Jim Carroll is one of the world’s leading futurist, trends and innovation experts. Over the last 30 years, Carroll has shared his insight with more than 2 million people in attendance at his events. He is recognized within the global speaking industry for his highly customized, heavily researched, industry specific keynotes, leadership presentations and small, intimate senior leadership meetings.
Jim’s global client list is extensive and covers virtually every industry sector, including the World Bank, Volvo, NASA, the PGA of America, the Walt Disney Organization, the World Government Summit in Dubai, the Swiss Innovation Forum, the Wall Street Journal, National Australia Bank, WorldSkills, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, DuPont, The GAP, the US Air Force Research Laboratory, Godiva, SAP, Pfizer, Mercedes Benz, and hundreds more.
With a front row seat to the high velocity change that is occurring as disruption comes to take hold of every industry and every organization, he helps to transform growth-oriented organizations into high-velocity innovation heroes! Countless global organizations have engaged Jim for his unique insight and proven track record in providing a customized leadership program that will let you see disruptive trends, focus on opportunity, align to disruption, unlock creativity, achieve agility and enhance your speed, collaborate more and deliver on growth opportunities!
Jim provides high energy keynotes for audiences of 50 to 5,000, as well as intimate, customized strategic planning sessions for CEO/CxO, board, and senior management meetings. He has researched key innovation success factors for dozens of organizations and industries including life sciences, health care, insurance, automotive, manufacturing, agriculture, technology, education, government, consumer products, retail, banking and countless others.
Jim is known for his ability to take on unique, highly customized topics for senior leadership teams that align to a particular strategic goal or topic area, including the future of the space industryfor NASA – twice; the future of pharma and healthcarefor Pfizer in Paris – 6 months before Covid, accelerating innovation in the golf industryfor the PGA of America,the future of manufacturing in 3rd world countriesfor the World Bank, and innovation and creativity in a world of upside down trendsfor the Walt Disney Corporation. He has developed a well-honed reputation within the global speaking industry for being the go-to-guy for virtually any type of specialized, unique trends or innovation topic.
Jim’s insight has been covered in countless global publications, including the UK Telegraph, Dubai’s Capital Magazine, South Africa’s The Star, the BBC, Reuters and AP News, among others. BusinessWeeknamed Jim Carroll as one of four leading sources for insight on innovation and creativity, and he was also a featured expert on the prime-time CNBC series, The Business of Innovation.
In addition, he is an author, with numerous books including: Now What: Reinvention and the Role of Optimism in Finding Your New Future; Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast; Surviving the Information Age; The Future Belongs to Those Who Are Fast; Ready, Set, Done; and What I Learned From Frogs in Texas: Saving Your Skin with Forward Thinking Innovation.
Speaking Topics -
From Planck Constants to Yottabits: Leadership Agility When 'Faster' Defines the Speed of Fast!
In the world of technology and media, the impossible increasingly becomes possible; the unattainable is within reach; and the imaginary becomes reality before you can plan for it. The world of exponentiating science means that the inevitable march of technological advance leads to the world of the Planck constant and the yottabit – the smallest unit of measure defined and the fastest form of network speed – becoming a reality before you know it. What happens in an industry in which exponentiation accelerates even more? Big ideas, transformative change, and fascinating new technologies that further shape our world.
Tech and media companies need to ensure that they have a leadership, R&D, sales and marketing infrastructure that continues to align to faster being the new fast, and that their customers have the insight to take advantage of the technology based disruption occurring in their industry. A world in which hyper-innovation becomes the norm rather than the exception — and standing still means instant obsolescence. One where rapid scientific advance defines the agenda – and a trend that might destroy your market already happened yesterday, before you even knew it had happened! A market in which physicists have figure out how to violate the basic rules of physics – such as stopping light in its tracks – and it makes your own product obsolete. Where its no longer crazy to talk about the concept of riding accelerating Human-Computer-Interface technology to put a part of your mind in an external yottabit ball.
