Adi Gaskell
Director at The Horizons Tracker
Adi Gaskell currently advises the European Institute of Innovation & Technology and was a futurist for the sustainability innovation group Katerva, as well as mentoring startups through Startup Bootcamp.
He has a weekly column on the future of work for Forbes, and his writing has appeared on the BBC and the Huffington Post, as well as for companies such as HCL, Salesforce, Adobe, Amazon, and Alcatel-Lucent.
When not absorbed in the tech world, he loves to cycle and get out to the mountains of Europe whenever possible.
Adi has recently featured in Onalytica's Who's Who in The Future of Work report.
How did you get to become an expert in your key topics?
I come from a tech background and studied AI and bioinformatics at university, and I like to think that helps me to distinguish the hype around technology from reality. Mauro Guillen, the newly appointed dean of Cambridge Judge Business School, recently reinforced the importance of lateral thinking when looking at how the future may unfold, as that gives you a better chance to connect the relevant dots. Having the portfolio career I have now really provides that variety and richness of experiences that I hope gives me that capability.
What sub-topics are you most passionate about?
I enjoy looking at relatively unexplored areas, so have written extensively about the value of migration and have been a long-standing skeptic about claims that robots will take all of our jobs. Similarly, I don’t expect the “death of the workplace” to be quite as pronounced as many predicted when Covid restrictions were in full swing as cities have been the engines of innovation and economic growth for a very long time and that will continue.
Who influences you within these topics?
I’m fortunate to have really strong links with universities and business schools, so manage to pick the brains of academics often.
What do you think the future holds in this space?
We really are rethinking the whole work experience, from how we measure performance to how we recruit, onboard, develop, retain, and offboard talent, from what we expect our workplaces to provide to how we care for our employees across their entire life. The pandemic has provided a really nice reset point to force us to make work better.
In many ways, the pandemic has been a blessing as it has provided organizations with a huge amount of learning in a very short space of time regarding just what it takes to make a great employee experience. 2022 is going to be the time to really integrate that learning and not revert to pre-pandemic norms.
Central to the employee experience will be a sense of purpose for employers and employees alike. Work is no longer a distinct aspect of our lives but a central part of it, and employees want to work for employers that match their values and complement their lives.
What are your passions outside of work?
What would be the best way for a brand to contact you?
Email, please.
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