Main Topics:
The election of Donald Trump
The election of Donald Trump and his strong governing mandate portend changes in Transatlantic relations, particularly on issues of trade and defense. Alec Ross has had a vantage point at the top of the American government while also having deep expertise in the Italian context. He provides guidance at the macroeconomic, sectoral and aziendale level to help leaders examine the likely scenarios and plan accordingly.
The Decade Ahead 2025-2035
The next ten years are going to be even more disruptive than the last ten. What are the industries and businesses that are going to shake the marketplace? From artificial intelligence, 5G and super computing to the life sciences and robotics, Alec Ross describes the changes which are going to impact our future, and examines the cultural, political and demographic contexts out of which this change is emerging, for good and ill.
What’s real in the development of artificial intelligence and its implications on our businesses and communities
Alec Ross has been writing about artificial intelligence for more than a decade, and his early analyzes and predictions have proven prescient. His writings on the subject have been translated into more than 20 languages and are sought after by top leaders in business, government and academia.
The Impact of Geopolitics on Markets and the Economy
The impact of geopolitics on business is greater today than any time since 1945. Doing business across borders is growing more complicated, perilous and prone to near-instant change. Today’s business leaders need new strategies to understand and manage geopolitical risk. Alec Ross has served as an advisor to Presidents, Prime Ministers and CEOs and provides guidance for leaders trying to make sense out of our increasingly chaotic world.
Innovation, Automation, and Education in Tomorrow’s Economy
How will increased automation impact labor market in developing and developed economies around the world? What should companies and entire industries be doing to benefit from the growing power of artificial intelligence, robotics and machine learning while safeguarding the interests of workers? How should we think about educating our children and retraining our employees to ensure that they can compete and succeed in tomorrow’s economy? Alec Ross confronted these questions during his tenure in government and in his global best-seller,The Industries of the Future. Ross frames the issues that will be at the forefront of national and global conversation over the next several years, and offers practical ideas and inspiration focused on ensuring that growth fueled by innovation will benefit our companies and workers.
The road forward for the USA and Europe
The transatlantic relationship is marked by more uncertainty that has been the case since the 1940s. The NSA revelations undermined trust and brought into prominence conflict over issues ranging from privacy to big data to state sovereignty. The election of Donald Trump resulted in a fundamental break with the decades-long alliances and assumptions. Alec Ross will share his analysis of what the road forward holds for the United States and Europe, and its impact on markets, firms and investors.
The car crash between Business, Government & Everyday People
Today’s global companies are now more like countries than companies. On issues ranging from privacy to sustainability to diversity to equity and workers’ rights, we are more governed by companies than we are by governments. This trend has already disrupted geopolitics, and it is set to continue. Whether the future looks more like Star Trek or more like Mad Max comes down to a very human question that we cannot outsource to algorithms: will we come together to re-write our social contract and re-set the equilibrium defining the rights and responsibilities between companies, the governing and the governed? Alec Ross explains the current car crash at the intersection of business, government and everyday people and provides information and inspiration for how to navigate the road forward.
10 innovations that will change all of our lives in the next 10 years
We have the Internet and smart phones, what’s next? In an informative and entertaining tour de horizon, Alec Ross identifies and explains 10 innovations that will come to market in the next 10 years which will impact all of our lives and work and home.
Futureproofing Our Children: Parenting and Leading in a Changing World
In the research for his global best-seller The Industries of the Future, more than 100 leaders were asked the question “What are the skills and attributes that today’s young people need to compete and succeed in tomorrow’s world?” Ross combines the wisdom from that research with an examination of future labor markets and the future or work to provide a powerful, often shocking set of recommendations and guidance for parents and leaders helping to steward the next generation. Based on his extensive travels and his observations of how other countries thrive (or sputter), Alec offers his analysis of the forces changing the world and the best opportunities for progress, specifically for people in business and for those committed to improving the quality of life throughout the world. From the refugee camps of the Congo to the battlefields of the Middle East to the board rooms of Asia, Alec Ross shares experiences that give his audience a constructive way of appreciating how global factors will affect the way we live, now and tomorrow.
Managing large-scale innovation
After co-founding a technology start-up in a basement and growing it into a global organization, Alec Ross managed a large-scale process for making the U.S. government more innovative. He led a remarkable turnaround at the U.S. State Department which a study by Deloitte and the Partnership for Public Service scored as the State Department the most innovation-friendly culture of any cabinet-level agency and a Brookings Institution study described “State’s remarkable emergence as the leading innovator in its field.” Today, Alec is one of the world’s most sought-after innovation advisors and shares his secrets for how to drive innovation with entrepreneurs still in the basement to executives leading the world’s largest and most global enterprises.
