Democratizing
the future
Towards a new era of creativity and growth by Josephine Green
Index


               Josephine Green was appointed Senior Director of Trends and               		     Abstract 4
               Strategy at Philips Design in 1997. She promotes new thinking and         	 1	 change of age 6
                                                                                              A
               new knowledge in the fields of Foresight and Society, Cultures and
                                                                                         	 2	Beyond consumption 8
               People Research, and its application to strategic thinking, sustainable
                                                                                         	 3	Beyond technology 12
               innovation and new value creation. Josephine was born in the United
               Kingdom and studied History and Politics at Warwick University in         	 4	The context economy 14

               England. She has lived in England, Italy and the Netherlands.             	 5	New economic value 24

                                                                                         	 6	 socially led approach 28
                                                                                              A
               For more information on Philips Design
               Email: info.design@philips.com                                            	 7	Social innovation 30
               Website: www.design.philips.com

                                                                                         	 8	The future 34

                                                                                         	 9	Foresight in design 36

                                                                                         	10	   Sense making and making sense 60

                                                                                         		     References 66




   Brochure                                                                                                                       Index – Democratizing the future
Abstract
                                          Major corporations are often restricted by a too-limited view of the future. This view
                                          is based on the western belief that time is linear and that the future is merely an empty
                                          space that can be ‘colonized’ to the present and filled with ever more technology and
                                          consumer goods. However, this technology and consumer determinism now threatens
                                                                                                                                            We live in an age
                                          to compromise our wellbeing and prosperity.


                                          This paper argues that we need different ways of thinking, being and doing if we are to
                                          live well, prosper and safeguard the future. Primarily we need to go beyond the straightjacket
                                                                                                                                            in which we have to
                                          of consumer needs and a consumer approach, and also encompass social needs and
                                          a social approach. By doing so, we can drive a new era of creativity and growth.


                                          Working with this emerging social space therefore becomes both an opportunity and
                                                                                                                                            re-invent many of our
                                          a necessity. However, we must not only re-invent our social industries, but also our lifestyles
                                          and even the very growth models upon which they are based. To achieve this, the new
                                          technologies enable more radical innovation through the delivery of more context-based
                                          customized services and systems. Such place embedded systems have the potential to
                                                                                                                                            social industries like
                                          deliver sustainable solutions for the 21st century.

                                          Shifting our emphasis from consumption to services and systems, and combining a
                                          consumer-led and socially-led approach, means that how we think about and interact
                                                                                                                                            health, education,
                                          with the future will change. This paper explores these changes and examines how we
                                          might open up and engage with the future differently, in terms of going beyond:
                                          •	a market-led approach, based on consumer research and innovation, to a socially-led
                                            approach based on social research and social innovation.
                                                                                                                                            wellbeing, care and
                                          •	the act of researching the future to directly engaging with the future through people who
                                            are already creating it today.
                                          •	closed research and innovation to open co-creation with stakeholders, especially users.
                                          •	a linear interpretation of time and the future towards new conceptual models that allow
                                                                                                                                            transport
                                            a more imaginative and creative interaction with the future.


                                          In short, we need to shift the emphasis away from technology and the market and more
                                          towards people and responsibility through ownership. It is time to democratize the future.


   Democratizing the future – Abstract                                                                                                                          Brochure
1                   A change of age
                                           In many companies there has been a shift in the last decades from a focus on technology
                                           research and innovation to a focus on consumer research and innovation. This shift mirrors
                                           the realization that technology can drive growth but often fails to be sufficiently in tune
                                           with consumers’ needs and aspirations. In other words, there have been too many mistakes
                                                                                                                                                      “ e are living
                                                                                                                                                       W
                                           and too many misses. The shift from technology to consumer also reflects the increasing
                                           influence and (purchasing) power of consumers, captured in the oft-repeated mantra; ‘the
                                           customer is king’. Such a consumer emphasis, however, is now beginning to show signs of
                                           weakness. The continuing rise of stress-related mental illnesses, at a time when the average
                                                                                                                                                       in a change of age
                                           disposable income in the western world has never been higher, undermines the belief that
                                           more means better. There is too much ‘stuff’ and a growing realization that filling the future
                                           with more and more consumer-driven technology and marketable goods does not
                                           necessarily guarantee higher growth, a better quality of life or even life itself, given the
                                                                                                                                                       rather than
                                           state of the planet. Beneath the surface things are moving.


                                           Converging socio-demographic, technological, economic and environmental forces are
                                           transforming and transfiguring our world so that in the space of approximately fifty years,
                                                                                                                                                       an age of change”
                                           from the 1970s to the 2020s, the world will look and feel a very different place. According
                                           to Peter Drucker (1), “Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp                     	   Powerfull Times – Rising to the challenge of our uncertain world (2)
                                           transformation. Within a few short decades, society rearranges itself; its worldview (paradigm),
                                           its basic values, its social and political structures, its arts, its key institutions. Fifty years later
                                           there is a new world.”


                                           Such a dynamic change of age is not served by incremental innovation but by deeper
                                           structural change and radical innovation. An example is how we have to re-think and re-
                                           invent some of our basic social industries such as health, care, education, transport, and –
                                           beyond the social industries – our lifestyles. These are all things that grew out of and were
                                           styled around the industrial era but need to be re-invented for the 21st century. As this
                                           paper suggests, the more progressive and ultimately more successful companies will
                                           progress from a consumer/market-led approach to a people/social-led approach.


                                           To make sense of this we need to identify and understand some of the factors influencing
                                           the metamorphosis from a market-led to a socially-led company.


   Democratizing the future – A change of age                                                                                                                                                                                   Brochure
2                  Beyond consumption
                                          Diversity                                                                                          Creativity
                                          Post-industrial society finds itself more and more at a meeting point of cultures, beliefs         This greater freedom to pick and choose, when matched with new technologies, signals
                                          and behaviors. Individual and more insular views are now confronted by many different              the final demise of the 20th century and of mass consumption, and marks a shift towards
                                          opinions, and the world has never been so diverse or seen to be so diverse. A single               mass creativity. Through web 2.0 social networking and community enhancing websites,
                                          undeniable truth, from a higher authority, gives way to multiple truths in which people,           the consumer is becoming the supplier of content, taste, emotions and goods. “Users
                                          both as individuals and as groups, walk the path to their own truth. This has increased the        move from the back end to the front end of innovation and, through enabling platforms
                                          number of clashes and conflicts, but at a deeper level, the top-down pyramidal ‘command            and tools, singularly or together (peer2peer) create their own values and solutions”(3).
                                          and control’ structure of the past is making way for greater personalization of the future         The notion that this is here to stay is supported by the statistics: 5 million blogs in less
                                          and a rich and varied kaleidoscope of personal and collective lives. Our ‘way’ becomes             than 2 years, with 175,000 added daily; 100 million clips viewed daily on YouTube; 116 million
                                          relative and new ‘ways’ become feasible and – through exposure and contact – even                  users of MySpace in 3 years; Wikipedia in 112 languages; 150 million users of eBay worldwide.
                                          inspirational. We are left knowing that there are all sorts of people leading all sorts of lives   In essence web 2.0 is more “an attitude than a technology”. One in which the power
                                          in all sorts of ways.                                                                              of we replaces the power of you. As Charles Leadbeater explores in his forthcoming book
                                                                                                                                             to be published in 2007 (4) “They (consumers) do not want to be just passive recipients
                                                                                                                                             but players and participants… They do not just want more choice but more say. These
                                                                                                                                             are activities of mass participation rather than mass consumption.”


                                                                                                                                             However there is also the other side of this increased freedom to choose. Greater
                                                                                                                                             self-determination and greater awareness is mirrored by greater complexity and greater
                                                                                                                                             responsibility. Life may be freer but it’s not easier. So we start to ask: How do we live?
                                                                                                                                             How could we live? How do we want to live?




   Democratizing the future – Beyond consumption                                                                                                                                                                                 Beyond consumption – Democratizing the future
Wellbeing
                                           We are increasingly aware that ever more technology, productivity and efficiency
                                           has helped drive the industrial-consumer economy, but to the detriment of the
                                           environment, the poor and personal happiness. The costs begin to outweigh the
                                           benefits. So what exactly is quality of life? Is it more money, more goods, or something
                                           less tangible? As the numerous happiness studies testify, it seems that what makes
                                           people happy, over and above a certain basic standard of living, is more intangible than
                                           tangible, and that the belief that more makes you happier is a myth rather than a reality.
                                           People, therefore, are re-defining their wellbeing, not so much in material ways but
                                           more in terms of health and wellness, connectedness, personal growth and personal
                                           control. Coupled with this is a search for a more sustainable development model based
                                           on balancing wealth and wellbeing (5). Contrary to popular perception, this is not just
                                           a rich person’s issue. Given the search for a more holistic wellbeing and the damage
                                           to the biosphere and to health, more sustainable livelihoods and lifestyles make sense
                                           in advanced industrialized nations as well as developing ones.


                                           Greater diversity and creativity and the re-evaluation of wellbeing testify to the fact that
                                           we are entering a new era. Consumers who defined their identity and worth through
                                           consumption and their lifestyles become producers, who define their identity and
                                           worth by creating, individually or collectively, there own content and lives. Consumption
                                           is reduced to an aspect but no longer the aspect.




10   Democratizing the future – Beyond consumption                                                                                        Brochure   11
3                    Beyond technology
                                           The dematerialization of happiness is matched by the ability of the new ambient          Imagine you are somewhere in the future. Unlike before, you are
                                           technologies to dematerialize benefits. As a new age seeks greater expression and
                                           more sustainable wellbeing, new digital technologies offer greater possibilities. More   now much more concerned with a balanced lifestyle that enriches
                                           personalized futures are matched by the ability of these technologies to facilitate      the mind, the body and the soul. Too much stress, acceleration,
                                           customization and empowerment. Consider the following scenario.
                                                                                                                                    performance and Prozac in the past has altered your perspective.
                                                                                                                                    You are now more interested in community and friendship, in
                                                                                                                                    personal growth and creativity, in wellbeing and in controlling your
                                                                                                                                    own path and directions in life. In terms of your everyday you are
                                                                                                                                    able to achieve these easily through the interaction of the digital
                                                                                                                                    and physical world. Whether at home or in a public space you
                                                                                                                                    intuitively and easily interface and interact with information, with
                                                                                                                                    friends and with yourself in ways that were unimaginable in the
                                                                                                                                    recent past. You now live in an economy based on information,
                                                                                                                                    services, experiences and solutions, in and through specific contexts
                                                                                                                                    (e.g. the home, the car, the hospital, the hotel). You value being able
                                                                                                                                    to customize this in a way that is personal and fitting to you, as an
                                                                                                                                    individual or as a group. Living as you do in a context economy,
                                                                                                                                    value is based on customization, adaptability and transformation.




12   Democratizing the future – Beyond technology                                                                                                                                                             13
4                   The context economy
                                           An ecology of people and technology
                                           Through integrated sensors and software our products and environments become
                                           smart and it is this assimilation of technology, into our everyday environment, that
                                           underlies the context economy. As technology merges into our walls, floors and clothes,
                                           then we no longer ‘consume’ technology, but live with it side-by-side as it supports and
                                           facilitates our daily living, an invisible helper at the ready. Through this more intimate
                                           co-existence our identity becomes less about needs (‘what do I want?’) and more about
                                           activity and experience (‘how can I best take advantage of what I want to do in the way
                                           I want to do it?’). These take place in the specific context of a home, car, public space,
                                           hospital, school or geographical area. Philips’ vision of ambient intelligence is about this
                                           relational co-existence (6), and by changing the paradigm between people and technology
                                           it has the potential to take us beyond consumption as classically understood. In the
                                           context economy, value is generated less through the selling and buying of goods and
                                           more through an ecosystem of information, services, experiences and solutions. What
                                           we value, rather than what we consume, becomes the issue.




                                                                                                                                          The house of the future will look more like the
                                                                                                                                          house of the past than the house of today.
                                                                                                                                          Stefano Marzano




14   Democratizing the future – The context economy                                                                                                                                         Brochure   15
In the context economy, furthermore, passive consumers become active producers of
                                           their own lives, as they search for and appreciate ways of interacting with, controlling
                                           and creating their environments. People co-create their own content and experience
                                           and value anything that enables personalization and creativity. How we light up an
                                           environment, monitor a health condition or access some information will be up to us.
                                           Through speech, gesture or touch we can interface with a display, a hand-held device,
                                           or an intelligent wearable garment. What becomes increasingly important is the quality
                                           and choice of the interaction. It is about a deep customization, based on a live-in
                                           relationship with technology, in which interaction and access are important.


                                           An ecosystem of information, services, experiences and solutions
                                           Our research around value in terms of deep customization has led us to a design
                                           strategy of ‘open tools’ (7). This strategy shifts design away from delivering a finished
                                           product or experience towards designing an ‘unfinished’ or ‘open’ solution that can be
                                           completed and evolved by the user or users. As part of our Design Research program
                                           we have created a number of ‘probes’ or experience demonstrators to explore this
                                           territory together with stakeholders. One example is Nebula, in which we moved from
                                           designing a new alarm clock to asking the question ‘how do people like to experience
                                           waking up in the morning?’ This led us to develop a simple LCD projector into which
                                           the user(s) can download images from the web. Two dots traveling across the ceiling at
                                           night meet at the set wake up time, and trigger the projection of images onto the
                                           ceiling. Such an ‘open’ tool allows the users to decide what images they want and in
                                                                                                                                       Above: Living Memory (LIME)
                                           essence to create their own experience. Another such experience demonstrator was
                                                                                                                                       Left: Nebula
                                           developed on the European sixth framework research program, Living Memory (LIME).
                                           An interactive ‘coffee table’ allows users to intuitively access information about their
                                           physical community and to simply take out and put in information according to their
                                           interests etc. In these and other cases, probes allow us to explore new territory in
                                           terms of interfaces, interaction paradigms, materials and systems interactions.