Futurist Jim Carroll excels at providing keynotes and leadership talks, both for companies in the technology and media industry, as well as CIO/CxO session and keynotes for their customers and their clients. Over the last 30 years, he has been the keynote speaker at dozens of user group meetings, CIO/CxO events, hi-tech company road shows and more. His experience at aligning your message to his trends and innovation insight has been well honed – from headlining national roadshows to customized keynotes for HP, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and countless others. His respect is of such a degree that the Consumer Electronics Association invited him to open their annual CEO summit, speaking to leaders from throughout the fast moving technology industry.
Big Trends in Agriculture: Transforming the World's Oldest Profession
Whether it’s driverless tractors, weed-zapping robots, or data-transmitting crops, the future of farming is happening faster than you might think! We’re rapidly transitioning into a world of 24-hour farming, no longer restricted to farming only when the sun is up!
Many people continue to view farming from the sepia-toned photos of the 1940s and 1950s. They don’t realize the technological and scientific advances or the massive opportunities for international growth. Growers that focus on innovation as a core value will find success; their innovation will focus on the triple-feature need for growth, efficiency, and ingestion of new science. It will be by adopting new methodologies, technologies, products, partnerships, and ideas that they will learn to thrive.
Jim has extensive experience with all aspects of the agricultural sector. A good example? He was the opening keynote speaker at a conference of the top 100 cattle ranchers, feedlots, and stockers in the US — and thrilled the audience with his insight into global trends impacting the agriculture sector. Based on that event, he was then invited in to inspire 500 cattle ranchers — a very discerning audience — with the feedback that “you certainly challenged us as to the pace of change the future is bringing to our industry, at the same time that you inspired us to embrace its opportunities. You were outstanding! Ranchers are pretty conservative – particularly here in Texas – but you were the best speaker we’ve ever had at our event!”
Jim is recognized worldwide as a “thought leader” and authority on global trends, rapid business model change, business transformation in a period of economic uncertainty, and the necessity for fast-paced innovation. Let Jim lead you through these exciting new trends at your next conference!
Insurance in the Era of Disruption: The Challenge of Change with Fintech, Accelerated Risk and Hyper-Connectivity
The world of insurance is being transformed at a pace that defines new opportunities, presents new challenges, and turns the established order upside down. It also challenges every assumption the industry has known.
You need a real expert – with real insight – into the trends that are underway. That’s where Futurist Jim Carroll comes in. He has been headling insurance industry events for 30+ years, including keynotes for Manulife, SunLife, New York Life, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, RBC Insurance, Cigna, Hartford Life, Farmers, MetLife, Lincoln Financial, Towers Perrin, RGA Reinsurance, Magellan Health, Gore Mutual, Economical Insurance, Chubb, the American Fidelity Group, Providence Health Plans, Aegeon, Blue Cross/Blue Shield US (multiple events) and CGU Insurance – and even a private event, invite-only event where he had the CIOs/CFOs/CTOs for Allianz, XL Insurance, Travellers, Zurich, Allstate, AXA, MetLife Auto & Home, Farmers, CNA, ICICI Lombard, Nationwide, American Family, Chubb, Ping An, Lloyds of London, Liberty Mutual, The Hartford, General, USAA, Geico, ACE, State Farm, Progressive, RSA in the room!
The industry is being rapidly disrupted by tech companies. Existing brokerage and distribution networks will be obliterated as more people buy insurance direct. Predictive analytics will shift the industry away from actuarial-based historical assessment to real-time coverage. Policy niches, micro-insurance, and just-in-time insurance will drive an increasing number of revenue models. The Internet of Things (IoT) and massive connectivity will provide for massive market and business model disruption. Fast-paced trends involving self-driving cars, the sharing economy, personal drones, swarm-bots, smart dust, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality will either mitigate, accelerate or challenge the very notion of risk assessment and underwriting! What happens when Amazon, Google, or some kid in a garage decides to really change the insurance business model? And then there it the element of risk itself – at a recent global insurance risk summit in Switzerland, Jim Carroll outlined the dramatic new forms of accelerated risk that the industry must now confront.
What seemed to be science fiction just a few short years ago has become a reality today, as time compresses and the future accelerates. Whichever way you look, all sectors of the insurance industry are set for an era of disruption, challenge, and change!