Cyber Crime & Cyber War – your industry on the battlefield
Hundreds of billions of dollars are being stolen every year in cyber theft. Critical systems and infrastructure are at risk. Whether you know it or not, your industry is already on this battlefield, and the conflict is only going to grow worse. Alec Ross has been a major player and had a privileged view into this dark world, and is able to share experiences and learnings for executives trying to understand how best to manage their enterprise’s well-being.
Today’s University Students, Imagining and Inventing the Future
Alec Ross has had an improbable and inspirational journey to the peaks of geopolitical power. During college, he worked on a beer truck in the hills of coal mining country and as a midnight janitor. He joined Teach for America and started a nonprofit organization that grew from 3 people in a basement into a global organization, helping millions of poor people in 15 countries.As a globe-traveling business leader and diplomat, Alec has gotten a close-up view of the way that young people all over the world are imagining and inventing the future. In his remarks, Alec will give practical and inspirational advice to today’s college students for how to navigate their way in an increasingly complicated world to the career of their imagining.
Professional Profile:
Alec Ross is a New York Times bestselling author and Distinguished Professor. He is the author of The Furious Twenty Years: The War between States, Companies and People for a New Social Contract and The Industries of the Future , both published by Feltrinelli. His books have been translated into 24 languages and have been best-sellers on 5 continents.
He is a Board Partner at Amplo, a global venture capital firm, and serves on the boards of companies in the technology, manufacturing, media, education, human capital, healthcare and cybersecurity sectors.
His writings have appeared in publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Foreign Policy. His academic writings have appeared as cover articles in journals such as SAIS Review of International Affairs and NATO Review.
During the Obama Administration, he served as the Secretary of State’s Senior Advisor for Innovation, a role created to help modernize the practice of diplomacy and bring innovative solutions to advance America’s foreign policy interests.
Alec served as Convener for the Technology & Media Policy Committee in Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and served on the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team.
Among the awards:
- U.S. Department of State Distinguished Honor Award
- Oxford University Internet & Society Award
- Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine
- National Consumers Union, Massimiliano Dona Award
Alec began his career as a sixth grade teacher through Teach for America in Baltimore Public Schools.
Selected Works:
- “The Industries of the Future”, 2017 in which Ross shows us what changes are coming in the next ten years, highlighting the best opportunities for progress and explaining why countries thrive or sputter. He examines the specific fields that will most shape our economic future, including robotics, cybersecurity, the commercialization of genomics, the next step for big data, and the coming impact of digital technology on money and markets. In each of these realms, Ross addresses the toughest questions: How will we have to adapt to the changing nature of work? Is the prospect of cyberwar sparking the next arms race? How can the world’s rising nations hope to match Silicon Valley in creating their own innovation hotspots? And what can today’s parents do to prepare their children for tomorrow?
- “The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People – and the Fight for Our Future”, 2021
Businesses have shaped our daily lives for more than two centuries, for better or worse. It all started with the Industrial Revolution: then states equipped themselves to act as a counterweight and control the growing influence of companies and entrepreneurs, while citizens could choose their own leaders. This pact has survived to this day. In the 1920s this balance was broken.
The market is monopolized by a few multinationals, which are becoming increasingly cyclopean: in the United States the border line that separates Walmart, the largest retail chain, from the halls of Congress has become razor-thin. This seemingly unstoppable phenomenon affects all countries in the world, including Italy. Which risks being suffocated. It is increasingly in the interest of companies to behave like nations – and therefore invest in defense, foreign contracts, data mining and intelligence. And as governments struggle with endless diplomatic negotiations, slowed down by bureaucracy and unable to make quick decisions on health care and climate change, people begin to look to corporations, which display the agility and power needed to address the great problems of our time.
In the next ten years our lives will change. Alec Ross knows very well the people and the rules that govern big tech and large multinationals and impose the existential, political and economic metamorphosis we are going through. As an insider, Ross reveals the logic of the power of these giants, tells fascinating and ingenious stories of reaction to their monopoly and thus lays the foundations for a new social contract, capable of listening to workers and citizens in the face of an unprecedented global revolution.
The politics and economy of the entire world are increasingly governed by a few American and Chinese multinationals.
To avoid being crushed, Italy needs a growth model that respects citizens’ rights.
The raging 2020s have just begun. The game that will decide our future is open.
Associated Partner
Associated Partner