16   Democratizing the future – The context economy                                                                                                                  Brochure   17
Connected ecologies
                                           Co-existing with technology in a more intimate way also opens up a more holistic
                                           approach to living. Stand-alone products give way to connected and networked
                                           environments that enable a more systems-based delivery of value, for example in the
                                           area of health. Ambient technologies can enable a home-centered health system in
                                           which users are connected to different circles of care, from family/friends to support
                                           professionals, expert patients, doctors and the hospital. This more decentralized and
                                           user-centered system enables people to intuitively monitor and be aware of their health
                                           and wellbeing, whether this is in terms of prevention or disease management. In our
                                           research we are looking at how, following a heart attack, patients can gain peace of
                                           mind and quality of life through the unobtrusive and constant monitoring of their
                                           condition. This could take place for example by means of an intelligent vest that relays
                                           any discrepancies to the appropriate medical professionals. Such systems reframe the
                                           question from how can we bring people to healthcare to how can we bring healthcare
                                           to people? The same question could be asked of education.


                                           Such user-centered systems, based on an intuitive relationship between people and
                                           their technology, encourages the full engagement of people as active participants in
                                           their health or education, to name two important areas. As Hilary Cottam and
                                           Charles Leadbeater point out; “Professionals and users could achieve a huge amount,
                                           working together, if they operate within a new framework” (8). Such systems solutions
                                           are relevant to both advanced and developing regions, given that the former need to
                                           re-invent new ways of delivering benefits and the latter need to leapfrog old solutions.
                                           Whether over-stressed or underdeveloped, social services such as education, health
                                           or care for the sick or elderly are ripe for new approaches and solutions.




18   Democratizing the future – The context economy                                                                                   Brochure   19
An ecology of growth
                                           An approach based on context and systems also allows us to consider a more
                                           sustainable model of development and growth. To quote Prof. Ezio Manzini of the
                                           Polytechnic of Milan; “The dream of wellbeing dreamt until now by the few is not
                                           sustainable for all. We have to change. We have to learn how to live better while
                                           consuming less environmental resources and regenerating the contexts of life” (9).
                                           It has been suggested that if everyone were to consume as we do in the west, then
                                           we should need 11 planets!” With a population of 6 billion and growing we have to
                                           consume differently. Given this, ambient technologies and a context economy help us
                                           to consume better or differently through new mixes of products, services and solutions.
                                           In these mixes, value is less in the stand alone material object and more in the system’s
                                           intelligence and information. Take for example the television. Will we want a stand alone
                                           television in the future or will we want a seamless flow of content through our homes
                                           based on new display technologies? Another example is the car. Will we want to own
                                           a car or will we want to have access to transport where and when we need it? In these
                                           examples, rather than a revenue model based on making and selling a material thing,
                                           new business models emerge, based on updating and customizing the systems capabilities.
                                           A service and solutions model replaces a manufacturing one and, in so doing, avoids
                                           a process of continuous material obsolescence and waste. Such systems evolve over
                                           time, growing up rather than growing old, meaning they can be up-dated, not dumped.




20   Democratizing the future – The context economy                                                                                    Brochure   21
However, there is more to the future than better ways of consuming. There is poverty.         Examples of local sustainable livelihoods include the surge in organic produce in
                                           As Dr. Mohammed Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank and the pioneer of                     the West and traditional medicine in India. Such models and initiatives are important
                                           microfinance explains; “Business and the market economy have been instrumental in             in this change of age, as they signal a different way of being and doing. Another model,
                                           creating wealth and growth globally. But they have also played its part in creating a         complimentary to this decentralized and distributed model is the sufficiency model,
                                           world where 40% of the world’s population controls 94% of wealth, with the other              based on the interesting work of Wolfgang Sachs at the Wuppertal Institute (13). This
                                           60% sharing the remaining 6%” (10).                                                           model is about enough rather than more. It is about a state of mind, one based not on
                                                                                                                                         learning how to give and get more but how to take less. It implies re-thinking lifestyles
                                           At a deeper level, new growth models can evolve in a context economy. Thinking                and learning how to live elegantly within limits and in harmony with nature. This, in turn,
                                           contextually, in terms of place and activity, encourages more local industries in which       brings us back to GDP. European growth is around 2.5%, while China is around 10%.
                                           local communities, using local knowledge and local resources, create and sustain their        The only way we can sustain our lifestyle, so the argument goes, is for us to accelerate
                                           own livelihoods. Examples in the West can be found in the Slow Food movement in               our innovation. So, now it is no longer about more and more and faster goods but about
                                           Italy. What initially started as a protest against imported fast food and the protection      more and more and faster innovation. But is it actually about this or is it about re-thinking
                                           of local culture and prose is developing into a bigger European movement based on the         our lifestyles and our priorities? Is it more about performance or about values?
                                           generation or re-generation of local economies (11). This decentralized approach to
                                           value, rather than global production and consumption, promises to be more sustainable         In the final analysis, a context economy and ambient technologies, whether in terms of
                                           for the future as it offers transparency, a lower ecological footprint, increased diversity   personal and collective customization, use-centered social systems or local livelihoods,
                                           and the enhancement of local contexts, communities and livelihoods (12). It also has the      opens up the possibility of a more sustainable path to prosperity, balance and wellbeing.
                                           power to help us re-think our relationship to time and to experience. Rather than
                                           focusing on speed and a superficial experience, it allows us to tap into and experience
                                           greater depth based on local environmental and social qualities. Understanding where
                                           things come from and how they are produced gives them greater meaning.




22   Democratizing the future – The context economy                                                                                                                                                                            The context economy – Democratizing the future   23
5                     New economic value
                                          If, therefore, the industrial era was characterized by consumption, the next era will
                                          be characterized by context. The context economy is already transforming, or has the
                                          potential to transform, economic value at a personal, social or global level.


                                          Personal value
                                          At a personal level, given the drive towards personal growth and transformation,
                                          economic value will increasingly be defined not in terms of consumption, but in terms
                                          of the delivery of transformation itself. Personal economic value will be less about the act
                                          of consuming and more about the act of transformation, as people search individually
                                          and collectively for things that help them to grow, experience and transform. As Stephen
                                          Dinan expressed it in the Journal of World Futures, Jan. 2002; “An increasing amount of
                                          economic value exchange will shift to concerns of growth, human potential, spiritual
                                          practice and life-enriching experiences. A major area of wealth generation in the
                                          transformation age will derive from the systemized delivery of transformation itself”.


                                          Social value
                                          At a social level, the ability of ambient technologies to deliver more contextualized
                                          and distributed systems, based on and around users and dealing with issues like
                                          health, illness and care, will generate economic value. Given the challenges we face,
                                          these social ‘industries’ are set to overtake the industrial industries of the 20th
                                          century. In fact, Geoff Mulgan of the Young Foundation claims that the biggest
                                          industries of the 21st century will be health, education and wellbeing, dwarfing
                                          others like automotive, telecoms, IT and steel. It is estimated that social activities
                                          will contribute to 30% of the economy, while the old industries will account for
                                          less than 5%.




24   Democratizing the future – New economic value                                                                                       Brochure   25
Global value
                                          At a global level, the need to alleviate poverty and lower our ecological footprint and     “ndia’s concern was always with
                                                                                                                                       I
                                          regenerate the contexts of life implies that we have to generate prosperity through
                                          alternative growth models. We need to go beyond a purely growth metric, such as
                                          GDP, that measures and pushes towards higher and higher productivity, at the cost            eternity, not with time. We will have
                                          of the environment, health and wellbeing. When depression and crime are good for
                                          GDP because they sell more anti-depressants and anti-theft devices, then we have
                                          a problem. In the future a more varied economy is likely to emerge, encompassing             to weave the web of a new order
                                          local for local, local for global and global for local. Such models will support the idea
                                          of bringing production and consumption closer together, of enhancing and enriching
                                          more local/regional contexts and of promoting more sustaining and sustainable                guided by the principles of creative
                                          livelihoods and lifestyles. It is possible that on this journey developing nations such
                                          as China, the first country to talk about a Green GDP in its 11th five year plan,
                                          and India may lead the way.
                                                                                                                                       freedom for all in order to provide
                                          Whatever the model, and whether at a personal, social or global level, we need to free
                                          ourselves from the tyranny of ever-higher productivity and the making and consuming
                                                                                                                                       an ethical and modern direction to
                                          of yet more and more ‘stuff’. As we re-define quality of life and invent new lifestyles,
                                          value needs to be re-defined through a more humanizing economic system of wellbeing
                                          and prosperity.
                                                                                                                                       the wayward movement of science,
                                                                                                                                       technology, wealth and power”
                                                                                                                                      	 J.C. Kapur
                                                                                                                                      	 Our Future: Consumerism or Humanism




26   Democratizing the future – New economic value                                                                                                                            Brochure   27
6                    A socially-led approach
                                             Perhaps the best way to understand a socially-led approach is by looking at what it is
                                             not, i.e. by examining a flawed market-led approach. One such example is the present
                                                                                                                                              technology led       market led          socially led
                                             issue around high rail fares in the UK as outlined in the newspaper, The Independent (14).
                                             A rail ticket, for example one from Manchester to London, if not booked well in advance,              50-70’s            80-000’s              2005+
                                             now costs 214 pounds. The low cost airlines, however, on the same route, cost less,
                                             encouraging people to choose planes over trains. Presumably the rail company increased
                                             prices because there was a growing demand. While this may make good business sense,
                                                                                                                                                 consumption         experience         transformation
                                             the bigger problem is that rail travel uses up only a tenth of carbon emissions compared
                                             to flights. Given the fact that the rail companies already receive public subsidies, who
                                             exactly is benefiting from these higher rail prices? It’s not the passengers, it’s not the tax
                                             payers and it’s not the planet. It is hard not to come to the conclusion that the sacred
                                                                                                                                                manufacturing       marketing /           people /
                                             cows of the market: supply and demand, choice, higher growth and maximizing profits                   driven          brand driven        network driven
                                             do not in fact ultimately benefit the public and the planet. Far too often they benefit the
                                             investors. Socially-led companies need to do it differently, moving beyond neo-liberal
                                             economics and a market ideology and away from the deeply ingrained view that there
                                             need to be winners and losers. There need to be winners.                                              products           emotions                life
                                                                                                                                                   hardware           aesthetics       tools/sw/content
                                                                                                                                               passive-receptive   receptive-active       co-creative


                                                                                                                                                                                      the context economy




28   Democratizing the future – A socially-led approach                                                                                                                                          A socially-led approach   29
7                    Social innovation
                                             Given the need to invent new ways of being and doing, together with the pressing need
                                             to re-invent many of our social industries, it makes sense to take the next step along
                                             the continuum from a technology- or consumer- to a socially-led company. Such a
                                             step, however, requires a very different mindset. A technology-led company is based on
                                                                                                                                                       Social
                                             technology research and innovation, carried out primarily by experts in labs. A consumer/
                                             market-led company is based on market/consumer research and market innovation, also
                                                                                                                                                      Research
                                             primarily carried out by experts. So how does a socially-led company operate?		




                                                                                                                                                      Technology

                                                                                                                                           Social                  Social
                                                                                                                                         Innovation                Needs




30   Democratizing the future – Social innovation                                                                                                                           Brochure   31
The difference lies in the notion of social innovation as opposed to technology or market       Finally, social innovation is not just about researching and creating new solutions for
                                             innovation. Social innovation is based on researching social needs and developing social        the times, but it is also about how we create them. It is about doing things differently.
                                             solutions. Such innovation implies new ways of living and new ways of doing. In the             To be meaningful, social innovation has to engage with the different stakeholders from
                                             industrial era it was in fact social innovation that created the right conditions for further   the beginning through a collaborative and co-creative process, given that the ultimate
                                             technology development and economic growth. Throughout the Victorian period in the              relevancy and success is dependent on their experience and their participation, especially
                                             UK it was the creation of social innovations like schools, libraries, building societies and    of the users, themselves (15). In ensuring more relevant solutions, this socially-led
                                             housing that supported and drove the growth of the industrial era. A more recently              ‘democratic’ process will ‘free up’ the enabling technologies to truly drive wellbeing
                                             example of social innovation is the Open University. A need for a broader access to             and prosperity.
                                             higher education was identified and then enabled by the emerging technology of television.
                                             The relationship between social innovation, technology and economic growth is tightly           Interestingly, the first International Conference on Social Innovation took place in Beijing,
                                             bound together.                                                                                 China in 2006 and reflects the growing importance of social innovation as a means
                                                                                                                                             towards alleviating major social issues such as health, education and poverty (16).
                                             In fact, solutions based more on systems and context, imply less technological innovation
                                             and more social innovation. A new health delivery system, for example, will be successful
                                             not primarily because of its technology but because it redefines the access and delivery
                                             of health and wellbeing in a way that makes sense socially and culturally to the various
                                             users. Social innovation and social solutions will be successful if they ultimately enrich
                                             and enhance the experience of wellbeing of the users while also serving a social need.
                                             A socially-led company of the future, therefore, is not only about social science research
                                             to identify social needs but about researching social, cultural and people needs. This is
                                             the key to success for the future and for companies who are well positioned to take
                                             advantage of this opportunity. In this respect, Philips’ history and competencies makes
                                             it well placed to combine the know-how of both a technology-led and a consumer-led
                                             approach to create a socially-led approach.




