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¬¬Dr. Craig Wing, PhD, MBA, MSc, BSc
Tour guide to Tomorrow: Global Speaker, Author, Entrepreneur
CEO: WhatTheForesight, AI-powered sentiment and crowdsourced SaaS platform predicting future fitness
• 2 Provisional patents: vision systems and computer components
• 6 Companies founded, including a Silicon Valley non-profit
• 1,000+ entrepreneurs mentored; 50,000 businesses online in year one (one every ten minutes)
• Author of Four Future Seasons (Penguin), debuting at #6 in South Africa and #6 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases, with 2,000+ copies sold
Dr. Craig Wing is a globally recognised futurist and entrepreneur who fuses AI-driven analytics with strategic foresight, helping organisations turn uncertainty into advantage through his SaaS platform, WhatTheForesight (WTF). As Founder and CEO of WTF (www.whattheforesight.com), he has built an AI-powered sentiment and crowdsourced platform that quantifies organisational “future fitness” through a 25-attribute radar framework, analysing 65,000+ data points to uncover leadership misalignment, market adaptability gaps and resilience weaknesses. Used by organisations including Deloitte USI and the UN, it helps executives anticipate disruption rather than react. Dr. Wing has developed a novel statistical method linking culture to profitability, earning WTF’s selection as one of 7 South African tech companies for a government delegation to Ireland showcasing African innovation to the EU market, and finalist at the SA Futuretrust Awards.
For two decades, Dr. Wing has been a globally sought-after speaker, taking the stage for more than 750 keynotes to 8,000+ executives across 50+ countries, shaping strategy for Fortune 500 companies, governments and industry leaders. He converted his own car to electric, choosing to build the future rather than simply talk about it, and turned down an offer to head one of Richard Branson’s companies to focus on strengthening South Africa instead. He has facilitated discussions at the 10th BRICS Summit with H.E. President Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi and Cyril Ramaphosa, focused on technology’s role in achieving global sustainability goals. His insights have guided decision-makers at BIBAN 2024 (Saudi Arabia), Skolkovo (Russia) and the African Innovation Symposium (Egypt), navigate geopolitical uncertainty, economic transformation and digital disruption.
With a PhD in Futures Strategy (one of few) in South Africa, Dr. Wing builds frameworks to not just predict the future, but actively design it, including a “performance locks model” distilled from a four-year study of 759 leaders across 157 organisations, and drawing on models such as Rumsfeld’s Unknown Unknowns and Johari’s Window. He presented on AI regulation, ethics and equitable adoption at the United Nations University AI Conference in Macau and has consulted for the United Nations on 2050 foresight scenarios for the Nigerian government. He led South Africa’s post-pandemic innovation strategy as Head of Innovation for B4SA, and the first African Googler seconded to Google X, Alphabet’s moonshot innovation lab, as global co-lead of strategic partnerships.
Dr. Wing’s PhD from the University of Johannesburg, supervised by Prof. Tshilidzi Marwala (then UJ Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Chair of South Africa’s Presidential Commission on the 4IR, now Rector of the UN), introduced the Future Fitness Score underpinning his AI-driven SaaS platform. His academic path includes an MBA from Babson College, MSc in Usability Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, and BSc in Electrical Engineering, reflecting a multidisciplinary fusion of technology, strategy and innovation.
His Four Future Seasons (FFS) framework (www.fourfutureseasons.com), explored in his book of the same name, has received international acclaim and sold out its initial print run within five months. Unlike traditional forecasting models, FFS categorises the future into seasonal cycles: Summer (stability and expansion), Autumn (early warning signals), Winter (resilience and reinvention), and Spring (renewal and opportunity). Beyond research and thought leadership, Dr. Wing is a serial entrepreneur having founded six ventures, including Africa’s first AI future-readiness tool, DRIFT (www.driftfuture.com), a free AI-adjudicated multiplayer strategy simulation, a Silicon Valley cleantech non-profit profiled at TEDx, and Focal Point Engineering, an award-winning software company for partially sighted children. As Google’s former Head of Small Business Marketing, he launched Woza Online, putting 50,000 South African SMEs online in a single year, drove 85% YoY revenue growth, and earned recognition as Google’s most “Googley” African employee.
