Founded originally in 2013
Futuresphere was originally founded in London in 2013 to respond to what has subsequently been termed poly-crisis. In the wake of the global financial crisis, the ensuing UK banking crisis and Eurozone debt crisis, as well as the global climate crisis, a group of like-minded professionals believed that business had to change. But ‘day jobs’ took priority; the initiative stalled.
A decade later, the original Futuresphere is not the only thing that has been revealed to have stalled. While time has healed some of the most vociferous complaints about the wounds of 2008, it has done little to address the structural problems and contradictions that led to the 2008 global financial crisis; action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been nugatory and certainly has not kept up with the lofty and pious rhetoric of Paris in 2015 or national politicians since then.
In the meantime, other problems have proliferated internationally and at home. Along with many other western polities, Britain appears lost, rudderless and despondent; increasingly, the West seems out of ideas that do more than funnel additional wealth to the wealthy. Its politicians appear impotent to address the unintended consequences of even incrementalist policy agendas; purposive social action has earned a ‘bad rep’. The liberal aspiration of justice as fairness (in Rawls’ great phrase) seems to be flickering, if not almost extinguished. Reform (the process, not the atavistic political return of Nigel Farage) and a solution the ‘productivity puzzle’ that could reverse the slide of Britain in to being, in the words of former BoE governor Mark Cairney, ‘Argentina on the Thames,’ seem a distant prospect. Sound research, original ideas and pragmatic realism about the future are needed now more than ever.
Futuresphere is needed now more than ever.
Our (re-)founders
Colin Johnston Ph.D
Laser physicist, geologist, chief risk officer
After having started his career as a research scientist at St Andrews, Colin trod the well-worn path to the City of London, where he has spent 30 years, initially as a consultant then principally in buy-side risk roles. His more recent posts include CRO of a major international investment house, an investment bank and a global inter-dealer broker and market venue provider. He was subsequently COO in an exchange start-up.
This background has given him plenty of time to become fed up with self-limiting and self-sabotaging thinking by senior business people, politicians and public alike. As he has observed uncritical credulity and herd-following grow to drown out questioning, reason and pragmatism in many debates with inevitably deleterious effects, he has found his tolerance of it diminish.
He feels it is time to apply his knowledge, efforts and energies to changing that and to confronting some of the major issues and challenges we face nationally and globally as we stride myopically and uncritically in to a brave new future world.
Peter Bonisch
Political economist, strategy, uncertainty & governance consultant
Having been an innovator right from the start of his career, Peter held development roles in the public sector, in banking, insurance and telecommunications before moving in to consulting. He has been a national practice leader and global innovator with a big-four chartered accounting firm and has advised companies and their boards around the world.
Settling in London (for the weather), he has spent 20 years leading boutique practices advising global companies on strategy, uncertainty, risk and governance.
As well as an innovator, he has always been a skeptic and even a contrarian. Now, he has become frustrated at (a) the apathy and incuriousness of business people to knowledge and method in social sciences and (b) to the insouciance, hubris, vapidity and inaction of politicans in a world plagued by the rhetoric of post-truth sophistry. Although no prude, he realises it is time to start to prepare a new, more discreet wardrobe for the Emporer.