32   Democratizing the future – Social innovation                                                                                                                                                                                       Social innovation – Democratizing the future   33
8                    The future
                                             So how do we approach the future, given the growing importance of social innovation,
                                             and given the fact that we live in a time when the old system and its worldview is
                                             breaking down and a new one is in the making? In other words, if technology and the
                                             market no longer determine the future, then what does? Where is the future? Do we
                                                                                                                                      “ eans are ends
                                                                                                                                       M
                                             need to interact and engage with it differently?


                                             These are some of the thoughts and questions that have fueled our thinking in Philips
                                             Design within the area of Foresight and Design Research. We are conscious of the fact
                                                                                                                                       in the making”
                                             that the present space between two worldviews and two consciousnesses offers a
                                             golden opportunity to re-imagine and re-humanize the future. The outcome to date         Gandhi
                                             is the development of a multi-faceted Foresight in Design approach. This is based on
                                             researching, engaging with, co-creating, envisaging and re-conceptualizing the future.
                                             This approach opens up the area both conceptually and pragmatically and contributes
                                             to finding a way of ‘futuring by doing’.




34   Democratizing the future – The future                                                                                                               Brochure   35
9                    Foresight in design
                                             Researching the future
                                             If social innovation is increasingly important, and if we are to go beyond a technology
                                             and/or market view of the future, then, as stated above, we need first and foremost to
                                             think about the future through a social and cultural lens, researching and understanding
                                             socio-cultural contexts and values. This is true whether we are thinking about consumers
                                             (as people first and consumers second), about social needs and social solutions, or about
                                             both, i.e. users in social solutions.


                                             Philips Design has always taken a more socio-cultural approach to research, exploring
                                             beliefs, values, aspirations etc. For more than ten years a diverse team of futurists,
                                                                                                                                                                    Research
                                             psychologists, historians, anthropologists and designers in Design Research and in the
                                             Foresight and Trends group have been researching society, cultures and people in terms of:
                                             •	the deeper currents in social values and the main drivers shaping tomorrow’s world,
                                               drawing on futures and social studies.
                                             •	the cultural expressions of how these values are manifested, drawing on cultural and                    The future
                                               design studies.
                                             •	the needs and behaviors of people in their everyday lives and activities, drawing on
                                               ethnography and the human sciences.


                                             The primary aim of our socio-cultural research and the creative tools that translate this     Envisage                  Engage
                                             research and make is accessible to others has always been to anchor the future and
                                             innovation in terms of people, and to trigger out-of-the-box thinking.


                                             How do we label this research? Is it futuring, foresighting or market research? Actually it

                                                                                                                                                      Co-Create
                                             is at the interface of these different disciplines and is trying to forge a new qualitative
                                             ‘human’ storytelling into the futures process. Ultimately this more human focus allows
                                             us to put people at the center of the future, to explore more meaningful and wellbeing
                                             solutions and experiences and to re-introduce a normative approach to the future,
                                             meaning to think about preferable futures that make sense both to society and people.




36   Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design                                                                                                                            Brochure   37
In essence, a socially-led company has to go beyond only market research and consumer            Engaging with the future
                                             research and insights towards more social network research. Building on our experience           Researching the future gives us deeper understanding of change and of the realities of
                                             to date there is a need to:                                                                      people in their everyday lives. However it is no longer enough. The distance between
                                             •	refine our social science approach to better identify areas in which social needs require      researcher and researched, even using the most inclusive ethnographic approaches, still
                                               social innovation and social solutions. For example in the areas of the elderly, food and      fails to capture so much of the future in the making. So how can we actually touch this
                                               nutrition, chronic illness, mobility, inadequate water and illiteracy.                         future more directly? One way is to engage with those groups of people who are actually
                                             •	combine this research with our socio-cultural research in order to ensure that the social      making the future today. Such groups emerge more strongly when the world undergoes
                                               solutions are experiential and enriching.                                                      profound change. When old world meets new world, those who have already crossed over
                                             •	research not the single individual but the social network and the interactions in the social   inform us about how the future will be, both through their values and their actions.
                                               system, building on the ‘multiple encounter’ and ‘personas’ research carried out by Lucile     Whether they are the carriers of new values or of new needs, driven by conviction or
                                               Rameckers and Stefanie Un (17).                                                                frustration, they proactively take the initiative in creating the new world. They are the
                                             •	research less and involve users more.                                                          change agents to the future, giving it its character, its leadership and its social profile.


                                             Essentially we need to ensure that we are able to identify opportunities, trigger creative       To engage with the future directly we have identified three different groups. Each of these
                                             insights and ground these in values research, using a network of collaborators, on- and          groups in their different ways and expressions are an interface to the coming future.
                                             off-line, who are strong in one or more of these different areas.




38   Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design                                                                                                                                                                                Foresight in Design – Democratizing the future   39
Cultural Innovators are the carriers of new values and the emerging mindset. They believe           Creative Communities are complimentary to – though not necessarily synonymous
                                             in sustainability, authenticity, personal growth, collective  self determination, and social and   with – cultural innovators. They are locally-based communities who through grassroots,
                                             community activism. These cultural innovators, and the transformation they represent,               bottom-up initiatives create new solutions to new problems or needs. In other words
                                             are a powerful means with which to engage with the future and offer an effective foresight          an alternative solution to living, but which has at its core an environmental and/or social
                                             and insight tool. However the very nature of who they are and what they represent                   benefit. Also here, researching and engaging with such communities enables us to
                                             means any engagement has to go beyond more traditional qualitative and quantitative                 identify new future directions and possibilities. Through a European research project
                                             research methods. Our challenge is to engage physically and virtually, with cultural                EMUDE (19), examples of creative bottom-up solutions were identified, including the
                                             innovators to generate insights both in intellectual and experiential ways. Given this,             production and consumption of locally grown produce, the use of local materials for
                                             we are creating a collaborative and ongoing two-way relationship in which, together, we             construction, the recycling and redesigning of old furniture, the promotion of alternative
                                             explore and experience emerging values and behaviors, and a more holistic worldview.                transport, the creation of local green spaces and local provision for the elderly and
                                             This connection not only builds more future-relevant solutions but also helps a more                children. Of course, such self-help community initiatives have always existed, but – as
                                             sensible future to emerge, based on sustainable and collaborative values and beliefs.               with the cultural innovators – their significance today lies in the timing, given that in this
                                             The pioneering work of Paul Ray on cultural creatives in the USA serves as an inspiration           change of age they become meaningful antennae towards an emerging future.
                                             in this work (18).




40   Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design                                                                                                                                                                                        Foresight in Design – Democratizing the future   41
Social Entrepreneurs, examples of which are given above, are another group with which
                                             to engage with the future. Social entrepreneurs run businesses based upon a double
                                             (financial and social or environmental) or triple (financial, social and environmental)
                                                                                                                                           “ ike other idealists, social
                                                                                                                                            L
                                             bottom line. In other words, rather than relying on philanthropy or charity or public
                                             hand outs, social entrepreneurs embed their social mission in business and reach self
                                             sufficiency through earned income. To paraphrase Jerr Boschee, a social entrepreneur
                                                                                                                                            entrepreneurs look at the world
                                             is any person, in any sector, who runs a social enterprise. A social enterprise is any
                                             organization, in any sector, that uses earned income strategies to pursue a double or
                                             triple bottom line, either alone (as a social sector business) or as part of a mixed
                                                                                                                                            through rose-colored glasses,
                                             revenue stream that includes charitable contributions and public sector subsidies (20).
                                             As such, social enterprises promote a more varied and mixed system of different
                                             partnerships, including public private ones.
                                                                                                                                            but they never forget the green
                                             Another outstanding example, already mentioned, is Dr Muhammad Yunus of the
                                             Grameen Bank, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2006. In a speech hosted by the
                                                                                                                                            eyeshades of the accountant-
                                             Tallberg Foundation in December 2006 he makes a crucial distinction between profit-
                                             maximizing business and social business (10). He explained how business is very good
                                             at maximizing profits for those providing investment and how social enterprise leaves
                                                                                                                                            measuring results and finding
                                             profits in the hands of those who need them and has thus proven to be a far superior
                                             tool when it comes to bringing people out of poverty. It is in essence the well-known
                                             example of the fish and the fishing rod; ‘give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Give
                                                                                                                                            new ways to scale up their
                                             a man a fishing rod and he will eat for a lifetime’. The one major flaw in this argument is
                                             that the man is increasingly likely to be a woman. Dr Yunus explained how impoverished
                                             women possess the innate capacity for innovative business ideas so they can take care
                                                                                                                                            sustainable social impact”
                                             of themselves and their families, but that this will only emerge if they are provided with
                                             the first financial seed and gentle encouragement. All of which is counter-intuitive to the   	   Jeff Skoll, The Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (21)
                                             big banking system that is based on lending money guaranteed by collateral. Such social
                                             enterprises often represent an alternative to the centralized socio-economic
                                             development model driven by multinationals.




42   Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design                                                                                                                                                            Brochure   43
With a new age
                                             To sum up, a vital force for interfacing and interacting with the future is through the
                                             very people who are creating it. With a new age come new actors and new leaders
                                             and so, as old worldview leaders turn in to followers, it becomes both productive and
                                             necessary to engage with the new leaders, be they the cultural innovators, creative



                                                                                                                                         come new actors
                                             community activists or social entrepreneurs. Such engagement offers rich insights and
                                             validation into emerging trends, new sustainable lifestyles and new expressions of
                                             social innovation and incubation. It also stimulates internal transformation and cultural
                                             change. Our challenge is to help enable and scale up social innovation and change.


                                             Given that the future is unfamiliar territory, as is the engagement with these people,
                                             there is a need to;
                                             •	cultivate opportunities and projects where we can work together as equals.
                                                                                                                                         and new leaders
                                             •	help facilitate, enable and incubate some ‘experiments’.
                                             •	scale up those that are successful in fostering more sustainable lifestyles.
                                             •	create a more open and experimental mindset and portfolio so that ‘a thousand
                                               flowers bloom’.
                                             •	explore more partnerships including public private opportunities.
                                             	
                                             This is a particularly challenging area for large companies who are used to being in
                                             the driving seat and behaving in a manner in keeping with their size. It is a challenge,
                                             however, that must be met. According to the MP Alan Simpson; “The big idea for the
                                             21st century is that all of the answers are to be found in the absence of bigness. It’s
                                             a bit of a bummer for today’s corporate giants, but tomorrow’s solutions will be found
                                             in networks and systemic interdependencies, not in global behemoths” (22).




44   Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design                                                                                                        Brochure   45
The future will
                                             Co-creating the future
                                             As we have seen, one way of co-creating the future is to actively engage with those who
                                             are making the future. Another way is to drive open and co-creative practices through the
                                             company’s innovation and development processes. Whether we are thinking about a new



                                                                                                                                             be less about
                                             health system, a water solution, an interactive home environment, ambient intelligence,
                                             enabling systems or open tools, the customization of future technologies is reshaping how
                                             we innovate and with whom we innovate.




                                                                                                                                             predicting it
                                             By working with stakeholders and especially users to create bits of the future, there is a
                                             higher probability that the resulting solutions and systems will be relevant, appropriate and
                                             therefore more successful. As Van Hippel shows in his book, Democratizing Innovation (23),
                                             users are one of the most under-used resources. In fact the majority of application



                                                                                                                                             and more about
                                             innovations are by users themselves who take an original application and change it to their
                                             own needs or to something different. One example is the mountain bike which was
                                             developed by users who had a specific need.




                                                                                                                                             collaborative
                                             A paradigm shift is taking place in innovation, which is being democratized with active user
                                             roles and open innovation processes, and where the scope is widening from product and
                                             services innovation to business model and societal innovation. Different stakeholders are
                                             involved from the public sector, the business world (local and international companies),



                                                                                                                                             designing it
                                             academia and NGOs, in addition to citizens and users. Information and communication
                                             technology is a key enabler for mobilizing and aggregating the ‘collective intelligence and
                                             creativity’. An example and expression of this shift in innovation can be seen in the launch,
                                             under the Finnish presidency, of the European Network of Living Labs. The labs bring
                                             together users and experts to foster collaborative innovation and are a step towards a
                                             European Innovation System based on open co-creative labs for jobs, growth and global
                                             competitiveness (24).




46   Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design                                                                                                            Brochure   47
This again is a challenge to large companies who are hardwired to come up with the
                                             perfect finished ‘product’. Having users in the innovation and development cycle,             Future innovation driven by
                                             especially with ambient and context technologies, means that we may have to think
                                             about putting unfinished or even half-realized ideas out there and letting users and
                                             experts ‘play’ with the stuff. Increasingly in the future, through such a process, we shall   human-focused insights and
                                             see a reconfiguration of what exists, putting things together in a different way, rather
                                             than waiting for the next big future or for the next big technology invention or the
                                             perfect solution. Quite possibly, future innovation will be driven by human-focused           inputs, half-realized prototypes
                                             insights and inputs, half-realized prototypes and designer/user participation, manifested
                                             through an iterative process of creativity and refinement.
                                                                                                                                           and designer/user participation,
                                             This innovation paradigm shift implies a changing role both for research and researchers
                                             and for design and designers. One in which they are no longer the researcher or the
                                             creative but rather part of one or more networks, to which they bring their ‘tool kit’
                                                                                                                                           will be manifested through an
                                             and establish a creative dialogue with the participants. What is required is therefore:
                                             •	facilitation of discussion
                                             •	extrapolation of ideas to replicate or multiply
                                                                                                                                           iterative process of creativity
                                             •	faster prototyping
                                             •	supporting, enabling and facilitating users, and working side-by-side with them.
                                                                                                                                           and refinement
                                             In terms of how we interface and interact with the future, the implication is that it will
                                             be less about predicting it and more about collaboratively designing it. The future will
                                             emerge through interaction and co-creation. With the democratization of innovation
                                             comes the democratization of the future. Furthermore, the need to re-design systems
                                             rather than products is in turn profoundly affecting the role of design and designers,
                                             who are increasingly engaged in the design of services and systems and who, through
                                             the democratization of innovation, are taking on a more facilitating and enabling role.