Dr. Wing advises and has spoken to executives at some of the world’s most influential organisations, helping them future-proof their strategies, including Microsoft, Huawei, Citi, Deloitte, Investec, the Indonesian Central Bank, Shell, Airbus, Anglo American, Nestlé, BMW, MTN and Tata. Beyond corporate strategy, he is an active investor and mentor, having mentored over 1,000 entrepreneurs and built a dashboard to “quantify the future” for investors and policymakers.
A Senior Fellow of Babson College’s Institute for Social Innovation, he advises the Wits Innovation Centre and Wits Enterprise, and serves as adjunct faculty at the Indian School of Business (Hyderabad) and Duke Corporate Education, and as an associate of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Tayarisha School of Governance, lecturing on foresight methodologies, technology adoption and strategic decision-making. He has been a graduation speaker at the University of Johannesburg and Vice-Chancellor’s Talk at the University of the Witwatersrand. His insights have been widely recognised in global media: he has hosted the YouTube series The Edge of Nowhere, served as a radio futurist on Hot1027FM, and declined to be a TV host for South Africa’s national broadcaster.
Dr. Wing’s contributions to business and innovation have earned him accolades including recognition as a WEF Global Shaper, Mail & Guardian Top 200 Under 35, and CIO Today’s Most Inspirational Leader (2024). He is a TEDx speaker, an AFLI Desmond Tutu Fellow (with Oxford’s Saïd Business School), was profiled by the Clinton Global Initiative, and holds two provisional patents in vision systems and computer components, underscoring his ability to translate academic research into real-world solutions. He was one of five recipients of Babson College’s Frederic C. Hamilton Scholarship for entrepreneurial achievement, recognising his early leadership in technology commercialisation. Beyond business, he chaired Moving into Dance Mophatong, using dance to educate and empower disenfranchised and disabled youth.
An avid adventurer, he has travelled to 59 countries, shaping his global perspective on innovation and resilience. He has swum in the Amazon and with whales in Mozambique, trekked gorillas in Uganda, tracked tigers in India and snow leopards in the Himalayas, skydived in California, shark-dived twice, hiked Machu Picchu and the Great Wall of China, wept at the Wailing Wall, watched the sun rise over the Taj Mahal, and been tear-gassed in Turkey. When not on stage or advising global leaders, he is a self-taught guitarist, amateur photographer and home-trained sous chef, always exploring new creative pursuits.
Dr. Wing’s mission is simple: give leaders the tools on how to design the future, not just predict it, using AI-driven analytics, ethical foresight and strategic roadmaps to bridge technology and human-centred decision-making for a more equitable, sustainable world.
Futures Thinking, Leadership, Strategy
Four Future Seasons: Being Future Fit in an Unknown Future
Most organisations fail as they are anchored in the belief that the future is an extrapolation of the past albeit Revenue, ROI, customer growth, etc, and that they can control their own destinies. In this revolutionary talk based on a 4-year PhD study and 250 years of executive experience, and combining elements of Japanese philosophy, military strategy and psychology, you will understand how to prepare for a multiplicitous future, where to use qualitative and quantitative tools, how (and why) traditional business techniques like MBA’s and SWOT or Porters forces are outdated and where to utilise design thinking and an entrepreneurial mindset. The groundbreaking research will shape our understanding of futures strategy and thriving in an (un)known (un)known world framing black swans, corporate blind spots and reveal cognitive biases.
Futures Thinking, Leadership, Strategy
Responsibility in an UNSAFE world
Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that! – Red Queen, Through the Looking Glass.
The world today is changing at a breakneck pace where waves of disruption are threatening our very survival and challenging our understanding of the next normal. Moving beyond a VUCA world, leaders need to understand the factors that underpin success in the world of tomorrow. This UNSAFE (Unknown, Nascent, Supervenient, Algorithmic, Factorial, Ephemeral) future is already here and leaders need to understand the drives for success. In this thought provoking keynote, we unpack the world using the acronym UNSAFE to guide decision making and leverage insights to build a better future for all to move beyond UNSAFE to SAFER where collective and individual “Responsibility” is the crucial component where we can only succeed together.
