Yogesh MalikExponential Thinker | Technology Evangelist | Digital FuturistNov 12 · 5 min read

Futurist, Visionary, Leader and Evangelist — What’s the Di�erence?Technology is moving faster than ever, faster than our need to innovate,

faster than we can adapt.

If we want to make use of the accelerating growth of technology for

solving some of the biggest problems we have today, then we need to

think di�erently. We need futurists, visionaries, evangelists andleaders. Yes, we need all.

Some of these roles are overlapping such as a futurist has to be a

visionary too, and a leader without vision can’t sustain for a long. We

are living in large uncertainties and none can predict the future.

However it is important to know what is ahead and how tomethodically anticipate as fast as possible, if not as far as possible.

1. The Rise Of The FuturistAll of us are futurists. We are consistently making guesses about the

future, and some are able to detect signals while examining various

trends.

A futurist studies the future and make prediction. He must be a

visionary too. They explore possibilities and predictions about the

future. With their foresight and systematic study of alternative — they

come up with predictions.

What Futurists Do

They talk about things to come and new markets that will be emerging

whether that of human society in particular or of life on Earth in

general.

Futurists play key role in the present times when speed of change and

speed of knowledge both are accelerating. Sometimes there remain too

many dots to connect and that calls for a lot of experiments

The Rise of The Futurist How To Become A Futurist? Who need Futurist?

What Tools Futurist Use?

futuremonger.com

Ray has got 20 honorary doctorates, has been awarded honors from

three U.S presidents till now.

He has written books on health, arti�cial intelligence (AI),

transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism.

Ray has predicted that: —

Humans and machines will merge within 20 years

Nanobots will live in our brains in the 2030s

Machine can become conscious

In 2009, Ray predicted we will become immortal in 20 years ( by 2029

), i am not sure if that is coming so soon

2. Let’s Talk About VisionariesPlanning the future with visions and imaginations having ideas about

what the future will be or could be like

Systematic insights and multiple perspectives on things make

visionaries important for today’s economy and organizations.

They take current baselines and put multi-fold contexts like changing

technologies and predicts the future shape of things to come.

The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and

re-imagines the world.

-Malcolm Gladwell

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Je�’s Amazon intends to dominate in every market, delivery, logistics,

cloud computing, and echo speaker that you control from your voice.

Amazon’s vision statement is “To be Earth’s most customer-centriccompany, where customers can �nd and discover anything theymight want to buy online.”

“…If one advances con�dently in the direction of his dreams, and

endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success

unexpected in common hours…If you have built castles in the air, your

work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the

foundations under them.”― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

3. On EvangelistsEvangelists in�uence people by using many channels and they are

advocate of a particular cause.

For example, Industry speci�c digital evangelist will predict enterprise

level changes that digital transformation will bring and he will help

rede�ne the relationship between various internal and external parts of

the organization.

They understand the value impact all changes and innovations that are

happening now

Avinash Kaushik is the co-Founder of Market Motive Inc and the Digital

Marketing Evangelist for Google

Kaushik is on the Advisory Board of University of Toronto Rotman

School of Management’s program on CRM Excellence as well as on the

Advisory Board of University of California at Irvine’s program on WebIntelligence

4. Finally, on LeadersSimply saying, leaders leads or commands a group , organization or

country. In today’s economy we need new kind of leaders with broader

qualities.

Great leaders are almost always great simpli�ers,

who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to

o�er a solution everybody can understand —

Colin Powell

Microsoft is now much more than just operating systems and o�ce

software company, and the impact of Microsoft on Tech industry is

almost unfathomable

William Henry Gates is an American business magnate, investor,

author, philanthropist, and co-founder of the Microsoft Corporation

We are not living in one of those days when leader were inaccessible

and they used to enjoy authoritative command, running bureaucracy

and regulations.

Now leaders need to earn their leadership everyday.

To Sum UpToday’s leaders have share vision based on win/win, driven by

innovation and constant learning, exhibiting �exibility and growth.

Leadership of current time should tell stories and regard universal

human potential.

My own view on this matter is that a leader or an evangelist can be a

visionary too, and then you are not too far from becoming a futurist — if

you want to become one