48   Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design                                                                                                                           Brochure   49
Envisaging the future
                                             One way of co-creating the future is to envisage it, in other words to make it tangible.
                                             This is quintessentially a design task. Design, which has always been a link between
                                             people, technology and the future, is able to give intangible ideas and creativity a form.
                                             In so doing it increases the level of debate and interaction and facilitates dialogue,
                                             contribution and involvement from stakeholders and, more specifically, users. Under
                                             the leadership of Stefano Marzano, Philips Design has for some years now been creating
                                             ‘memories of the future’. These ‘memories’ embed possible futures in the present through
                                             tangible prototypes. From Vision of the Future in 1995 through to Next Simplicity in
                                             2005/6, these vision projects have built knowledge and know-how, facilitated a discussion
                                             with different stakeholders, encouraged a more creative engagement with the future
                                             and directed research and innovation. At a time when there was much talk of a very
                                             technology-oriented vision, we wanted, through our tangible prototypes, to project
                                             and promote discussion about a more intimate, human and humane view of the future.
                                             This is one way of re-introducing a more normative approach to the future and to
                                             research and innovation. Making preferable futures ‘real’ will hopefully in turn create
                                             more positive ‘memories of the future’ (x).




                                                                                                                                          Philips Design visioning projects




50   Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design                                                                                                                           Brochure   51
Future Horizons                                                                                                                                                                                        marketing 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    business modelling
                                             An important issue, however, when engaging with and envisaging the future, is defining
                                             exactly which future we are engaging with; near future or far future? To effectively think
                                             about and visualize the future we need a pragmatic, holistic and comprehensive framework
                                             for building, leading and sustaining innovation in the short-, medium- and long term.                      basic research        applied research   advanced development    pre development                development       pre production          production



                                             The standard funnel model (fig. 1) of innovation works on the basis that all creative ideas                                     theories, models     proof of concept       wam
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         working appearance model
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       prototype         first model           first batch

                                             go in at the front end. These are then progressively developed and filtered until a number
                                             of feasible propositions come out at the other end. However, this one-size-fits-all model
                                             of innovation does not take time into consideration, and also usually means that business
                                             takes control of innovation too easily and too early. The consequence is generally that
                                             short-term innovation replaces longer-term exploration. The future always seems to be
                                             tomorrow, if not today!                                                                                   Visual of funnel model


                                             Building on a McKinsey model (25), Paul Gardien’s design-led horizon innovation model                                        horizon 3                                        horizon 2                                              horizon 1
                                                                                                                                                                         create viable                                  build emerging                                        extend  defend
                                             (fig. 2) proposes an elegant framework that enables us to think short-, medium- and long
                                                                                                                                           Attention                       options                                           business                                           core business
                                             term, and fits with Foresight in Design’s more exploratory and flexible approach to the
                                             future and innovation (26). By transforming the funnel model into a framework of three
                                             different horizons, a more customized and exploratory approach to thinking about the
                                             future is enabled, given that horizon 1, horizon 2 and horizon 3, reflect short-, medium-
                                             and long-term futures. Horizon 3 is about more radical innovation and transformation,
                                             horizon 2 is about the next new business and horizon 1 is closer to business as usual and
                                             therefore involves more incremental innovation. Each horizon explores a different time
                                             space and therefore needs a different foresight in design approach and input.




                                                                                                                                                                 investigate territories                                find applications                                                  build roadmaps



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Time
                                                                                                                                                       Visual of 3 Horizon

52   Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Foresight in Design – Democratizing the future   53
In horizon 3, for example, which is longer-term and has a higher degree of uncertainty,      Envisaging the future will prove to be truly successful if we supplement our creative
                                             we are able to explore and experiment more sustainable futures and socially-innovative       juices with stimulating research and inputs. As stated already in this paper, stakeholders
                                             solutions. This inherent uncertainty calls for the application of Foresight in Design’s      and especially end-users also have to actively participate and ultimately co-create the
                                             more qualitative approaches and methods such as future scenarios, socio-cultural             required innovation and, by consequence, the next futures. To achieve this we need to:
                                             narratives and engagement with cultural innovators, creative communities and social          •	collaborate more with creative mindsets, artists, musicians, poets, and others ‘on the fringe’
                                             entrepreneurs. Horizon 2, which is more about new business, builds on the input,             •	engage with cultural innovators and creative communities
                                             knowledge and competence developed in horizon 3 but concentrates on users as co-             •	collaborate with social entrepreneurs
                                             creators of next applications. Horizon 1, which is more about incremental innovation,        •	involve users earlier in the process and throughout the process
                                             taps into market research and consumer insights, data mining, segmentations etc.             •	identify the right level of envisaging and prototyping based on the purpose.
                                             Envisaging the outcomes of the different horizons also differs, from the open experiential
                                             visualizations of horizon 3 to the tangible application prototypes of horizon 2 and 1.       But is this enough? Does it answer the question we asked in the first paragraph: how
                                                                                                                                          do we, could we, and perhaps more importantly, should we interface and interact with
                                             The importance of this open and flexible approach to the future is that it allows a          the future? Does it solve our problem of creating a new, sustainable engagement with
                                             richer exploration of different futures, including a more ‘blue-sky’ longer-term future.     the future? We believe our approach of Foresight in Design together with the horizons
                                             In doing this it both adds and re-invents value through generating sufficient creative       framework helps towards an answer. It proposes not one but a number of interfaces,
                                             ideas that support strategic innovation in terms of current and future opportunities.        through research, engagement, co-creation and envisioning, tailored to the time factor
                                             It means that the company can envisage and communicate the different expressions             of horizon 1, 2 or 3. As such it offers a more flexible approach and the possibility of
                                             of horizons 1, 2, and 3 to the different stakeholders, including the public. This in turn    a more responsible approach to the future.
                                             gives the company license to explore and communicate the not-yet-perfect or the
                                             not-yet-finished. As stakeholders become more involved in research and innovation,           Such an approach, however, is still ‘trapped’ by the idea of time as past, present and
                                             the degree of presenting the unfinished will increase out of necessity.                      future. Perhaps, at the more esoteric and experimental level, in our quest to find the
                                                                                                                                          future we have to challenge the very concept of time itself and try to imagine beyond
                                                                                                                                          our present straightjacket of linear time.




54   Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design                                                                                                                                                                                   Foresight in Design – Democratizing the future   55
Re-conceptualizing the future	
                                             Each culture, according to its own worldview, makes time and the future its own, and our     “ hat are the alternative imaginations
                                                                                                                                           W
                                             culture is no exception. Western culture interprets time as past, present and future, and
                                             sees the future as an empty space into which we can ‘trespass’, filling it with more of
                                             today and with more technology and marketable goods (27). This automatic ‘colonialization’    of the future? …What are the images
                                             of the future, however, now risks creating more problems than benefits (28). Global
                                             warming and the depletion of natural resources, the growing gap between the rich
                                             and the poor and the higher personal levels of stress and burn-out all call to us, as a       of the future of those we consider
                                             civilization, to re-think our relationship to time and the future. We need to evolve new
                                             conceptual models and new metaphors.
                                                                                                                                           outside history? What are other ways
                                             New time/future metaphors and images could have the potential to free us from
                                             deterministic and mechanistic thinking and allow us to re-integrate a sense of wonder
                                             and stewardship towards the future. How we think about the future determines the
                                                                                                                                           to ‘time’ the world instead of the
                                             way we act in the present and new metaphors and a new narrative could allow us to
                                             engage more creatively and perhaps more responsibly with our futures.
                                                                                                                                           dominant scientific model, such as
                                                                                                                                           women’s, spiritual, or cyclical time…”
                                                                                                                                           Sohail Inayatullah (29)




56   Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design                                                                                                                           Brochure   57
What if time is more like a spiral, encompassing the old but always adding complexity
                                             and evolving the new, or a swirl, simultaneously containing past, present and future?        “ uture historians may note that at
                                                                                                                                           F
                                             Perhaps the most important thing in this change of age and consciousness is to suspend
                                             disbelief, to regain a childlike wonder of the universe and to keep exploring and
                                             imagining beyond our fixed notions of time and space. To do this, there is a need to:         the same period that technology
                                             •	engage with artists, scientists, academics to explore the space between the creative and
                                               scientific disciplines
                                             •	trust in your own subjectivity and that of others as much as you do in objectivity.         acceleration was driving the world
                                             What is certain is that we can no longer continue to ‘consume’ the future and
                                             therefore, freeing up time and the future becomes both a necessity and an opportunity.        to operate on fleeting ‘Internet time’,
                                                                                                                                           environmentalists were teaching
                                                                                                                                           the world the long-term foresight
                                                                                                                                           and responsibility of biosphere time.
                                                                                                                                           Just when technology was busy
                                                                                                                                           making us smarter, environmentalists
                                                                                                                                           began to make us wiser”
                                                                                                                                           Stewart Brand (30)


58   Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design                                                                                                                            Brochure   59
10                   Sense making and
                     making sense
                                            To conclude, we are experiencing a change of age, one in which deeply-held beliefs
                                            and behaviors are transforming. People are moving from being passive consumers to       “f we are privileged with power
                                                                                                                                     I
                                            active producers of their own lives and lifestyles, and the new ambient technologies
                                            are re-enforcing and enabling this as well as offering more context-driven solutions
                                            on product, service and system level. Such changes facilitate the re-design of our       or money or knowledge we have
                                            social industries and even of our future development paradigms.

                                            This paper began by stating the need to open up the future, to engage and interact       to put it to work, otherwise it
                                            differently with it in order to drive greater prosperity and wellbeing in a period of
                                            such transformation. Linked to this, it suggests that the more forward-looking
                                            companies initiate a move towards a socially-led approach. It outlines some of the
                                            research and thinking going on in Philips Design to support the above, particularly
                                                                                                                                     atrophies and ultimately corrupts us”
                                            the approach of Foresight In Design. It asks us to open up our hearts and our
                                            minds towards new ways of being and new ways of doing, given that the future             Geoff Mulgan (31)
                                            of our people and our planet are at risk.




60   Democratizing the future – Sense making and making sense                                                                                                            Brochure   61
It suggests implicitly that business can no longer concern itself only with making money
                                            and maximizing profits and that, given its talent, resources and knowledge, it needs to     “ or the first time ever, our enemies
                                                                                                                                         F
                                            take a more pro-active role towards a better future. This in turn means thinking about
                                            a different purpose and a different role. And nothing stands still. Business knows this.
                                            The orthodoxy of today is the heresy of tomorrow. Sometimes it seems that to challenge       are no longer outside us. We’re quite
                                            market capitalism is to utter heresy. Yet market capitalism was not a gift from above
                                            and is no eleventh commandment. It is neither inevitable nor necessarily modern, as
                                            some would have us believe. Nor does capitalism stand still, and already we can see          well suited to battles with foreign
                                            through the sustainability movement a process of creative destruction. Sustainability
                                            is not tame; it is a radical philosophy that, as with the great religions, asks people to
                                            change their lives. Like those religions it is about radical change and transformation.      powers, evil corporations or heartless
                                            A transformation of the way we think and the way we are, a personal transformation,
                                            which is often the hardest transformation of all but one that supports all the others.
                                            If we don’t change ourselves we can’t change the world.
                                                                                                                                         states. But now we face many
                                                                                                                                         challenges where the enemy is us –
                                                                                                                                         our desires and our myopias may
                                                                                                                                         be what stand in the way of survival”
                                                                                                                                         Geoff Mulgan (31)




62   Democratizing the future – Sense making and making sense                                                                                                               Brochure   63
This transformation of a worldview, of social models and of more human ways of
                                            creating value, is also about a transformation of approaches and practices including new
                                            tools, new research and innovation, new leaders, new networks and new partnerships:
                                            cross-disciplinary, cross-industry, cross-border and public/private collaborations that will
                                            create the industries and markets of the future.


                                            In essence, at the beginning of the 21st century, we have the possibility to enter a new
                                            social era, in which an emerging new capitalism transcends market capitalism, the
                                            maximization of profits and the cult of the individual. One in which the underlying ethos
                                            of sustainability and sustainable development helps to humanize and simplify our lives.
                                            It puts people, not technology and not the market, at the center of our future, our
                                            thinking and our practice. It means that sense making and making sense of the future
                                            lies in understanding how people are evolving, engaging with them on a journey of
                                            discovery and exploration, and co-creating and envisaging the future together.


                                            It seems, however, that humankind is capable of anticipating the future but not so good
                                            at doing anything about it. Unlike the poor frog, who, when put in cold water boils to
                                            death, oblivious of the rising temperature, we are not oblivious but to often continue
                                            along the same path anyway! An inclusive approach and a collective engagement in the
                                            future and in innovation may help to marry anticipation and action. This is our challenge.
                                            The frog is also a symbol of renewal and transformation in mythology and fairy tales.
                                            Are we to be the boiled frog or the prince?


