The counterintuitive next wave of industrial tech is all about scaling humans innovation

Executives need a management framework that prioritizes humans over machines. When you empower your frontline workers, you are investing in their growth, productivity, and loyalty.

Increased efficiency of your machines is just a side effect.

Hear Trond present highlights from his latest book, Augmented Lean: A Human-Centric Framework for Managing Frontline Operations (Wiley 2022), co-authored with serial entrepreneur, and MIT Media Lab alum, Natan Linder.

The book was pre-launched both at the World Economic Forum and at IMTS – The International Manufacturing Technology Show, the largest and longest-running industry trade show in the Western Hemisphere and has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, IndustryWeek, and the World Economic Forum’s Agenda Blog.

Futurism isn’t about predicting exactly, but about projecting long term potential outcomes and deciding what kind of future we want to optimize for.

Trond’s current research at Stanford University (see his Stanford profile) is about Cascading Risk Scenarios for 2075 stemming from artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, climate change, nuclear technology, geopolitics, social movements, and a whole host of risks that are rising and combining in unforeseen ways, often under the radar.

The Future of Technology (AI, Blockchain, Synthetic Biology, 3D printing, Nanotech, Quantum tech, Robotics)

His recent book, Future Tech: How to Capture Value from Disruptive Industry Trends was published by the highly regarded, independent publisher Kogan Page.

For a sample of his views, see The five technologies that matter: how the C-suite can deploy each for post-pandemic positioning (CEO Magazine).

Academia to Innovation AND How corporations should work with startups AND How to learn from–and even thrive on–failure

Trond was the inaugural director of MIT Startup Exchange, the world’s leading matchmaking program between startups and corporations, working with some of the leading startups of our time (including unicorns Formlabs, Desktop Metal, and Ginkgo Bioworks) and over 200 Fortune 1000 companies.

 Trond wrote the first book on the COVID-19 pandemic, a futurist’s 450 page account of what might happen in the next decade which was published in early May 2020.

As the pandemic enters different stages, seemingly catching governments, medical professionals, businesses and citizens by surprise, his five scenarios seem more and more relevant every month that passes. See his tome Pandemic Aftermath.

Trond’s upcoming book, Health Tech: Rebooting Society’s Software, Hardware and Mindset, will be published by Routledge in September 2021, and is available for pre-order.

The book introduces anybody who wishes to understand how global healthcare will change in the next decade to key technologies, social dynamics, and systemic shifts that are shaping the future. 

1. Reskilling one billion workers in industry 4.0 technologies and mindsets,
2. Leadership challenges in a changing world,
3. Remote work, hybrid work, and the face-to-face advantage, and d) The Role of Knowledge and Insight

Why reskilling, not developing the technologies themselves, is about to become the 21st century’s greatest leadership challenge.

Trond leads MFG.works, the reskilling platform launched in association with the World Economic Forum and aiming to provide learning journeys to future proof the world’s workers

How the world needs to co-regulate technology in a way where governments work alongside private sector and nonprofits to watch algorithms, safeguard interoperability, and build no code services of public interest in health, privacy, and culture.

Trond is committed to a more inclusive form of capitalism, where Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) no longer needs to be a focus because each is valued in its own right.