Bronwyn Williams

How to make real connections in times of chaos and complexity

This 60-minute talk is designed to help leaders, business people and sales professionals understand the future of connection with human (and not so human) customers in times of chaos and unprecedented, unprepared-for change. If your business involves developing lasting relationships with individuals – or persuading anyone to purchase a product or buy into an idea – you need to understand these trends:

• Crisis communications: How to find the balance in proactive business empathy without resorting to reactive “crisis capitalism”.
• Unconscious Consumerism: What happens to brands when consumers outsource their purchase decisions to bots.
• Peak social media (as we know it) – and what comes next: A look at the new, current and emerging communications channels, social media networks and platforms where you can find and connect with your customers.
• Fluid reality: How VR, AR and MR are creating real value out of the virtual world.
• A target market of one: how technology, data and adaptive algorithms are redefining the concept of “customisation”.
• The three second rule – why on demand is in demand.
• From GDPR and POPI to Clean Tech: How to balance personal privacy with the real benefits of big data, understanding the difference between surveillance capitalism and delivering personalised offers at the right time and the right place.
• The promise and the perils of the platform economy: Why diversification is the best business bet when it comes to taking on big tech.
• From brand nudges and behavioural economics to adaptive emotional engineering: How businesses are embracing AI and scientific marketing to influence consumer behaviour.
• From fake news and fake people to alternative avatars for real people: How online identity is changing reality.
• Solving problems, providing solutions – the mindset shift from value extraction to value creation in times of scarcity.
• How to shift thinking from the now, now to the long now – understanding the benefits of long run efficacy over short term efficiency.

This Flux Trends briefing makes use of illustrated case studies and the latest research insights to give you a high level understanding of the technological, economic and socio-cultural trends set to impact on business-to-consumer relationships, and to explain the “new rules of engagement” required to re- win hearts, minds and loyalty in our digitised, distressed, and on-demand world.

As “money” virtualises and trade and transactions move ever closer to the edge, a competitive moat simply is not what it used to be. In this talk we look at how emerging technological, regulatory and economic trends are intersecting with shifting consumer mindsets and changing the way the financial sector works, and the barbarians at the gate ready to run at the crumbling moats of the incumbent system.

Key trends and insights covered include:

• The 4 M’s of power in the new 4D chess game : Muscle, money, medium and meme and the shifting 4d chess game of the political economy underlying the way the financial system works
• The tipping point from web2 to web3 explained – understating the creation and the commoditisation of of the digital commons
• All data is credit data – and all businesses are financial services businesses (and all governments are businesses)
• CBDCs – the centralisation of defi – are you ready to compete with your government?
• Soul-bound tokens, self-sovereign identity and open banking – how the financialisation and trade of identity is creating new markets
• Deep stack denial of service risk and reward – the new “the strong take what they can, and the weak suffer what they must”
• Parallel universes – where and why businesses and DAO’s are building new systems instead of reforming old ones
• Generation Z – from hatejacking to consumer activism and finfluencers, how youth culture is changing the very game of capitalism
• From BNPL to last mile delivery and the expectation of the democratisation of instant gratification for everyone –
• From super apps and social commerce to play-and-earn gaming guilds – how everything from chat banking to influencer infomercials and WhatsApp payments is changing the way we trade
• The marginal fray at the edge – how and why “banking” (like digitisation) is becoming invisible, embedded and ubiquitous
• Leaping and lagging – where South Africa has a global advantage in fintech and finance – and where and why we are getting left behind

How does one go bankrupt? First slowly, then suddenly.

This talk will help financial sector players (recall, in the future, all businesses are financial services businesses) stay ahead of the ever-creeping API and the DeFi curves.

The future of economics – and the economics of the future

In this discussion about the future of money, markets, and humankind, we discuss:

• Africa’s new resource curse loading – what’s the price of money got to do with migration?
• Geo-economics in world of multipolarity without multilateralism
• Capital coherence (and cowardice)
• Debt dilemmas and delulu
• The rise of the incorporated individual (and the price of eggs)
• Tax “omniscience” in the age of AI and digital identities

This short keynote emphasises the importance of sustained, sustainable development for Southern Africa – development that balances human flourishing with environmental objectives and understands that we grow best and furthest when we grow together, in harmony with our neighbours and our world.

Degrowth is not an option for Africa; but balanced growth is an imperative. The question becomes, how can we get more people what they need for less? Where are the shortcuts to sustainable transformation?

5 minutes 

• From apathy to anarchy to activism – Gen Z grows up and gets involved in building their future (from Luh Twizzy to Shadow Boards and teenage politicians)
• Investing in the Alphas – the time is NOW to fix early childhood development and stop another generation from being physically and fiscally stunted.
• Energy FROM all – from loadshedding and tax revolts to lights on – transformation beyond greening (or from “net zero” Karpowerships towards real economic emPOWERMENT through public and private partnerships (and oil endowments in Namibia)) • Optimism as a moral duty – investing in what we want vs hedging against what we don’t want.

5 years 

• Closing the skills gap – fixing structural employment through skills and technology, using AI as an enabler rather than an adversary and avoiding technological redundancy
• The 6 pack secret to success – (high ROI Physical and Political infrastructure investment: 1. high savings, 2. access to healthcare, 3. access to education, 4. independent demography, 5. stable policy, 6. economic openness)
• Beyond BRICS, towards African Unity – the opportunities of “friendshoring” in a bi- polar, divided world
• Metaversanomics – beyond the hype towards digital personal and national identity

50 years 

• Demographic dividend – keeping human productivity on the asset rather than the liability side of the state leger.
• Feeding the future: unlocking the food-energy-water nexus, by planting today, as wise ancestors do
• Connecting the continent- meme, medium, map and money – opportunities for literally and figuratively connecting Africa to itself and the world, from rail networks to starlink to power grids and frictionless movement of talent and capital
• Moonshots – taking inspiration from Neom to Nairobi – and looking to the stars.

How to shift your team thinking from zero-sum to win-win games

We’re all living in Trump 2.0 world, where billionaires get to determine international affairs, and young workers who feel like they can’t get ahead are simply lying down flat.

Everywhere we look, from nationalist, protectionist geopolitics to “consumer activists” who think credit card fraud and luxury shoplifting is OK, people are playing zero-sum games : where the perception is, that if you win, I lose, and for me to win, I have to get one over someone else.

In this keynote presentation, we look at why so many of us feel like we are losing – and explore how we can shift that mindset to how we can win together – by focusing on adding value rather than extracting it.

To do this, we will look at the future of:

• Customer value: How we can move from “Parmesan bandits”, “dupe culture” and “consumer rage” towards customer empathy by shared worldbuilding
• Colleague value: How we can build bridges between intergenerational tensions, rewire DEI for the next generation and move from “minimum effort Mondays” and “bullsh*t” jobs towards a human value chain where we think in terms of transformative rather than transactional workplace relationships (and understanding where technology helps – and hinders us in that regard)
• Citizen value: How we can shift our mindsets from being helpless “consumers” of our state (and the general state of the world, inflation, tariffs, wars and all) towards being active citizens and stakeholders in our shared future.

If you want to be more valued and become invaluable to your company and your customer, understanding the trends, signals and case studies curated in this presentation will help you and your teams do just that.