                                            If the future is not predictable then it is also about choice and certain choices are just
                                            waiting to be made. It’s up to us.
                                                                                                                                           “ hatever you can do or dream
                                                                                                                                            W
                                                                                                                                            you can, begin it. Boldness has
                                                                                                                                            genius power and magic in it...”
                                                                                                                                           Goethe
64   Democratizing the future – Sense making and making sense                                                                                                     Sense making and making sense – Democratizing the future   65
References

                                        	 1	 Peter F. Druker, Post- Capitalist Society, HarperCollins Publishers, 1994                   	 9	
                                                                                                                                         1    Emude – Emerging User Demands for Sustainable Solutions, EU project, 2004,
                                        	2	 Eamonn Kelly, Powerful Times – Rising to the challenge of our uncertain world, Wharton           www.sustainable-everyday.net/EMUDE/april
                                             School Publishing, 2005                                                                          Promising cases repository, 2005- www.indaco.polimi.it/emude
                                        	3	 Burgelman  D. Osimo, DG Joint Research Council. Institute for Perspective 	
                                             JC                                                                                          	20	Jerr Boschee, Migration from Innovation to Entrepreneurship, Encore!
                                             Technological Studies                                                                            Press, Minnesota 2006
                                        	 4	Charles Leadbeater. We-think: The Power of Mass Creativity, www.wethinkthebook.net          	21	The Said Business School, University of Oxford, The Skoll Centre for Social 	
                                        	5	 Stefano Marzano, Flying over Las Vegas, Keynote speech at the 17th World Design 	                Entrepreneurship, www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/skoll
                                             Conference of the International Council of Societies (ICSID) in Ljubljana, 1992             	22	Alan Simpson, The Long and Winding Road, Resurgence, September/October 2006,
                                        	 6	Emile Aarts, Stefano Marzano, The New Everyday – Views on Ambient Intelligence,                  no 238
                                             010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2003                                                             	23	Eric van Hippel, Democratizing Innovation, The MIT Press 2005
                                        	7	 Andrews, Bueno, Cass: Open Tools Definitions, Internal Paper, Philips Design, 2002, 	
                                             A.                                                                                          	24	
                                                                                                                                              The Aho Group, Creating an Innovative Europe and Experience and Application
                                             www.design.philips.com                                                                           Research. European Network of Living Labs, www.openlivinglabs.eu
                                        	 8	Hilary Cottom, Charles Leadbeater, Health-Co-creating services, Red Paper 01, Design        	25	Merhdad Baghar, Stephen Coley and David White, The Alchemy of Growth,
                                             Council, www.designcouncil.org.uk                                                                Perseus Publishing 2000
                                        	 9	Ezio Manzini, Presentation to Philips Design, 2004                                          	26	Paul Gardien, Breathing Life into Delicate Ideas, Position Paper, Philips Design 2006, 	
                                        	 0	
                                        1    Mohammed Yunus, speech to the Tallberg Foundation, December 2006,                                www.design.philips.com
                                             www. tallbergfoundation.org                                                                 	27	Barabara Adam, Towards a New Sociology of the Future, The Futures Project,
                                        	 1	
                                        1    Slow Food International Association www.slowfood.com                                             Cardiff University, School of Social Sciences, www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/futures/
                                             S
                                              low + Design International Seminar, Milan, October 2006                                   	28	Z.Sardar, Colonizing the future: the ‘other’ dimension of future studies, March 1993, 	
                                        	 2	
                                        1    Simona Rocchi Unlocking New Markets, Position Paper, Philips Design, 2006,                       Futures, 25(2), 179-187
                                             www.design.philips.com                                                                      	29	Sohail Inayatullah, www.metafuture.org/Articles/PEDAGOGY
                                        	 3	
                                        1    Wolfgang Sachs, Globalization and Sustainability, The Wuppertal Institute. Germany          	30	Stewart Brand, The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility, Basic Books, 1999
                                        	 4	 Herbert, Planes, Trains and the Road to Ruin, The Independent, 2nd January 2007
                                        1    Ian                                                                                         	31	Geoff Mulgan, The Enemy Within, Resurgence, September/October 2006, No. 238
                                        	 5	 Young Foundation, Social Silicon Valleys – A Manifesto for Social Innovation, 2006. 	
                                        1    The
                                             www.youngfoundation.org
                                        	 6	
                                        1    International Conference on Social Innovation, Beijing, China, 2006,
                                             www.discoversocialinnovation.org                                                            		This paper draws on the accumulated and on-going research and thinking within
                                        	 7	
                                        1    Lucile Rameckers and Stefanie Un, People Insights at the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation. 	        Philips Design. The final content, however, is my responsibility. I would like to thank
                                             Position Paper, Philips Design, 2006, www.design.philips.com                                     Paul Gardien, Steven Kyffin, Nick Price and Derek Brookman for their useful comments.
                                        	 8	
                                        1    Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, The Cultural Creatives: How 50 million people 	            A special thanks to Gary Nudds and Rita Stumpel for their design creativity and
                                             are changing the world, Harmony Books 2000                                                       Carla O’Driscoll-Silva for her support.




66   Democratizing the future – References                                                                                                                                                                                               References – Democratizing the future   67
In the twentieth century the future was more elitist. It was primarily
                        a top down concern and, from a company perspective, driven through
                        technology, economics and expertise. However, the emerging meta-
                        themes of mass creativity, social innovation and sustainability are
                        transforming how we think about and how we engage with the
                        future. This book explores this transformation, proposes a more
                        multi-faceted approach to the future and innovation and offers some
                        thoughts around the resulting democratization of the future.




©2007 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
All rights reserved.

Democratizing the future (Philips Design)

