Daria Krivonos, CEO & Futurist at Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies is this year’s moderator at Nordic Cash & Treasury Management. At the event she will talk about future trends and planning… when all plans fail.

We had a chat with Daria about, among other things, the biggest challenges in how to navigate in this turbulent 21st century especially with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

You are the moderator and keynote speaker at Nordic Cash & Treasury Management in September but please tell us a little bit more about who you are and your background.

My joining the Nordic Cash & Treasury Management conference 2021 reflects a zig zag of events and choices over the years. I was born on the other side of the iron curtain, in USSR. During my university years I worked at the Danish parliament, thinking that is where one may save the world 😊 Since I have spent 10 years in a large global corporate within trade and logistics as an economist, working on everything from macro modelling to enterprise risk management. For the last 3 years I have been part of a think-tank working with the future of organisations, companies and society at large.  

What will be the main focus of your presentation at the event?

The last year has shaken our certainty in a wide range of ‘givens’. Thing we have long taken for granted changed literally overnight. On that backdrop I will talk about how does one plan and keep a long term view in such circumstances. I will also touch on human nature and how we tend to refer to the future as a state that will eventually transpire and engulf us, and often with a certain flavour. But the future is neutral and we often have ample time to make the most of it. Perhaps it is possible to treat the future as an asset.

Which are the biggest challenges for us in cash and treasury to navigate in this turbulent 21st century especially with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic?

Well, first of all, over the last year the business environment of your customers has changed, some have flourished like never before, others have been in the storm of their lives. One challenge could be to cater to those fighting for survival alongside those who are seeing unprecedented growth, and be a valuable advisor to both. Looking ahead to the coming years and decades, we are witnessing a profound landscape change in the way we work, live, consume, engage with one another and structure our lives. While the amount of information we receive is growing exponentially, our structural line of sight has never been more uncertain. How do we combine human and machine intelligence? What are the future jobs to be done? Does it matter which country introduces the first national cryptocurrency? What will it mean if globalisation of goods, services and capital flows stalls and reveres as the global collaboration is centrifuged into regionalisation and bilateralism? And those are just a few vectors of change to consider.

What key insights do you want the audience to bring from your presentation at the event?

I want people to not check their phone immediately after the talk, but feel like a need for a deep breath and just digest for a moment. I would love for the talk to provide at least some challenge to the status quo of our thinking about strategies, plans and the future as a concept. I’d be happy to know, if anything I said, was brought up by someone in the audience at a dinner table one evening as a topic for reflection or curious conversation.