Is the industry ready for transformative change? Not really! A recent survey indicated that while 94% of Chief Strategy Officers at insurance companies agree that tech will “rapidly change their industry in 5 years,” fewer than 1 in 5 CSOs believe their companies are prepared. Does the insurance industry have the innovation culture necessary to deal with the potential for what comes next? Maybe not.
Jim Carroll has been assisting insurance organizations around the world to understand the tsunami of change that is underway: the rapid business emergence of new business models, accelerated risk, the emergence of new global competitors, and heightened customer expectations. In his keynotes he puts into perspective the real trends impacting the future of insurance, offering critical insight into the key innovation and leadership strategies in a time of disruptive change, as well as clear, action-oriented strategic insight that will compel you to action.
The Future of Healthcare – The Transformative Trends That Will Really Define Our Future
Everyone in a leadership position in the health care system knows that the challenges are substantial and immense: a rapid increase in lifestyle disease; skills shortages; the acceleration of science and medical device technology; combined with cutbacks in funding and resources. That’s why innovation has quickly come to be one of the top issues that senior healthcare executives and medical professionals are focused on. There is a realization that there is an urgent need to challenge the very philosophies on which the system is built. That’s why the insight of global futurist Jim Carroll is so timely. In this cutting-edge keynote, he will provide you with insight into the major scientific, technological, consumer, and social trends that will, in the future, allow for some very dramatic changes in the concept of healthcare delivery.
By some point in time, we will have successfully transitioned the system from one that “fixes people after they’re sick” to one of preventative, diagnostic genomic-based medicine. Treating patients for the conditions we know they are likely to develop, and re-architecting the system around that reality. A system that will provide for virtual care through bio-connectivity, and extension of the hospital into a community-care-oriented structure. A consumer-driven, retail-oriented healthcare environment for non-critical care treatment that provides significant opportunities for cost reduction. Real-time analytics and location-intelligence capabilities provide for community-wide monitoring of emerging healthcare challenges. “Just-in-time” knowledge concepts will help to deal with a profession in which the volume of knowledge doubles every six years. That and much, much more.
The fact is, we are going to witness more change in the scientific and technological world of health care in the next ten years than we have seen in the last twenty-five. In his keynote Jim puts into perspective why innovation is no longer just a fashionable phrase — it’s the critical new leadership focus for executives in the healthcare sector. He will provide attendees with concise insight into the trends that matter, the disruptive and transformation concepts that can drive new opportunities for innovation, and the bold strategies that can be pursued.
Financial Services in the Era of Acceleration: Aligning to The Speed of Disruptive Change
The trends impacting the banking, financial, investment, and wealth management industry are staggering in scope. The arrival of fast, new, nimble competitors is driven by the speed of innovation and the scope of the opportunity with FinTech leading to massive business model disruption. A collapse of attention spans driven by the next generation of financial consumers and an overwhelming preponderance of short attention spans. The acceleration of the industry to the speed of Silicon Valley as technology takes over every single aspect of the industry. The return of the potential for disintermediation with a vengeance, with sudden new challenges to existing distribution and broker channels. The arrival of a new generation that does not understand the concept of ‘float’, and who expects to be able to apply for an automotive loan and receive approval in under 45 seconds – through their mobile device. Add into this the arrival of AI which promises a tsunami of change and an avalanche of disruption!
Leading financial organizations need crisp insight into the trends which are redefining the sector, and the innovation pathways that will provide opportunities for growth and transformation. Worldwide, they’ve been turning to Futurist Jim Carroll for that insight – his client list boasts many of the most prestigious organizations in the world.
Whether it’s an internal senior leadership meeting, financial services industry conference, broker or distribution network sales meeting, or private wealth management strategy session, Jim Carroll is known worldwide for his ability to outline the fast trends impacting the financial industry now and into the future. He most recently spoke for the family offices of the world’s wealthiest families at a private, invitation-only event in Athens, Greece, with several trillions of dollars of wealth represented in the room.
Jim Carroll has been helping financial organizations in the world understand the tsunami of change that is underway. In his keynote he will put into perspective the real trends impacting the future of financial services, offering critical insight into the key innovation and leadership strategies in a time of disruptive change.
Transforming Energy: Why Accelerating Science and Technology is Disrupting the Future of Energy, Faster Than You Think!