  • 1.
    Democratizing the future Towards anew era of creativity and growth by Josephine Green
  • 2.
    Index Josephine Green was appointed Senior Director of Trends and Abstract 4 Strategy at Philips Design in 1997. She promotes new thinking and 1 change of age 6 A new knowledge in the fields of Foresight and Society, Cultures and 2 Beyond consumption 8 People Research, and its application to strategic thinking, sustainable 3 Beyond technology 12 innovation and new value creation. Josephine was born in the United Kingdom and studied History and Politics at Warwick University in 4 The context economy 14 England. She has lived in England, Italy and the Netherlands. 5 New economic value 24 6 socially led approach 28 A For more information on Philips Design Email: [email protected] 7 Social innovation 30 Website: www.design.philips.com 8 The future 34 9 Foresight in design 36 10 Sense making and making sense 60 References 66 Brochure Index – Democratizing the future
  • 3.
    Abstract Major corporations are often restricted by a too-limited view of the future. This view is based on the western belief that time is linear and that the future is merely an empty space that can be ‘colonized’ to the present and filled with ever more technology and consumer goods. However, this technology and consumer determinism now threatens We live in an age to compromise our wellbeing and prosperity. This paper argues that we need different ways of thinking, being and doing if we are to live well, prosper and safeguard the future. Primarily we need to go beyond the straightjacket in which we have to of consumer needs and a consumer approach, and also encompass social needs and a social approach. By doing so, we can drive a new era of creativity and growth. Working with this emerging social space therefore becomes both an opportunity and re-invent many of our a necessity. However, we must not only re-invent our social industries, but also our lifestyles and even the very growth models upon which they are based. To achieve this, the new technologies enable more radical innovation through the delivery of more context-based customized services and systems. Such place embedded systems have the potential to social industries like deliver sustainable solutions for the 21st century. Shifting our emphasis from consumption to services and systems, and combining a consumer-led and socially-led approach, means that how we think about and interact health, education, with the future will change. This paper explores these changes and examines how we might open up and engage with the future differently, in terms of going beyond: • a market-led approach, based on consumer research and innovation, to a socially-led approach based on social research and social innovation. wellbeing, care and • the act of researching the future to directly engaging with the future through people who are already creating it today. • closed research and innovation to open co-creation with stakeholders, especially users. • a linear interpretation of time and the future towards new conceptual models that allow transport a more imaginative and creative interaction with the future. In short, we need to shift the emphasis away from technology and the market and more towards people and responsibility through ownership. It is time to democratize the future. Democratizing the future – Abstract Brochure
  • 4.
    1 A change of age In many companies there has been a shift in the last decades from a focus on technology research and innovation to a focus on consumer research and innovation. This shift mirrors the realization that technology can drive growth but often fails to be sufficiently in tune with consumers’ needs and aspirations. In other words, there have been too many mistakes “ e are living W and too many misses. The shift from technology to consumer also reflects the increasing influence and (purchasing) power of consumers, captured in the oft-repeated mantra; ‘the customer is king’. Such a consumer emphasis, however, is now beginning to show signs of weakness. The continuing rise of stress-related mental illnesses, at a time when the average in a change of age disposable income in the western world has never been higher, undermines the belief that more means better. There is too much ‘stuff’ and a growing realization that filling the future with more and more consumer-driven technology and marketable goods does not necessarily guarantee higher growth, a better quality of life or even life itself, given the rather than state of the planet. Beneath the surface things are moving. Converging socio-demographic, technological, economic and environmental forces are transforming and transfiguring our world so that in the space of approximately fifty years, an age of change” from the 1970s to the 2020s, the world will look and feel a very different place. According to Peter Drucker (1), “Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp Powerfull Times – Rising to the challenge of our uncertain world (2) transformation. Within a few short decades, society rearranges itself; its worldview (paradigm), its basic values, its social and political structures, its arts, its key institutions. Fifty years later there is a new world.” Such a dynamic change of age is not served by incremental innovation but by deeper structural change and radical innovation. An example is how we have to re-think and re- invent some of our basic social industries such as health, care, education, transport, and – beyond the social industries – our lifestyles. These are all things that grew out of and were styled around the industrial era but need to be re-invented for the 21st century. As this paper suggests, the more progressive and ultimately more successful companies will progress from a consumer/market-led approach to a people/social-led approach. To make sense of this we need to identify and understand some of the factors influencing the metamorphosis from a market-led to a socially-led company. Democratizing the future – A change of age Brochure
  • 5.
    2 Beyond consumption Diversity Creativity Post-industrial society finds itself more and more at a meeting point of cultures, beliefs This greater freedom to pick and choose, when matched with new technologies, signals and behaviors. Individual and more insular views are now confronted by many different the final demise of the 20th century and of mass consumption, and marks a shift towards opinions, and the world has never been so diverse or seen to be so diverse. A single mass creativity. Through web 2.0 social networking and community enhancing websites, undeniable truth, from a higher authority, gives way to multiple truths in which people, the consumer is becoming the supplier of content, taste, emotions and goods. “Users both as individuals and as groups, walk the path to their own truth. This has increased the move from the back end to the front end of innovation and, through enabling platforms number of clashes and conflicts, but at a deeper level, the top-down pyramidal ‘command and tools, singularly or together (peer2peer) create their own values and solutions”(3). and control’ structure of the past is making way for greater personalization of the future The notion that this is here to stay is supported by the statistics: 5 million blogs in less and a rich and varied kaleidoscope of personal and collective lives. Our ‘way’ becomes than 2 years, with 175,000 added daily; 100 million clips viewed daily on YouTube; 116 million relative and new ‘ways’ become feasible and – through exposure and contact – even users of MySpace in 3 years; Wikipedia in 112 languages; 150 million users of eBay worldwide. inspirational. We are left knowing that there are all sorts of people leading all sorts of lives In essence web 2.0 is more “an attitude than a technology”. One in which the power in all sorts of ways. of we replaces the power of you. As Charles Leadbeater explores in his forthcoming book to be published in 2007 (4) “They (consumers) do not want to be just passive recipients but players and participants… They do not just want more choice but more say. These are activities of mass participation rather than mass consumption.” However there is also the other side of this increased freedom to choose. Greater self-determination and greater awareness is mirrored by greater complexity and greater responsibility. Life may be freer but it’s not easier. So we start to ask: How do we live? How could we live? How do we want to live? Democratizing the future – Beyond consumption Beyond consumption – Democratizing the future
  • 6.
    Wellbeing We are increasingly aware that ever more technology, productivity and efficiency has helped drive the industrial-consumer economy, but to the detriment of the environment, the poor and personal happiness. The costs begin to outweigh the benefits. So what exactly is quality of life? Is it more money, more goods, or something less tangible? As the numerous happiness studies testify, it seems that what makes people happy, over and above a certain basic standard of living, is more intangible than tangible, and that the belief that more makes you happier is a myth rather than a reality. People, therefore, are re-defining their wellbeing, not so much in material ways but more in terms of health and wellness, connectedness, personal growth and personal control. Coupled with this is a search for a more sustainable development model based on balancing wealth and wellbeing (5). Contrary to popular perception, this is not just a rich person’s issue. Given the search for a more holistic wellbeing and the damage to the biosphere and to health, more sustainable livelihoods and lifestyles make sense in advanced industrialized nations as well as developing ones. Greater diversity and creativity and the re-evaluation of wellbeing testify to the fact that we are entering a new era. Consumers who defined their identity and worth through consumption and their lifestyles become producers, who define their identity and worth by creating, individually or collectively, there own content and lives. Consumption is reduced to an aspect but no longer the aspect. 10 Democratizing the future – Beyond consumption Brochure 11
  • 7.
    3 Beyond technology The dematerialization of happiness is matched by the ability of the new ambient Imagine you are somewhere in the future. Unlike before, you are technologies to dematerialize benefits. As a new age seeks greater expression and more sustainable wellbeing, new digital technologies offer greater possibilities. More now much more concerned with a balanced lifestyle that enriches personalized futures are matched by the ability of these technologies to facilitate the mind, the body and the soul. Too much stress, acceleration, customization and empowerment. Consider the following scenario. performance and Prozac in the past has altered your perspective. You are now more interested in community and friendship, in personal growth and creativity, in wellbeing and in controlling your own path and directions in life. In terms of your everyday you are able to achieve these easily through the interaction of the digital and physical world. Whether at home or in a public space you intuitively and easily interface and interact with information, with friends and with yourself in ways that were unimaginable in the recent past. You now live in an economy based on information, services, experiences and solutions, in and through specific contexts (e.g. the home, the car, the hospital, the hotel). You value being able to customize this in a way that is personal and fitting to you, as an individual or as a group. Living as you do in a context economy, value is based on customization, adaptability and transformation. 12 Democratizing the future – Beyond technology 13
  • 8.
    4 The context economy An ecology of people and technology Through integrated sensors and software our products and environments become smart and it is this assimilation of technology, into our everyday environment, that underlies the context economy. As technology merges into our walls, floors and clothes, then we no longer ‘consume’ technology, but live with it side-by-side as it supports and facilitates our daily living, an invisible helper at the ready. Through this more intimate co-existence our identity becomes less about needs (‘what do I want?’) and more about activity and experience (‘how can I best take advantage of what I want to do in the way I want to do it?’). These take place in the specific context of a home, car, public space, hospital, school or geographical area. Philips’ vision of ambient intelligence is about this relational co-existence (6), and by changing the paradigm between people and technology it has the potential to take us beyond consumption as classically understood. In the context economy, value is generated less through the selling and buying of goods and more through an ecosystem of information, services, experiences and solutions. What we value, rather than what we consume, becomes the issue. The house of the future will look more like the house of the past than the house of today. Stefano Marzano 14 Democratizing the future – The context economy Brochure 15
  • 9.
    In the contexteconomy, furthermore, passive consumers become active producers of their own lives, as they search for and appreciate ways of interacting with, controlling and creating their environments. People co-create their own content and experience and value anything that enables personalization and creativity. How we light up an environment, monitor a health condition or access some information will be up to us. Through speech, gesture or touch we can interface with a display, a hand-held device, or an intelligent wearable garment. What becomes increasingly important is the quality and choice of the interaction. It is about a deep customization, based on a live-in relationship with technology, in which interaction and access are important. An ecosystem of information, services, experiences and solutions Our research around value in terms of deep customization has led us to a design strategy of ‘open tools’ (7). This strategy shifts design away from delivering a finished product or experience towards designing an ‘unfinished’ or ‘open’ solution that can be completed and evolved by the user or users. As part of our Design Research program we have created a number of ‘probes’ or experience demonstrators to explore this territory together with stakeholders. One example is Nebula, in which we moved from designing a new alarm clock to asking the question ‘how do people like to experience waking up in the morning?’ This led us to develop a simple LCD projector into which the user(s) can download images from the web. Two dots traveling across the ceiling at night meet at the set wake up time, and trigger the projection of images onto the ceiling. Such an ‘open’ tool allows the users to decide what images they want and in Above: Living Memory (LIME) essence to create their own experience. Another such experience demonstrator was Left: Nebula developed on the European sixth framework research program, Living Memory (LIME). An interactive ‘coffee table’ allows users to intuitively access information about their physical community and to simply take out and put in information according to their interests etc. In these and other cases, probes allow us to explore new territory in terms of interfaces, interaction paradigms, materials and systems interactions. 16 Democratizing the future – The context economy Brochure 17
  • 10.
    Connected ecologies Co-existing with technology in a more intimate way also opens up a more holistic approach to living. Stand-alone products give way to connected and networked environments that enable a more systems-based delivery of value, for example in the area of health. Ambient technologies can enable a home-centered health system in which users are connected to different circles of care, from family/friends to support professionals, expert patients, doctors and the hospital. This more decentralized and user-centered system enables people to intuitively monitor and be aware of their health and wellbeing, whether this is in terms of prevention or disease management. In our research we are looking at how, following a heart attack, patients can gain peace of mind and quality of life through the unobtrusive and constant monitoring of their condition. This could take place for example by means of an intelligent vest that relays any discrepancies to the appropriate medical professionals. Such systems reframe the question from how can we bring people to healthcare to how can we bring healthcare to people? The same question could be asked of education. Such user-centered systems, based on an intuitive relationship between people and their technology, encourages the full engagement of people as active participants in their health or education, to name two important areas. As Hilary Cottam and Charles Leadbeater point out; “Professionals and users could achieve a huge amount, working together, if they operate within a new framework” (8). Such systems solutions are relevant to both advanced and developing regions, given that the former need to re-invent new ways of delivering benefits and the latter need to leapfrog old solutions. Whether over-stressed or underdeveloped, social services such as education, health or care for the sick or elderly are ripe for new approaches and solutions. 18 Democratizing the future – The context economy Brochure 19
  • 11.
    An ecology ofgrowth An approach based on context and systems also allows us to consider a more sustainable model of development and growth. To quote Prof. Ezio Manzini of the Polytechnic of Milan; “The dream of wellbeing dreamt until now by the few is not sustainable for all. We have to change. We have to learn how to live better while consuming less environmental resources and regenerating the contexts of life” (9). It has been suggested that if everyone were to consume as we do in the west, then we should need 11 planets!” With a population of 6 billion and growing we have to consume differently. Given this, ambient technologies and a context economy help us to consume better or differently through new mixes of products, services and solutions. In these mixes, value is less in the stand alone material object and more in the system’s intelligence and information. Take for example the television. Will we want a stand alone television in the future or will we want a seamless flow of content through our homes based on new display technologies? Another example is the car. Will we want to own a car or will we want to have access to transport where and when we need it? In these examples, rather than a revenue model based on making and selling a material thing, new business models emerge, based on updating and customizing the systems capabilities. A service and solutions model replaces a manufacturing one and, in so doing, avoids a process of continuous material obsolescence and waste. Such systems evolve over time, growing up rather than growing old, meaning they can be up-dated, not dumped. 20 Democratizing the future – The context economy Brochure 21
  • 12.
    However, there ismore to the future than better ways of consuming. There is poverty. Examples of local sustainable livelihoods include the surge in organic produce in As Dr. Mohammed Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank and the pioneer of the West and traditional medicine in India. Such models and initiatives are important microfinance explains; “Business and the market economy have been instrumental in in this change of age, as they signal a different way of being and doing. Another model, creating wealth and growth globally. But they have also played its part in creating a complimentary to this decentralized and distributed model is the sufficiency model, world where 40% of the world’s population controls 94% of wealth, with the other based on the interesting work of Wolfgang Sachs at the Wuppertal Institute (13). This 60% sharing the remaining 6%” (10). model is about enough rather than more. It is about a state of mind, one based not on learning how to give and get more but how to take less. It implies re-thinking lifestyles At a deeper level, new growth models can evolve in a context economy. Thinking and learning how to live elegantly within limits and in harmony with nature. This, in turn, contextually, in terms of place and activity, encourages more local industries in which brings us back to GDP. European growth is around 2.5%, while China is around 10%. local communities, using local knowledge and local resources, create and sustain their The only way we can sustain our lifestyle, so the argument goes, is for us to accelerate own livelihoods. Examples in the West can be found in the Slow Food movement in our innovation. So, now it is no longer about more and more and faster goods but about Italy. What initially started as a protest against imported fast food and the protection more and more and faster innovation. But is it actually about this or is it about re-thinking of local culture and prose is developing into a bigger European movement based on the our lifestyles and our priorities? Is it more about performance or about values? generation or re-generation of local economies (11). This decentralized approach to value, rather than global production and consumption, promises to be more sustainable In the final analysis, a context economy and ambient technologies, whether in terms of for the future as it offers transparency, a lower ecological footprint, increased diversity personal and collective customization, use-centered social systems or local livelihoods, and the enhancement of local contexts, communities and livelihoods (12). It also has the opens up the possibility of a more sustainable path to prosperity, balance and wellbeing. power to help us re-think our relationship to time and to experience. Rather than focusing on speed and a superficial experience, it allows us to tap into and experience greater depth based on local environmental and social qualities. Understanding where things come from and how they are produced gives them greater meaning. 22 Democratizing the future – The context economy The context economy – Democratizing the future 23
  • 13.
