Paul Saffo

Technology Forecaster / Essayist

Paul Saffo is a forecaster and essayist with over two decades experience exploring long-term technological change and its practical impact on business and society. He teaches at Stanford University and is a Visiting Scholar in the Stanford Media X research network.

He was the founding chairman of the Samsung Science Board and serves on a variety of other boards including the Long Now Foundation, the Singapore National Research Foundation Science Advisory Board, and the Pax Group. He has served as an advisor and Forum Fellow to the World Economic Forum since 1997.

He is a columnist for ABCNews.com, and his essays have appeared in numerous publications including The Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Wired, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The New York Times, and the Washington Post. He is a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and holds degrees from Harvard College, Cambridge University and Stanford University.

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Big Think Interview With Paul Saffo

A conversation with the technology forecaster and essayist.

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12 min

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Paul Saffo

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Sowing the Seeds of Retrenchment

Companies need to get better at explaining to employees the intrinsic risks of their jobs, according to forecaster and essayist Paul Saffo.

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3 min

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Paul Saffo

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The Rise of the Productive Consumer

Paul Saffo analyses the shift in power from producers in the industrial economy, to marketers in the consumer economy. He predicts that new “economic actors” who create and consume simultaneously […]

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3 min

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Paul Saffo

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Above All, Be Honest with Your Customer

Forecaster and essayist Paul Saffo encourages customer service departments to only make promises they can keep.

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2 min

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Paul Saffo

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The Counter-Cultural Executive

To avoid missing opportunities in a down market, Paul Saffo advises business leaders to focus less on what their company is doing wrong, more on what it can do differently.

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1 min

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Paul Saffo

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Build It and Cost Savings Will Come

Paul Saffo says technology shouldn’t be exploited to just cut costs or do old things more efficiently, it should be a catalyst for doing new things in entirely different ways.

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1 min

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Paul Saffo