“I would love to see three focus areas for 21st first century skills. One is the foundational core skills, which presumably most schools and education deal with the literacy, numeracy, scientific, etc. The second area are competencies in terms of how can young citizens approach complex challenges and that’s everything to do with problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration. And the third piece is the character qualities which allow you to, to approach changing environments: initiative, curiosity, persistence, grit.” – Roger Spitz
Connect with Disruptive Futures Institute in San Francisco:
In this special episode, we are releasing the recording of the first live 21st Century Visionary talk in partnership with TILE.org and The Nebula challenge featuring the amazing and insightful Roger Spitz.
Based in San Francisco, Roger Spitz is the founder of Techistential, the global Foresight, Strategy & Futures Intelligence platform. Roger is also founding Chairman of the Disruptive Futures Institute. He has two decades of experience leading investment banking businesses, advising CEOs, Founders, Boards, and Shareholders of companies globally on how to future-proof their business. As the former Head of Technology Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) with BNP Paribas, Roger advised on over 50 transactions across the world with an overall deal value of $25bn. Roger is also an advisor to a number of Accelerators, Incubators, and Venture Capital funds in Silicon Valley including Berkeley SkyDeck and Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center.
In this conversation, we covered Roger’s unique career trajectory how he got into Foresight and Futures thinking, His current work with Techistential and the Disruptive Futures Institute, The role of AI in the future, The AAA framework to future proof our careers, reforming the education system, the rise of generalists, Roger’s investing criteria, must-read books, and much much more!
SHOW NOTES
0:00- 3:45 Intro and Roger’s bio
3:45- 8:00 Roger background and career trajectory
8:00- 9:45 The transition to futures thinking
10:00- 13:00 His current work and day-to-day
13:00- 20:00 The evolution of AI and the importance of the AAA framework for humans to stay relevant
20:00- 28:31 Future proofing our educations and the education system
29:00- 35:00 Roger’s investing criteria
35:20- 37:20 Successful pivots after COVID
38:00- 42:00 Emerging technologic trends
42:00- 46:20 How Gen Z should think about their future paths
46:40- 48:20 Lessons learnt from advising Berkeley Skydeck
49:00- 55:10 Must read books
55:45- 58:00 Roger’s vision for the future
21stCenturyVisionary 