    5 New economic value If, therefore, the industrial era was characterized by consumption, the next era will be characterized by context. The context economy is already transforming, or has the potential to transform, economic value at a personal, social or global level. Personal value At a personal level, given the drive towards personal growth and transformation, economic value will increasingly be defined not in terms of consumption, but in terms of the delivery of transformation itself. Personal economic value will be less about the act of consuming and more about the act of transformation, as people search individually and collectively for things that help them to grow, experience and transform. As Stephen Dinan expressed it in the Journal of World Futures, Jan. 2002; “An increasing amount of economic value exchange will shift to concerns of growth, human potential, spiritual practice and life-enriching experiences. A major area of wealth generation in the transformation age will derive from the systemized delivery of transformation itself”. Social value At a social level, the ability of ambient technologies to deliver more contextualized and distributed systems, based on and around users and dealing with issues like health, illness and care, will generate economic value. Given the challenges we face, these social ‘industries’ are set to overtake the industrial industries of the 20th century. In fact, Geoff Mulgan of the Young Foundation claims that the biggest industries of the 21st century will be health, education and wellbeing, dwarfing others like automotive, telecoms, IT and steel. It is estimated that social activities will contribute to 30% of the economy, while the old industries will account for less than 5%. 24 Democratizing the future – New economic value Brochure 25
  • 14.
    Global value At a global level, the need to alleviate poverty and lower our ecological footprint and “ndia’s concern was always with I regenerate the contexts of life implies that we have to generate prosperity through alternative growth models. We need to go beyond a purely growth metric, such as GDP, that measures and pushes towards higher and higher productivity, at the cost eternity, not with time. We will have of the environment, health and wellbeing. When depression and crime are good for GDP because they sell more anti-depressants and anti-theft devices, then we have a problem. In the future a more varied economy is likely to emerge, encompassing to weave the web of a new order local for local, local for global and global for local. Such models will support the idea of bringing production and consumption closer together, of enhancing and enriching more local/regional contexts and of promoting more sustaining and sustainable guided by the principles of creative livelihoods and lifestyles. It is possible that on this journey developing nations such as China, the first country to talk about a Green GDP in its 11th five year plan, and India may lead the way. freedom for all in order to provide Whatever the model, and whether at a personal, social or global level, we need to free ourselves from the tyranny of ever-higher productivity and the making and consuming an ethical and modern direction to of yet more and more ‘stuff’. As we re-define quality of life and invent new lifestyles, value needs to be re-defined through a more humanizing economic system of wellbeing and prosperity. the wayward movement of science, technology, wealth and power” J.C. Kapur Our Future: Consumerism or Humanism 26 Democratizing the future – New economic value Brochure 27
  • 15.
    6 A socially-led approach Perhaps the best way to understand a socially-led approach is by looking at what it is not, i.e. by examining a flawed market-led approach. One such example is the present technology led market led socially led issue around high rail fares in the UK as outlined in the newspaper, The Independent (14). A rail ticket, for example one from Manchester to London, if not booked well in advance, 50-70’s 80-000’s 2005+ now costs 214 pounds. The low cost airlines, however, on the same route, cost less, encouraging people to choose planes over trains. Presumably the rail company increased prices because there was a growing demand. While this may make good business sense, consumption experience transformation the bigger problem is that rail travel uses up only a tenth of carbon emissions compared to flights. Given the fact that the rail companies already receive public subsidies, who exactly is benefiting from these higher rail prices? It’s not the passengers, it’s not the tax payers and it’s not the planet. It is hard not to come to the conclusion that the sacred manufacturing marketing / people / cows of the market: supply and demand, choice, higher growth and maximizing profits driven brand driven network driven do not in fact ultimately benefit the public and the planet. Far too often they benefit the investors. Socially-led companies need to do it differently, moving beyond neo-liberal economics and a market ideology and away from the deeply ingrained view that there need to be winners and losers. There need to be winners. products emotions life hardware aesthetics tools/sw/content passive-receptive receptive-active co-creative the context economy 28 Democratizing the future – A socially-led approach A socially-led approach 29
  • 16.
    7 Social innovation Given the need to invent new ways of being and doing, together with the pressing need to re-invent many of our social industries, it makes sense to take the next step along the continuum from a technology- or consumer- to a socially-led company. Such a step, however, requires a very different mindset. A technology-led company is based on Social technology research and innovation, carried out primarily by experts in labs. A consumer/ market-led company is based on market/consumer research and market innovation, also Research primarily carried out by experts. So how does a socially-led company operate? Technology Social Social Innovation Needs 30 Democratizing the future – Social innovation Brochure 31
  • 17.
    The difference liesin the notion of social innovation as opposed to technology or market Finally, social innovation is not just about researching and creating new solutions for innovation. Social innovation is based on researching social needs and developing social the times, but it is also about how we create them. It is about doing things differently. solutions. Such innovation implies new ways of living and new ways of doing. In the To be meaningful, social innovation has to engage with the different stakeholders from industrial era it was in fact social innovation that created the right conditions for further the beginning through a collaborative and co-creative process, given that the ultimate technology development and economic growth. Throughout the Victorian period in the relevancy and success is dependent on their experience and their participation, especially UK it was the creation of social innovations like schools, libraries, building societies and of the users, themselves (15). In ensuring more relevant solutions, this socially-led housing that supported and drove the growth of the industrial era. A more recently ‘democratic’ process will ‘free up’ the enabling technologies to truly drive wellbeing example of social innovation is the Open University. A need for a broader access to and prosperity. higher education was identified and then enabled by the emerging technology of television. The relationship between social innovation, technology and economic growth is tightly Interestingly, the first International Conference on Social Innovation took place in Beijing, bound together. China in 2006 and reflects the growing importance of social innovation as a means towards alleviating major social issues such as health, education and poverty (16). In fact, solutions based more on systems and context, imply less technological innovation and more social innovation. A new health delivery system, for example, will be successful not primarily because of its technology but because it redefines the access and delivery of health and wellbeing in a way that makes sense socially and culturally to the various users. Social innovation and social solutions will be successful if they ultimately enrich and enhance the experience of wellbeing of the users while also serving a social need. A socially-led company of the future, therefore, is not only about social science research to identify social needs but about researching social, cultural and people needs. This is the key to success for the future and for companies who are well positioned to take advantage of this opportunity. In this respect, Philips’ history and competencies makes it well placed to combine the know-how of both a technology-led and a consumer-led approach to create a socially-led approach. 32 Democratizing the future – Social innovation Social innovation – Democratizing the future 33
  • 18.
    8 The future So how do we approach the future, given the growing importance of social innovation, and given the fact that we live in a time when the old system and its worldview is breaking down and a new one is in the making? In other words, if technology and the market no longer determine the future, then what does? Where is the future? Do we “ eans are ends M need to interact and engage with it differently? These are some of the thoughts and questions that have fueled our thinking in Philips Design within the area of Foresight and Design Research. We are conscious of the fact in the making” that the present space between two worldviews and two consciousnesses offers a golden opportunity to re-imagine and re-humanize the future. The outcome to date Gandhi is the development of a multi-faceted Foresight in Design approach. This is based on researching, engaging with, co-creating, envisaging and re-conceptualizing the future. This approach opens up the area both conceptually and pragmatically and contributes to finding a way of ‘futuring by doing’. 34 Democratizing the future – The future Brochure 35
  • 19.
    9 Foresight in design Researching the future If social innovation is increasingly important, and if we are to go beyond a technology and/or market view of the future, then, as stated above, we need first and foremost to think about the future through a social and cultural lens, researching and understanding socio-cultural contexts and values. This is true whether we are thinking about consumers (as people first and consumers second), about social needs and social solutions, or about both, i.e. users in social solutions. Philips Design has always taken a more socio-cultural approach to research, exploring beliefs, values, aspirations etc. For more than ten years a diverse team of futurists, Research psychologists, historians, anthropologists and designers in Design Research and in the Foresight and Trends group have been researching society, cultures and people in terms of: • the deeper currents in social values and the main drivers shaping tomorrow’s world, drawing on futures and social studies. • the cultural expressions of how these values are manifested, drawing on cultural and The future design studies. • the needs and behaviors of people in their everyday lives and activities, drawing on ethnography and the human sciences. The primary aim of our socio-cultural research and the creative tools that translate this Envisage Engage research and make is accessible to others has always been to anchor the future and innovation in terms of people, and to trigger out-of-the-box thinking. How do we label this research? Is it futuring, foresighting or market research? Actually it Co-Create is at the interface of these different disciplines and is trying to forge a new qualitative ‘human’ storytelling into the futures process. Ultimately this more human focus allows us to put people at the center of the future, to explore more meaningful and wellbeing solutions and experiences and to re-introduce a normative approach to the future, meaning to think about preferable futures that make sense both to society and people. 36 Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design Brochure 37
  • 20.
    In essence, asocially-led company has to go beyond only market research and consumer Engaging with the future research and insights towards more social network research. Building on our experience Researching the future gives us deeper understanding of change and of the realities of to date there is a need to: people in their everyday lives. However it is no longer enough. The distance between • refine our social science approach to better identify areas in which social needs require researcher and researched, even using the most inclusive ethnographic approaches, still social innovation and social solutions. For example in the areas of the elderly, food and fails to capture so much of the future in the making. So how can we actually touch this nutrition, chronic illness, mobility, inadequate water and illiteracy. future more directly? One way is to engage with those groups of people who are actually • combine this research with our socio-cultural research in order to ensure that the social making the future today. Such groups emerge more strongly when the world undergoes solutions are experiential and enriching. profound change. When old world meets new world, those who have already crossed over • research not the single individual but the social network and the interactions in the social inform us about how the future will be, both through their values and their actions. system, building on the ‘multiple encounter’ and ‘personas’ research carried out by Lucile Whether they are the carriers of new values or of new needs, driven by conviction or Rameckers and Stefanie Un (17). frustration, they proactively take the initiative in creating the new world. They are the • research less and involve users more. change agents to the future, giving it its character, its leadership and its social profile. Essentially we need to ensure that we are able to identify opportunities, trigger creative To engage with the future directly we have identified three different groups. Each of these insights and ground these in values research, using a network of collaborators, on- and groups in their different ways and expressions are an interface to the coming future. off-line, who are strong in one or more of these different areas. 38 Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design Foresight in Design – Democratizing the future 39
  • 21.
    Cultural Innovators arethe carriers of new values and the emerging mindset. They believe Creative Communities are complimentary to – though not necessarily synonymous in sustainability, authenticity, personal growth, collective self determination, and social and with – cultural innovators. They are locally-based communities who through grassroots, community activism. These cultural innovators, and the transformation they represent, bottom-up initiatives create new solutions to new problems or needs. In other words are a powerful means with which to engage with the future and offer an effective foresight an alternative solution to living, but which has at its core an environmental and/or social and insight tool. However the very nature of who they are and what they represent benefit. Also here, researching and engaging with such communities enables us to means any engagement has to go beyond more traditional qualitative and quantitative identify new future directions and possibilities. Through a European research project research methods. Our challenge is to engage physically and virtually, with cultural EMUDE (19), examples of creative bottom-up solutions were identified, including the innovators to generate insights both in intellectual and experiential ways. Given this, production and consumption of locally grown produce, the use of local materials for we are creating a collaborative and ongoing two-way relationship in which, together, we construction, the recycling and redesigning of old furniture, the promotion of alternative explore and experience emerging values and behaviors, and a more holistic worldview. transport, the creation of local green spaces and local provision for the elderly and This connection not only builds more future-relevant solutions but also helps a more children. Of course, such self-help community initiatives have always existed, but – as sensible future to emerge, based on sustainable and collaborative values and beliefs. with the cultural innovators – their significance today lies in the timing, given that in this The pioneering work of Paul Ray on cultural creatives in the USA serves as an inspiration change of age they become meaningful antennae towards an emerging future. in this work (18). 40 Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design Foresight in Design – Democratizing the future 41
  • 22.
    Social Entrepreneurs, examplesof which are given above, are another group with which to engage with the future. Social entrepreneurs run businesses based upon a double (financial and social or environmental) or triple (financial, social and environmental) “ ike other idealists, social L bottom line. In other words, rather than relying on philanthropy or charity or public hand outs, social entrepreneurs embed their social mission in business and reach self sufficiency through earned income. To paraphrase Jerr Boschee, a social entrepreneur entrepreneurs look at the world is any person, in any sector, who runs a social enterprise. A social enterprise is any organization, in any sector, that uses earned income strategies to pursue a double or triple bottom line, either alone (as a social sector business) or as part of a mixed through rose-colored glasses, revenue stream that includes charitable contributions and public sector subsidies (20). As such, social enterprises promote a more varied and mixed system of different partnerships, including public private ones. but they never forget the green Another outstanding example, already mentioned, is Dr Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2006. In a speech hosted by the eyeshades of the accountant- Tallberg Foundation in December 2006 he makes a crucial distinction between profit- maximizing business and social business (10). He explained how business is very good at maximizing profits for those providing investment and how social enterprise leaves measuring results and finding profits in the hands of those who need them and has thus proven to be a far superior tool when it comes to bringing people out of poverty. It is in essence the well-known example of the fish and the fishing rod; ‘give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Give new ways to scale up their a man a fishing rod and he will eat for a lifetime’. The one major flaw in this argument is that the man is increasingly likely to be a woman. Dr Yunus explained how impoverished women possess the innate capacity for innovative business ideas so they can take care sustainable social impact” of themselves and their families, but that this will only emerge if they are provided with the first financial seed and gentle encouragement. All of which is counter-intuitive to the Jeff Skoll, The Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (21) big banking system that is based on lending money guaranteed by collateral. Such social enterprises often represent an alternative to the centralized socio-economic development model driven by multinationals. 42 Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design Brochure 43
  • 23.
    With a newage To sum up, a vital force for interfacing and interacting with the future is through the very people who are creating it. With a new age come new actors and new leaders and so, as old worldview leaders turn in to followers, it becomes both productive and necessary to engage with the new leaders, be they the cultural innovators, creative come new actors community activists or social entrepreneurs. Such engagement offers rich insights and validation into emerging trends, new sustainable lifestyles and new expressions of social innovation and incubation. It also stimulates internal transformation and cultural change. Our challenge is to help enable and scale up social innovation and change. Given that the future is unfamiliar territory, as is the engagement with these people, there is a need to; • cultivate opportunities and projects where we can work together as equals. and new leaders • help facilitate, enable and incubate some ‘experiments’. • scale up those that are successful in fostering more sustainable lifestyles. • create a more open and experimental mindset and portfolio so that ‘a thousand flowers bloom’. • explore more partnerships including public private opportunities. This is a particularly challenging area for large companies who are used to being in the driving seat and behaving in a manner in keeping with their size. It is a challenge, however, that must be met. According to the MP Alan Simpson; “The big idea for the 21st century is that all of the answers are to be found in the absence of bigness. It’s a bit of a bummer for today’s corporate giants, but tomorrow’s solutions will be found in networks and systemic interdependencies, not in global behemoths” (22). 44 Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design Brochure 45
  • 24.
    The future will Co-creating the future As we have seen, one way of co-creating the future is to actively engage with those who are making the future. Another way is to drive open and co-creative practices through the company’s innovation and development processes. Whether we are thinking about a new be less about health system, a water solution, an interactive home environment, ambient intelligence, enabling systems or open tools, the customization of future technologies is reshaping how we innovate and with whom we innovate. predicting it By working with stakeholders and especially users to create bits of the future, there is a higher probability that the resulting solutions and systems will be relevant, appropriate and therefore more successful. As Van Hippel shows in his book, Democratizing Innovation (23), users are one of the most under-used resources. In fact the majority of application and more about innovations are by users themselves who take an original application and change it to their own needs or to something different. One example is the mountain bike which was developed by users who had a specific need. collaborative A paradigm shift is taking place in innovation, which is being democratized with active user roles and open innovation processes, and where the scope is widening from product and services innovation to business model and societal innovation. Different stakeholders are involved from the public sector, the business world (local and international companies), designing it academia and NGOs, in addition to citizens and users. Information and communication technology is a key enabler for mobilizing and aggregating the ‘collective intelligence and creativity’. An example and expression of this shift in innovation can be seen in the launch, under the Finnish presidency, of the European Network of Living Labs. The labs bring together users and experts to foster collaborative innovation and are a step towards a European Innovation System based on open co-creative labs for jobs, growth and global competitiveness (24). 46 Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design Brochure 47