Technology, Human Behaviour, Strategy
How to be Human in an Age of Machines
We stand on the precipice of the next evolution of the human experience. Disruptive technology threatens to affect our very existence from personal and family to work and our very definition of humanity. With an ever-increasing onslaught of technology driven tools such as Generative AI, Robo assistance, always on awareables – how can you not only survive, but thrive in an algorithmic world. Beyond the noise and hype of technology replacing jobs or creating industries, what is real? In this keynote, we discuss limits to current LLM’s and how AI provides the “most likely truth” and how we can segment tasks (not jobs) to augment the human experience to ensure we are more human, not less. Providing practical experience, and using the Eisenhower matrix, delegates will understand that their future lies not as the luddites by shunting technology, but augmenting humanness to extend our humanity where this cognitive augmentation will lead us to the Fifth Industrial Revolution.
The Leadership Imperative
It’s a common belief that Leadership in a business is the MOST important element for success… but how important? While literature is packed with leadership principles and means to be a better leader there is no metric to quantify its exact impact. Using ground-breaking PhD research that is described as “avante garde” and based on qualitative interviews and via a codification and thematic analysis, we can now measure the exact impact of leadership.
Beyond this though, what else drives your business’ likelihood of success? This keynote examines the 25 attributes that companies can focus on to create more resilient future strategies as indicated by a singular metric to understand their Future Fitness Score (FFS). We will also uncover how to maximise resource efficiency over efficacy and how leadership changes as your business changes. This insightful session will drive your success into the future by understanding the sentiment and perception of your organisation super charge your leadership into tomorrow.
Futures Thinking, Leadership, Strategy
Four Future Seasons: Being Future Fit in an Unknown Future
Most organisations fail as they are anchored in the belief that the future is an extrapolation of the past albeit Revenue, ROI, customer growth, etc, and that they can control their own destinies. In this revolutionary talk based on a 4-year PhD study and 250 years of executive experience, and combining elements of Japanese philosophy, military strategy and psychology, you will understand how to prepare for a multiplicitous future, where to use qualitative and quantitative tools, how (and why) traditional business techniques like MBA’s and SWOT or Porters forces are outdated and where to utilise design thinking and an entrepreneurial mindset. The groundbreaking research will shape our understanding of futures strategy and thriving in an (un)known (un)known world framing black swans, corporate blind spots and reveal cognitive biases.
Futures Thinking, Leadership, Strategy
Responsibility in an UNSAFE world
Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that! – Red Queen, Through the Looking Glass.
The world today is changing at a breakneck pace where waves of disruption are threatening our very survival and challenging our understanding of the next normal. Moving beyond a VUCA world, leaders need to understand the factors that underpin success in the world of tomorrow. This UNSAFE (Unknown, Nascent, Supervenient, Algorithmic, Factorial, Ephemeral) future is already here and leaders need to understand the drives for success. In this thought provoking keynote, we unpack the world using the acronym UNSAFE to guide decision making and leverage insights to build a better future for all to move beyond UNSAFE to SAFER where collective and individual “Responsibility” is the crucial component where we can only succeed together.
Technology, Human Behaviour, Strategy
How to be Human in an Age of Machines
We stand on the precipice of the next evolution of the human experience. Disruptive technology threatens to affect our very existence from personal and family to work and our very definition of humanity. With an ever-increasing onslaught of technology driven tools such as Generative AI, Robo assistance, always on awareables – how can you not only survive, but thrive in an algorithmic world. Beyond the noise and hype of technology replacing jobs or creating industries, what is real? In this keynote, we discuss limits to current LLM’s and how AI provides the “most likely truth” and how we can segment tasks (not jobs) to augment the human experience to ensure we are more human, not less. Providing practical experience, and using the Eisenhower matrix, delegates will understand that their future lies not as the luddites by shunting technology, but augmenting humanness to extend our humanity where this cognitive augmentation will lead us to the Fifth Industrial Revolution.
The Leadership Imperative
It’s a common belief that Leadership in a business is the MOST important element for success… but how important? While literature is packed with leadership principles and means to be a better leader there is no metric to quantify its exact impact. Using ground-breaking PhD research that is described as “avante garde” and based on qualitative interviews and via a codification and thematic analysis, we can now measure the exact impact of leadership.
Beyond this though, what else drives your business’ likelihood of success? This keynote examines the 25 attributes that companies can focus on to create more resilient future strategies as indicated by a singular metric to understand their Future Fitness Score (FFS). We will also uncover how to maximise resource efficiency over efficacy and how leadership changes as your business changes. This insightful session will drive your success into the future by understanding the sentiment and perception of your organisation super charge your leadership into tomorrow.
