Visionary and Chief Futurist Lars Thomsen: “The next 10 years affect us all.”

Lars Thomsen was born in Hamburg and has always wanted to know how to make the future predictable.

Since he was 22 years old, the 68-year-old has been advising companies, corporations, institutions and government-related bodies in Europe as an independent entrepreneur. He helps them develop strategies and business models for the future.

Lars Thomsen states clearly: “The developments of the next 10 years affect us all. No one will be able to avoid the developments in the world, and it is better to participate than to just watch.

Lars Thomsen is one of the world’s leading futurologists. He is considered one of the most influential among them. Thomsen is an expert on the future of energy, mobility and smart networks. His personal reference list now includes more than 800 companies. With his company future matters, he helps companies “think about the future,” create scenarios and develop business models.

Specifically: with future matters, Lars Thomsen helps companies and industries “recognize future opportunities and potential early on, prepare for them and profit from them.” This involves forecasts for periods of a good 10 years.

According to Lars Thomsen, future matters is less about traditional research and teaching and more about concrete methods for precisely calculating tipping points and pinpointing the exact location of these system breaks on a roadmap.

Trend research, the future visionary explains, is just one of the building blocks of futurology. On the future matters website, he writes that “quiet signals” emerge long beforehand and are recognizable to experts long before a trend emerges that then becomes clear to the general public.

Lars Thomsen specializes in developing future maps and roadmaps for innovation teams, executive boards and supervisory boards. This usually always involves proven techniques such as trend environment analysis, InnovationLab, roadmapping process, future map, strategy workshop and others.

Lars Thomsen: “The developments of the next ten years affect us all.”

He wants to draw wider circles through his work as a keynote speaker and make it clear to a broader mass that the future concerns everyone. Because no one can avoid it.

With his work, Lars Thomsen would like to help stem the anxiety about possible future scenarios. In his view, this can succeed if more understanding of a possible future also reaches a broad mass.

Lars Thomsen says: “In the coming years, more fundamental changes will take place than ever before. Especially for those who think and plan for the long term, these changes are of great importance. It is an exciting time for people who welcome change and are comfortable with it. However, for those who are more cautious or fearful of change, this time can be challenging.”

For example, he said, issues include mobility, energy, the increased use of robotics, the transformation of healthcare and society, the redistribution of financial and time resources, and much more.

Lars Thomsen wants to ensure a better understanding of change and innovation, and through his lectures to make people look forward to the future and arouse their curiosity. Look and participate instead of looking away and running away, could be the motto.

“Innovations are created first and foremost to make our lives more beautiful.” Of course, there are always those who say, “Everything was better in the past.” However, that is not so true, he says.

And Lars Thomsen also explains why this is not true: “Let’s go back 5,000 years. We lived in caves and had very basic existential fears every day. The question was more about how we would survive the winter, or whether another tribe would pose a great danger. Can we or do we have to eliminate them, or do they eliminate us? At the same time, even then we had innovative approaches and questions, such as: Can fire maybe not only be threatening, but maybe useful? Or: We can use these bare walls for painting – whether to beautify them or to pass on information. Or also: How can we close the entrance and protect it better? After all, that was the invention of the door.”

The expert on the future takes an optimistic view in this regard, saying that in the past, people have always used their creativity and innovation to make life easier and gradually improve it.

“The whole world is moving forward, and that includes us, of course,” says the Chief Futurist. In his talks, he gives outlooks on the changes that await us in the next 10 years, he talks about the future of work, AI and how it can help defeat stupidity, energy, the future of mobility or innovation culture.

“Lars Thomsen is one of the most important trend and futurologists in Europe.” So says Swiss radio SRF. Convince yourself.

Book futurologist Lars Thomsen for talks and workshops at Premium Speakers. Call us or write to us at lars.thomsen@premium-speakers.com