The future belongs to those who are fast! That’s the mantra of futurist Jim Carroll — and nowhere has this become a reality faster than in the world of energy and utilities.
There is no doubt that the next phase of the world of energy involves the convergence of a variety of trends, each of which is significant on its own, but combined, provides an opportunity for massive disruption — and opportunity!
The era of massive hyper-connectivity at an industrial, commercial, and residential level as a result of the acceleration of the Internet of things. The rapid advancement of energy science, particularly with battery storage, alternative energy sources, and other leading-edge technologies. Business model disruption through the fast arrival of technologies that support personal and local energy microgrids through backyard wind, solar, biomass, and other forms of energy generation. New demand and infrastructure requirements arise from such significant trends as smart cities, electric vehicles, and intelligent highway infrastructure. And then there are simple light poles — which are now becoming ‘fitbits for cities’ with embedded environmental sensors, car-charging technologies, Wi-Fi hotspot capability, and traffic management technologies!
But wait — there’s more! At M.I.T. they are even in the midst of research as to how to grow solar cells from plants!
That’s why no less than the Edison Energy Institute has stated that going forward, “The threats posed to the electric utility industry from disruptive forces, particularly distributed resources, have serious long-term implications for the traditional electric utility business model and investor opportunities.”
Leading energy organizations worldwide have been booking global futurist Jim Carroll for his insight on the accelerating trends which are redefining the global energy and utility sector at a blistering pace today. We will see more change in the energy industry in the next 10 years than we have seen in the last 100 – are you ready? His keynote will provide clear, up-to-the-moment insight based on the most recent developments and trends; a key overview of the challenges and opportunities these trends present; and a strategic pathway forward based on his key mantra that right now, in the midst of disruptive transformation, that it is an important time to ‘think big, start small and scale fast!
The Future of Education: Rethinking Opportunity in the Era of Knowledge Velocity
Sixty-five percent of the children who are in preschool today will work in a job or career that doesn’t yet exist. Half of what students learn in their first year at college is obsolete or revised — by the time they graduate. Fifty percent of the US gross domestic product will be taken up by training and knowledge activities within the decade. With all of these changes at hand, futurist, trends and innovation expert Jim Carroll helps some of the world’s leading educational organizations and institutions make sense of this rapidly evolving future.
Jim challenges audiences to think about innovation in the education sector in a way that takes on bold goals to deal with a reality that has rapid knowledge obsolescence and emergence, the disappearance of existing careers and the emergence of new careers, an ongoing need for continuous knowledge replenishment and the migration of knowledge generation further away from academia. There’s a massively increased challenge from overseas knowledge generation, the fast emergence of new micro-careers, an economy that succeeds through knowledge deployment, and a fundamental transformation in the role of educational institutions. In other words: much of the education structure that we have in place today doesn’t match the reality of what we really need to do, given the rapid change occurring in the fundamentals of knowledge—which is why innovative thinking in the field of education today is more important than ever before.
In this keynote presentation, Jim provides concise insight that links a wide variety of global, social, demographic, scientific, technological, business, and other trends to the impact on education. He provides an understanding of the velocity of change impacting the industry, and why we need to rethink the context of “how we teach” in light of the realities that have knowledge growing exponentially, the foundation of knowledge generation forever changed, and global social networks challenging traditional education delivery models. The reality is that the exponential growth of knowledge leads to massive career specialization—we are in the midst of a fundamental structural organizational and career change, and right now, it’s all about “just-in-time knowledge.”
The Disruption and Reinvention of Retail: Aligning to the World of Speed
It’s hard to discount the speed of change occurring in the world of retail and consumer products, particularly as the global pandemic accelerated the rush to e-commerce. “Shopper marketing,” which combines location intelligence, mobile technology, and in-store display technology for a new form of in-store promotion, continues to move forward at the pace of the technology on which it is based. Supply chain volatility and accelerating infrastructure demand require significant investment to continually reinforce operations, at the same time that consumer behavior changes at a furious pace. Logistics has taken center stage with the rapid installation of “click and collect” infrastructure and omnichannel distribution dominating all strategies. Add to this the arrival of active, intelligent packaging and intelligent (“Internet of Things”) products, collapsing product life-cycles, rapid product obsolescence, and the implications of all this on inventory and supply chain concepts!
