companies, technology companies, credit unions, banks, sales groups, retailers, agribusinesses, financial advisors, life science researchers and investors, alternative fuel and energy groups, government agencies, medical groups, manufacturers - and lots of others besides.
But what's important is that we can do it for your organization. Call me to find out what kind of interactive future experience we can create for you.
I'd appreciate the chance to talk with you about your needs. I look forward to hearing from you. Kindest personal regards,
Richard Worzel, C.F.A. p.s. When you call, ask for a free copy of my electronic handbook called Risk Management and Scenario Planning. I think you'll find it interesting and useful - and there's no obligation. My phone number is 416-489-4511.
