FUTURE INFLUENCERS Speaker_Harvard Business Review & Siemens
I had the honour of being selected as Future Influencer in 2013. I had shared my then idea and vision for HAPACOOP. The Hand Papermaking Co-operative that we started at Manav Kalyan Trust, Navsari. The idea revolved around imagining the employers of the future. How the society could engage and involve the distinctly enabled individuals. The idea was presented at the European Business School in July 2012. The idea had received an overwhelming response. Today I would like to thank these organisations namely Siemens, Harvard Business Club,New York for creating that support system.
What was Future Influencers?
Siemens initiated the exclusive global online community “Future Influencers” to bring together
tomorrow’s thought leaders and to foster relationships and a continuous dialogue with those bright
and talented young movers and shakers. The community serves as an online think tank where young
high-potentials get the opportunity to collaborate on the most pressing sustainability challenges of
our time. To date, through this platform, we’ve established over 180 unique relationships with high
potentials and collected over 50 ideas of how to address the most pressing and urgent sustainability
issues of our time.
Our Future Influencers are characterized by their exceptional engagement in the field of
sustainability and their strong digital footprint which makes them multipliers in the social web.
They are the decision makers of the future.
In so called collaborations, the Future Influencers discuss important sustainability topics (e.g. The
Future of Energy) and come up with ideas and concepts to tackle those issues. The Future
Influencers community is supported by its official partner, the Harvard Business Review. Highly
recognized experts on sustainability topics mentor the members of the community during the
collaborations and actively take part in the discussions. Additionally the panel discussions at the end
of each collaboration are broadcasted live via an HBR-Webinar.
The Future Influencers, an online think tank initiated by Siemens, recently took up these challenges in a wide-ranging discussion in collaboration with Harvard Business Review. The conversation took many forms, pulling together insights from multiple sources. Harvard Business Review Analytic Services launched an online survey of HBR.org readers as well as Future Influencers to determine what current and future leaders perceive to be the challenges and opportunities surrounding this new world of work. Following an online debate among the 200-member FI community, a group of FI leaders from around the world gathered in New York for an intensive workshop, followed by an interactive panel discussion that was broadcast on the web. That discussion featured experts on organizations and the workplace as well as a presentation of the winning proposal developed by the Future Influencers community.
Results
By now the Future Influencers community counts more than 180 high profile members. We have
successfully completed four collaborations providing more than 50 ideas and resulting in 3 HBRwebcasts
at global sustainability events all around the world and two HBR-whitepapers. The results
of those collaborations provided Siemens with fresh thoughts and unique data. Additionally it
increased the company’s digital footprint significantly by using social media channels like Twitter or
Google+ and the live broadcasted webcasts. In May 2013 the first Future Influencers live meeting
took place at the Harvard Club of New York, which more than 40 members attended. The
community provides Siemens with the opportunity to present itself at sustainability events of global
significance as an innovative and open-minded company which cares about the concerns, ideas and
concepts of tomorrow’s thought leaders and decision makers.
