Editor-in-Chief’s Note: Eye On The Future

”Each business is a victim of Digital Darwinism, the evolution of consumer behaviour when society and technology evolve faster than the ability to exploit it. Digital Darwinism does not discriminate.”

These words by Brian Solis highlight the true nature of our society. With disruption in ideas and technology every day, consumer behaviour evolves rather rapidly, and it becomes quite a task for businesses to keep pace with it.

This understanding of the society has helped us shape this issue. We look at how the present will impact the future — 20 years from now, to be specific. We look at the future of business (and as we say, the business of the future) in India in 2035.

With this issue, BW Businessworld is celebrating 35 years of its existence as the domain leader. With hard work, dedication and a young team at the helm, the magazine has maintained its leadership status for a long time now. It is poised to scale greater heights.

I have read BW Businessworld for 22 years and I know it will exist for the next 20 years in formats we can only partially imagine. With India @2035 as the theme, this issue features some of the biggest names in industry, from different genres, who have contributed exclusively for BW Businessworld.

The choice of subjects for the anniversary theme is eclectic. From whether we would be able to save the planet, to the future of the workplace to whether India would be the biggest economy in the years to come — this issue has expert takes on all. From industry leaders such as Kumar Mangalam Birla and Adi Godrej to a diverse range of industry practitioners and upcoming leaders, this issue of the magazine features a list of high-profile columns.

In keeping with the theme of ‘Looking Back, Looking Ahead’, deputy editor Sutanu Guru takes a deep dive into the past, chronicling milestones of the last 35 years in a section that is a virtual treasure trove of information. He analyses the most important events, policies, laws and people that have changed India in the last 35 years.

Apart from the expert columns that predict the future — ‘India at 2035’, this issue also has our writers predicting the future. Mumbai bureau head Clifford Alvares, for instance, predicts the future of money.

Even as we were planning our special anniversary issue, we realised the ongoing churn in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation exercise was too important an issue to be ignored. BW reporters evaluate the extent of job cuts in various sectors of the economy as a result of the measure.

Futurist Watts Wacker had once said, “No one is less ready for tomorrow than the person who holds the most rigid beliefs about what tomorrow will contain.” And thus it becomes imperative for all of us to embrace tomorrow with both an open mind and an open heart. Our past has prepared us for our present and our present guides us in the direction of our future.

I hope our readers will accept this issue with an open heart and mind and remember it for years to come, as a collector’s item.