  • 25.
    This again isa challenge to large companies who are hardwired to come up with the perfect finished ‘product’. Having users in the innovation and development cycle, Future innovation driven by especially with ambient and context technologies, means that we may have to think about putting unfinished or even half-realized ideas out there and letting users and experts ‘play’ with the stuff. Increasingly in the future, through such a process, we shall human-focused insights and see a reconfiguration of what exists, putting things together in a different way, rather than waiting for the next big future or for the next big technology invention or the perfect solution. Quite possibly, future innovation will be driven by human-focused inputs, half-realized prototypes insights and inputs, half-realized prototypes and designer/user participation, manifested through an iterative process of creativity and refinement. and designer/user participation, This innovation paradigm shift implies a changing role both for research and researchers and for design and designers. One in which they are no longer the researcher or the creative but rather part of one or more networks, to which they bring their ‘tool kit’ will be manifested through an and establish a creative dialogue with the participants. What is required is therefore: • facilitation of discussion • extrapolation of ideas to replicate or multiply iterative process of creativity • faster prototyping • supporting, enabling and facilitating users, and working side-by-side with them. and refinement In terms of how we interface and interact with the future, the implication is that it will be less about predicting it and more about collaboratively designing it. The future will emerge through interaction and co-creation. With the democratization of innovation comes the democratization of the future. Furthermore, the need to re-design systems rather than products is in turn profoundly affecting the role of design and designers, who are increasingly engaged in the design of services and systems and who, through the democratization of innovation, are taking on a more facilitating and enabling role. 48 Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design Brochure 49
  • 26.
    Envisaging the future One way of co-creating the future is to envisage it, in other words to make it tangible. This is quintessentially a design task. Design, which has always been a link between people, technology and the future, is able to give intangible ideas and creativity a form. In so doing it increases the level of debate and interaction and facilitates dialogue, contribution and involvement from stakeholders and, more specifically, users. Under the leadership of Stefano Marzano, Philips Design has for some years now been creating ‘memories of the future’. These ‘memories’ embed possible futures in the present through tangible prototypes. From Vision of the Future in 1995 through to Next Simplicity in 2005/6, these vision projects have built knowledge and know-how, facilitated a discussion with different stakeholders, encouraged a more creative engagement with the future and directed research and innovation. At a time when there was much talk of a very technology-oriented vision, we wanted, through our tangible prototypes, to project and promote discussion about a more intimate, human and humane view of the future. This is one way of re-introducing a more normative approach to the future and to research and innovation. Making preferable futures ‘real’ will hopefully in turn create more positive ‘memories of the future’ (x). Philips Design visioning projects 50 Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design Brochure 51
  • 27.
    Future Horizons marketing business modelling An important issue, however, when engaging with and envisaging the future, is defining exactly which future we are engaging with; near future or far future? To effectively think about and visualize the future we need a pragmatic, holistic and comprehensive framework for building, leading and sustaining innovation in the short-, medium- and long term. basic research applied research advanced development pre development development pre production production The standard funnel model (fig. 1) of innovation works on the basis that all creative ideas theories, models proof of concept wam working appearance model prototype first model first batch go in at the front end. These are then progressively developed and filtered until a number of feasible propositions come out at the other end. However, this one-size-fits-all model of innovation does not take time into consideration, and also usually means that business takes control of innovation too easily and too early. The consequence is generally that short-term innovation replaces longer-term exploration. The future always seems to be tomorrow, if not today! Visual of funnel model Building on a McKinsey model (25), Paul Gardien’s design-led horizon innovation model horizon 3 horizon 2 horizon 1 create viable build emerging extend defend (fig. 2) proposes an elegant framework that enables us to think short-, medium- and long Attention options business core business term, and fits with Foresight in Design’s more exploratory and flexible approach to the future and innovation (26). By transforming the funnel model into a framework of three different horizons, a more customized and exploratory approach to thinking about the future is enabled, given that horizon 1, horizon 2 and horizon 3, reflect short-, medium- and long-term futures. Horizon 3 is about more radical innovation and transformation, horizon 2 is about the next new business and horizon 1 is closer to business as usual and therefore involves more incremental innovation. Each horizon explores a different time space and therefore needs a different foresight in design approach and input. investigate territories find applications build roadmaps Time Visual of 3 Horizon 52 Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design Foresight in Design – Democratizing the future 53
  • 28.
    In horizon 3,for example, which is longer-term and has a higher degree of uncertainty, Envisaging the future will prove to be truly successful if we supplement our creative we are able to explore and experiment more sustainable futures and socially-innovative juices with stimulating research and inputs. As stated already in this paper, stakeholders solutions. This inherent uncertainty calls for the application of Foresight in Design’s and especially end-users also have to actively participate and ultimately co-create the more qualitative approaches and methods such as future scenarios, socio-cultural required innovation and, by consequence, the next futures. To achieve this we need to: narratives and engagement with cultural innovators, creative communities and social • collaborate more with creative mindsets, artists, musicians, poets, and others ‘on the fringe’ entrepreneurs. Horizon 2, which is more about new business, builds on the input, • engage with cultural innovators and creative communities knowledge and competence developed in horizon 3 but concentrates on users as co- • collaborate with social entrepreneurs creators of next applications. Horizon 1, which is more about incremental innovation, • involve users earlier in the process and throughout the process taps into market research and consumer insights, data mining, segmentations etc. • identify the right level of envisaging and prototyping based on the purpose. Envisaging the outcomes of the different horizons also differs, from the open experiential visualizations of horizon 3 to the tangible application prototypes of horizon 2 and 1. But is this enough? Does it answer the question we asked in the first paragraph: how do we, could we, and perhaps more importantly, should we interface and interact with The importance of this open and flexible approach to the future is that it allows a the future? Does it solve our problem of creating a new, sustainable engagement with richer exploration of different futures, including a more ‘blue-sky’ longer-term future. the future? We believe our approach of Foresight in Design together with the horizons In doing this it both adds and re-invents value through generating sufficient creative framework helps towards an answer. It proposes not one but a number of interfaces, ideas that support strategic innovation in terms of current and future opportunities. through research, engagement, co-creation and envisioning, tailored to the time factor It means that the company can envisage and communicate the different expressions of horizon 1, 2 or 3. As such it offers a more flexible approach and the possibility of of horizons 1, 2, and 3 to the different stakeholders, including the public. This in turn a more responsible approach to the future. gives the company license to explore and communicate the not-yet-perfect or the not-yet-finished. As stakeholders become more involved in research and innovation, Such an approach, however, is still ‘trapped’ by the idea of time as past, present and the degree of presenting the unfinished will increase out of necessity. future. Perhaps, at the more esoteric and experimental level, in our quest to find the future we have to challenge the very concept of time itself and try to imagine beyond our present straightjacket of linear time. 54 Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design Foresight in Design – Democratizing the future 55
  • 29.
    Re-conceptualizing the future Each culture, according to its own worldview, makes time and the future its own, and our “ hat are the alternative imaginations W culture is no exception. Western culture interprets time as past, present and future, and sees the future as an empty space into which we can ‘trespass’, filling it with more of today and with more technology and marketable goods (27). This automatic ‘colonialization’ of the future? …What are the images of the future, however, now risks creating more problems than benefits (28). Global warming and the depletion of natural resources, the growing gap between the rich and the poor and the higher personal levels of stress and burn-out all call to us, as a of the future of those we consider civilization, to re-think our relationship to time and the future. We need to evolve new conceptual models and new metaphors. outside history? What are other ways New time/future metaphors and images could have the potential to free us from deterministic and mechanistic thinking and allow us to re-integrate a sense of wonder and stewardship towards the future. How we think about the future determines the to ‘time’ the world instead of the way we act in the present and new metaphors and a new narrative could allow us to engage more creatively and perhaps more responsibly with our futures. dominant scientific model, such as women’s, spiritual, or cyclical time…” Sohail Inayatullah (29) 56 Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design Brochure 57
  • 30.
    What if timeis more like a spiral, encompassing the old but always adding complexity and evolving the new, or a swirl, simultaneously containing past, present and future? “ uture historians may note that at F Perhaps the most important thing in this change of age and consciousness is to suspend disbelief, to regain a childlike wonder of the universe and to keep exploring and imagining beyond our fixed notions of time and space. To do this, there is a need to: the same period that technology • engage with artists, scientists, academics to explore the space between the creative and scientific disciplines • trust in your own subjectivity and that of others as much as you do in objectivity. acceleration was driving the world What is certain is that we can no longer continue to ‘consume’ the future and therefore, freeing up time and the future becomes both a necessity and an opportunity. to operate on fleeting ‘Internet time’, environmentalists were teaching the world the long-term foresight and responsibility of biosphere time. Just when technology was busy making us smarter, environmentalists began to make us wiser” Stewart Brand (30) 58 Democratizing the future – Foresight in Design Brochure 59
  • 31.
    10 Sense making and making sense To conclude, we are experiencing a change of age, one in which deeply-held beliefs and behaviors are transforming. People are moving from being passive consumers to “f we are privileged with power I active producers of their own lives and lifestyles, and the new ambient technologies are re-enforcing and enabling this as well as offering more context-driven solutions on product, service and system level. Such changes facilitate the re-design of our or money or knowledge we have social industries and even of our future development paradigms. This paper began by stating the need to open up the future, to engage and interact to put it to work, otherwise it differently with it in order to drive greater prosperity and wellbeing in a period of such transformation. Linked to this, it suggests that the more forward-looking companies initiate a move towards a socially-led approach. It outlines some of the research and thinking going on in Philips Design to support the above, particularly atrophies and ultimately corrupts us” the approach of Foresight In Design. It asks us to open up our hearts and our minds towards new ways of being and new ways of doing, given that the future Geoff Mulgan (31) of our people and our planet are at risk. 60 Democratizing the future – Sense making and making sense Brochure 61
  • 32.
    It suggests implicitlythat business can no longer concern itself only with making money and maximizing profits and that, given its talent, resources and knowledge, it needs to “ or the first time ever, our enemies F take a more pro-active role towards a better future. This in turn means thinking about a different purpose and a different role. And nothing stands still. Business knows this. The orthodoxy of today is the heresy of tomorrow. Sometimes it seems that to challenge are no longer outside us. We’re quite market capitalism is to utter heresy. Yet market capitalism was not a gift from above and is no eleventh commandment. It is neither inevitable nor necessarily modern, as some would have us believe. Nor does capitalism stand still, and already we can see well suited to battles with foreign through the sustainability movement a process of creative destruction. Sustainability is not tame; it is a radical philosophy that, as with the great religions, asks people to change their lives. Like those religions it is about radical change and transformation. powers, evil corporations or heartless A transformation of the way we think and the way we are, a personal transformation, which is often the hardest transformation of all but one that supports all the others. If we don’t change ourselves we can’t change the world. states. But now we face many challenges where the enemy is us – our desires and our myopias may be what stand in the way of survival” Geoff Mulgan (31) 62 Democratizing the future – Sense making and making sense Brochure 63
  • 33.
    This transformation ofa worldview, of social models and of more human ways of creating value, is also about a transformation of approaches and practices including new tools, new research and innovation, new leaders, new networks and new partnerships: cross-disciplinary, cross-industry, cross-border and public/private collaborations that will create the industries and markets of the future. In essence, at the beginning of the 21st century, we have the possibility to enter a new social era, in which an emerging new capitalism transcends market capitalism, the maximization of profits and the cult of the individual. One in which the underlying ethos of sustainability and sustainable development helps to humanize and simplify our lives. It puts people, not technology and not the market, at the center of our future, our thinking and our practice. It means that sense making and making sense of the future lies in understanding how people are evolving, engaging with them on a journey of discovery and exploration, and co-creating and envisaging the future together. It seems, however, that humankind is capable of anticipating the future but not so good at doing anything about it. Unlike the poor frog, who, when put in cold water boils to death, oblivious of the rising temperature, we are not oblivious but to often continue along the same path anyway! An inclusive approach and a collective engagement in the future and in innovation may help to marry anticipation and action. This is our challenge. The frog is also a symbol of renewal and transformation in mythology and fairy tales. Are we to be the boiled frog or the prince? If the future is not predictable then it is also about choice and certain choices are just waiting to be made. It’s up to us. “ hatever you can do or dream W you can, begin it. Boldness has genius power and magic in it...” Goethe 64 Democratizing the future – Sense making and making sense Sense making and making sense – Democratizing the future 65
  • 34.
    References 1 Peter F. Druker, Post- Capitalist Society, HarperCollins Publishers, 1994 9 1 Emude – Emerging User Demands for Sustainable Solutions, EU project, 2004, 2 Eamonn Kelly, Powerful Times – Rising to the challenge of our uncertain world, Wharton www.sustainable-everyday.net/EMUDE/april School Publishing, 2005 Promising cases repository, 2005- www.indaco.polimi.it/emude 3 Burgelman D. Osimo, DG Joint Research Council. Institute for Perspective JC 20 Jerr Boschee, Migration from Innovation to Entrepreneurship, Encore! Technological Studies Press, Minnesota 2006 4 Charles Leadbeater. We-think: The Power of Mass Creativity, www.wethinkthebook.net 21 The Said Business School, University of Oxford, The Skoll Centre for Social 5 Stefano Marzano, Flying over Las Vegas, Keynote speech at the 17th World Design Entrepreneurship, www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/skoll Conference of the International Council of Societies (ICSID) in Ljubljana, 1992 22 Alan Simpson, The Long and Winding Road, Resurgence, September/October 2006, 6 Emile Aarts, Stefano Marzano, The New Everyday – Views on Ambient Intelligence, no 238 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2003 23 Eric van Hippel, Democratizing Innovation, The MIT Press 2005 7 Andrews, Bueno, Cass: Open Tools Definitions, Internal Paper, Philips Design, 2002, A. 24 The Aho Group, Creating an Innovative Europe and Experience and Application www.design.philips.com Research. European Network of Living Labs, www.openlivinglabs.eu 8 Hilary Cottom, Charles Leadbeater, Health-Co-creating services, Red Paper 01, Design 25 Merhdad Baghar, Stephen Coley and David White, The Alchemy of Growth, Council, www.designcouncil.org.uk Perseus Publishing 2000 9 Ezio Manzini, Presentation to Philips Design, 2004 26 Paul Gardien, Breathing Life into Delicate Ideas, Position Paper, Philips Design 2006, 0 1 Mohammed Yunus, speech to the Tallberg Foundation, December 2006, www.design.philips.com www. tallbergfoundation.org 27 Barabara Adam, Towards a New Sociology of the Future, The Futures Project, 1 1 Slow Food International Association www.slowfood.com Cardiff University, School of Social Sciences, www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/futures/ S low + Design International Seminar, Milan, October 2006 28 Z.Sardar, Colonizing the future: the ‘other’ dimension of future studies, March 1993, 2 1 Simona Rocchi Unlocking New Markets, Position Paper, Philips Design, 2006, Futures, 25(2), 179-187 www.design.philips.com 29 Sohail Inayatullah, www.metafuture.org/Articles/PEDAGOGY 3 1 Wolfgang Sachs, Globalization and Sustainability, The Wuppertal Institute. Germany 30 Stewart Brand, The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility, Basic Books, 1999 4 Herbert, Planes, Trains and the Road to Ruin, The Independent, 2nd January 2007 1 Ian 31 Geoff Mulgan, The Enemy Within, Resurgence, September/October 2006, No. 238 5 Young Foundation, Social Silicon Valleys – A Manifesto for Social Innovation, 2006. 1 The www.youngfoundation.org 6 1 International Conference on Social Innovation, Beijing, China, 2006, www.discoversocialinnovation.org This paper draws on the accumulated and on-going research and thinking within 7 1 Lucile Rameckers and Stefanie Un, People Insights at the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation. Philips Design. The final content, however, is my responsibility. I would like to thank Position Paper, Philips Design, 2006, www.design.philips.com Paul Gardien, Steven Kyffin, Nick Price and Derek Brookman for their useful comments. 8 1 Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, The Cultural Creatives: How 50 million people A special thanks to Gary Nudds and Rita Stumpel for their design creativity and are changing the world, Harmony Books 2000 Carla O’Driscoll-Silva for her support. 66 Democratizing the future – References References – Democratizing the future 67
  • 35.
    In the twentiethcentury the future was more elitist. It was primarily a top down concern and, from a company perspective, driven through technology, economics and expertise. However, the emerging meta- themes of mass creativity, social innovation and sustainability are transforming how we think about and how we engage with the future. This book explores this transformation, proposes a more multi-faceted approach to the future and innovation and offers some thoughts around the resulting democratization of the future. ©2007 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. All rights reserved.