We are going to see more change in the world of retail in the next 5 years than we have seen in the last 100. Savvy brands, retailers, shopping malls, and retail infrastructure companies are working to understand these fast-moving trends, and what they need to do from an innovation perspective to turn them from challenge to opportunity.
Futurist Jim Carroll is known worldwide for helping executives to understand the tsunami of change sweeping every aspect of the sector. In this keynote Jim will put into perspective the latest consumer, technology and marketplace trends and how they will provide new opportunities for disruption, innovation, and business model transformation. Attendees will gain insight into how to tap into these trends and insight to adapt their strategies to a fast-moving future, and how to move forward with an aggressive, action-oriented strategy.
The Disruption, Transformation and Reinvention of Manufacturing
Collapsing product lifecycles. Mass customization. Digitization, robotics, and the cloud. Design based on crowd thinking. Build to demand, as opposed to building to inventory, business models. The role of the Internet of Things in product innovation as well as manufacturing process innovation. Spatial innovation with advanced manufacturing robotics. New materials and substances that allow for a change in product development. Rapid prototyping, sketch to scale, and agility-based business models…. are you ready for the new world of manufacturing?
While popular media and opportunistic politicians portray a picture of a sector in crisis, smart manufacturing executives are furiously busy with innovation, reinventing their capabilities, processes, and business models using advanced ideas, materials, methodologies, and technologies.
The reality of manufacturing today is that there is a big opportunity that comes from aligning with fast-paced trends. What a time for innovation opportunity, and for insight from a great keynote that really puts all of these trends into perspective. Futurist Jim Carroll takes you on a voyage about the current and future opportunities in the world of manufacturing. Some of the largest manufacturing and industrial organizations in the world have engaged Jim to help them think about opportunities for innovation. Jim recently keynoted the IMX – Interactive Manufacturing Exchange Congress in Las Vegas with an audience of over 2,000 senior manufacturing executives, and the BigM Manufacturing Summit in Detroit, as well as the American Manufacturing Summit in the same city. Jim’s other manufacturing and industrial clients include • Magna International • United Technologies • Camstar Systems • Genesis Systems Robotics Siemens • PPG • Chrysler • Caterpillar • and many, many more.
Jim will provide you with a clear overview of up-to-date trends sweeping the sector based on customized up-to-the-moment research, concise case studies of successful manufacturing reinvention strategies, and a clear pathway into the innovation and reinvention methodologies being used by today’s advanced manufacturing innovation powerhouses.
Accelerating the Auto & Trucking Industry: The Race to Electric and The Disruption of Technology!
It’s a FAST moving industry, with SEISMIC changes underway.
Basically, vehicles have been built and sold the same way for the last 100 years — they run on carbon, are driven by people, don’t connect with other vehicles, and operate independently. The business model has involved “car dealerships” and “car salesmen”, and manufacturing models that involve putting vast quantities of product into inventory in traditional showrooms.
Now, for the first time in over 100 years, massive change is underway. More vehicles will be based on alternative energy sources rather than carbon – they are becoming big batteries on wheels. A growing number might drive themselves or use advanced forms of technology-based driver assistance, at the same time that they interconnect with other vehicles. They might one day operate on very sophisticated, intelligent highway infrastructure that will have a profound impact on energy efficiency, traffic patterns, and urban and highway design. It’s a future in which a large number of the next generation of transportation users might not even actually purchase a car or truck, but simply use some type of vehicle or community-sharing service. If they do actually purchase a car, they will likely do it online – in a matter of seconds. All this is occurring as the speed of innovation in the transportation sector is shifting from the traditional pace of automotive/trucking to that of the hyper-innovation of Silicon Valley.
These trends promise a massive shakeup not only to the automotive and trucking industries but to parallel industries such as manufacturing, finance, insurance, urban and municipal services, government roles, and economic development.
In this keynote presentation, Jim provides concise insight into the key trends reshaping this massive global industry, and the disruptive impact that these trends present. He will outline clear strategic, leadership, innovation, and creativity strategies that provide a pathway forward to the new world of transportation technology – one that is more like a hi-tech computer industry than the one that currently exists.
