According to a recent report by the Brookings Institution, the world's middle class is growing – and fast. The report indicated that today, 140 million people annually enter the status of middle class. In 5 years, this number can go up to 170 million.

One of the foremost applications of crowdsourcing is in solving hard or complex problems. The old adage says that two heads are better than one. Well, by crowdsourcing solutions for complex problems from thousands or possibly even millions of people, solutions might be not only better but arrive much faster.

Two research groups, from the University of Maryland and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, almost simultaneously introduced chemical solutions capable of removing the molecules that provide wood with its colour. Don’t be surprised if this renewed traditional material rapidly revolutionises architecture and electronics.

In February 2017, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) released a report on the science, ethics and governance of genetically engineering human beings. This was spurred by the rapid development of the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR/Cas9.

What do organisations need to do to develop good strategies and prepare for the future in a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world?

Virtual Reality will change the way many companies approach physical prototyping. With VR, companies will be able to design their products on a computer much like they do now, but after that, they get to skip a test and instead immediately visualize it as if it were right in front of them.

Why are governments investing so much in precision medicine? Why are genomics companies like Illumina or Agilent Technologies, who many of us have never heard of, worth billions more than Snap, Inc or Twitter?

In 2013, Dr. Mark Post and his team at Maastricht University created the first “cultured” burger in the world. Made from muscle-specific stem cells from real cows and later cultured into fibers of muscle tissue thrown together to form a patty, the burger was fully grown in a laboratory. Its cost? US$ 331,000, making it the most expensive burger in the world. Billionaire and Google co-founder Sergey Brin paid the bill.

Elon Musk, Tesla Motors and Space X visionary, said that humans must become cyborgs if they are to continue to add value to the economy and stay relevant in a world of increasingly powerful AI. However, many people still flinch at the idea of a world of cybernetic organisms, where humans enhance their abilities by integrating artificial material or technology into their bodies.

To future-proof decision-making, organisations need a combination of systematic foresight, proactive visioning, plus hands-on making of the future we want. As famous sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clark put it “Unless we invent a better future, we won´t have one of any kind.”

AI won the most complex strategy game known to humankind. After defeating the brilliant Lee Sedol with a 4-1 win last year, DeepMind’s AlphaGo, which is part of Alphabet (Google), continued to make improvements to its AI, culminating in a 3-0 win over the game's number 1 player and 19-year-old prodigy, Ke Jie. The question is: what is AlphaGo next move?

In a world full of change, an in depth approach to foresight is needed, encouraging organisations to transition from technical fixes to adaptive responses, or even transformative journeys where they change as they create new futures.