Nikolas Badminton
Most strategy functions are not built for exponential change. They forecast from the past and plan in quarters. When AI, energy transition, and geopolitical realignment compress decades of disruption into months, the system stops working.
Nikolas Badminton helps executives turn strategic foresight into a disciplined planning method, the subject of his book Facing Our Futures.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Nikolas Badminton
- He brings a published, named foresight methodology to the room. The Positive Dystopia Canvas, set out in Facing Our Futures, is a structured tool for stress-testing strategy against scenarios leaders would rather not entertain.
- He has worked the discipline at scale, with leadership teams at NASA, JP Morgan, Disney, Rolls Royce, the United Nations, and the UK Home Office. The methods on stage have been tested in serious rooms first.
- He bridges AI capability and strategic foresight in a way few speakers can. Most AI speakers stop at adoption. Most foresight speakers treat AI as one signal among many. Badminton treats AI as the variable that breaks existing planning horizons, and shows leaders how to plan accordingly.
- He served as a key advisor to The Age of A.I. documentary series with Robert Downey Jr., and his work is regularly cited by the BBC, The Atlantic, Forbes, and Fast Company. The audience tends to recognise him before he is introduced.
Biography highlights
- Chief Futurist at Futurist.com, the international strategic foresight consultancy founded by Glen Hiemstra in 1993.
- Author of Facing Our Futures (Bloomsbury Business, 2023), JP Morgan Private Bank’s Next Gen Pick on its Summer Reading List and a Top-50 Business Book of 2023 by The Next Big Idea Club.
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and a member of Chatham House.
- Advisor to The Age of A.I. documentary series with Robert Downey Jr.
- Research cited by the BBC, VICE, The Atlantic, Fast Company, Business Insider, Forbes, and Sunday Telegraph.
- Engagements with NASA, the United Nations, Google, Microsoft, JP Morgan, Disney, Rolls Royce, Procter & Gamble, the US Department of State, and the UK Home Office.
Biography
Most organisations cannot describe the future they are planning toward. They have a five-year strategy and a quarterly forecast, with very little real method in between.
This gap is where Nikolas Badminton works. As Chief Futurist at Futurist.com, the strategic foresight consultancy founded by Glen Hiemstra in 1993, he advises executives and government leaders on how to build anticipatory capability into how they plan.
His method is set out in Facing Our Futures (Bloomsbury Business, 2023). The book gives executives the Positive Dystopia Canvas, a structured tool for stress-testing strategy against scenarios leaders would rather not entertain. JP Morgan Private Bank named it a Next Gen Pick for its Summer Reading List, and The Next Big Idea Club listed it among the Top-50 Business Books of 2023.
The client list reflects the demand for that work. NASA, Disney, JP Morgan, Microsoft, Rolls Royce, the United Nations, the US Department of State, and the UK Home Office have used Badminton’s foresight work to inform planning that runs longer than the political or quarterly cycle. A Fellow of the RSA and a member of Chatham House, he served as a key advisor to The Age of A.I. documentary series with Robert Downey Jr., and his research is cited by the BBC, The Atlantic, Forbes, and Fast Company.
Key speaking topics
- Strategic foresight and futures design
- Artificial intelligence in the enterprise
- Anticipatory governance and long-range planning
- Innovation under disruption
- Energy transition and the future of resources
- Geopolitical scenarios and technology futures
Ideal for
- CEOs and CSOs building foresight capability inside annual planning cycles.
- Boards and executive committees stress-testing strategy against long-range scenarios.
- Innovation, transformation, and R&D leaders responsible for moving beyond pilot stage on AI.
- Public-sector leaders and policymakers designing decisions with consequences beyond the political cycle.
Audience outcomes
- A working understanding of the Positive Dystopia Canvas and how to apply it to current strategic decisions.
- Specific signals and scenarios in AI, energy, and geopolitics mapped onto the organisation’s actual planning horizon.
- The language to make the case for foresight capability inside a strategy function built around quarterly forecasting.
- Confidence to extend the planning conversation past 18 months without it becoming abstract or speculative.
Talks
A strategic AI keynote for executives who need to move beyond pilot stage and integrate AI as an operational capability across the business.
Key takeaways:
- A framework for AI adoption decisions that distinguishes between productivity gain, augmentation, and structural automation.
- The skills and capability shifts required across the workforce as AI moves from experiment to embedded capability.
- Concrete examples of organisations now operating with AI inside their decision-making, not alongside it.
An industry-specific foresight session that uses the methodology from Facing Our Futures to translate signals into strategic options.
Key takeaways:
- How to read signals in your industry and build scenarios that strengthen planning today.
- The Positive Dystopia Canvas applied to the audience’s actual market context.
- A long-range view that connects 2026 strategic decisions to 2035 outcomes.
An innovation masterclass that uses futures work to de-risk innovation portfolios and accelerate the move from idea to implementation.
Key takeaways:
- A method for using foresight to filter and prioritise innovation investments.
- Case studies of organisations that have built innovation discipline on top of strategic foresight.
- The cultural and structural shifts that separate companies that innovate from those that talk about innovating.
A focused session on how global energy dynamics are changing and where the commercial opportunity sits across the transition.
Key takeaways:
- The structural forces reshaping global energy supply and demand.
- Where capital is moving in renewables, storage, and grid infrastructure.
- How energy-intensive industries are repositioning around new economics.
A board-level view of how the geopolitical environment is reshaping technology strategy, supply chains, and market access.
Key takeaways:
- The major geopolitical fault lines and what they mean for technology supply chains.
- How export controls, sanctions, and industrial policy are redrawing market maps.
- Scenarios for how the US, China, and EU technology spheres evolve through 2035.