Rise of the Chief Future Officer

3 Essential Qualities of a Chief Future Officer

There’s no denying, the future is coming at us faster than ever before.

When futurists talk about the future, there are plenty of discussions around artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, the internet of things, and other trends.

I’m not here to focus on or dismiss any of those topics.

I’d rather challenge organizations to intentionally consider the future.

Does your organization intentionally consider the future?

And if you do think about the future, how does it make your executive team feel? 

Are they inspired, terrified, or somewhere in-between?

For most, it’s fun to imagine the possibilities during an executive retreat or strategic planning session, but whose job focuses on the future every other day of the year? Anyone?

Probably not.

The future will continue to charge ahead. No surprises here. 

And there’s a cost for not looking ahead.

What has the failure to intentionally think about the future already cost you?

Is your organization allowing itself to be blindsided by what comes next?

What are you about to lose?

Perhaps it’s not intentional, but I’m afraid too many organizations think of the future in the same way they likely think of sales—it’s everyone’s job.

I believe the time has come for every organization—large and small—to determine who within their company should “own” the future.

In fact, I believe in this decade, the c-suite will see the addition of a new seat at the table: the Chief Future Officer.

There is a particular skill set required for a Chief Future Officer, and it’s most definitely not an ideal role for “everyone.”

First, if their role is to own the future, the Chief Future Officer will need to have a strong sense of vision. I’m not the first to underscore the importance of vision in leaders, not by a long shot. 

Even the writer of Proverbs understood, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18, 700 B.C.)

This quality may naturally lead organizations to assign this role to their CEOs. And why wouldn’t they—especially leaders who are also visionaries? While this isn’t a bad idea on the surface, far too many Chief Executives already have more than enough on their plates. 

However, the Chief Future Officer should expect to work in concert with the CEO, staying mindful of the CEO’s vision for the organization.

Second, the Chief Future Officer must maintain a sense of curiosity and optimism. This is a state futurist Kevin Kelly refers to as, “The endless newbie.” 

The rest of the executive team can (and at times should) play devil’s advocate or identify reasons something may not come to pass.

The role of the Chief Future Officer is to look at the realm of possibilities and identify opportunities and uncover trends that others may struggle to see coming, which is why curiosity and optimism are so vital to this role.

This doesn’t mean viewing the world through rose-colored glasses, either. 

Rather, the Chief Future Officer should have an eye towards how their business model or platform might be disrupted in the future. But, they can’t stop there—the task at hand is to identify and thrive beyond the disruption, not simply avoid it.

As Mark Zuckerberg said, “If we don’t create the thing the kills Facebook, someone else will. ‘Embracing change’ isn’t enough.”

And third, the Chief Future Officer must be willing to act in the moment and adjust as-needed. As one of my favorite futurists, Amy Webb puts this, the willingness to “Make incremental decisions all of
 the time.”

So where will this future officer come from? Chances are, by now, you might have already ruled out the finance department and operations (plus we’ve mostly dismissed the CEO from taking up this mantle).

However, my hypothesis is some of the best candidates are probably working in some aspect of creativity, marketing, or design today. They’re the professionals who are excited to learn about the latest technologies, who understand their role in a sales-driven organization, and they’re great at creative problem-solving.

Let’s not forget that this candidate could possibly be hiding in plain sight, in just about any department, but in reality, their mentality is far more important than their current role today.

So, for now, I’ll leave you with this. As you consider how your organization will best be prepared to face the future, the greatest question you can answer isn’t about what. 

It’s about who.

Are you, your team, and your company ready to own the future?