Be kind: your business depends on it – Faith Popcorn, Jon Foster-Pedley

Covid-enforced rules of engagement have given us all rare glimpses into other people’s lives that otherwise would have been unlikely. This week I was fortunate to spend a pleasurable hour on Zoom in the company of characterful world-leading futurist Faith Popcorn and the highly personable Dean Jon Foster-Pedley, director of the Henley Business School Africa. The conversation focused…


Covid-enforced rules of engagement have given us all rare glimpses into other people’s lives that otherwise would have been unlikely. This week I was fortunate to spend a pleasurable hour on Zoom in the company of characterful world-leading futurist Faith Popcorn and the highly personable Dean Jon Foster-Pedley, director of the Henley Business School Africa.

The conversation focused on happiness and kindness, which Popcorn – whose strategies have underpinned many game-changing innovations for businesses over four decades – has identified as an essential attribute for brands to project. The alternative: customers will turn to those who show they genuinely care about the world and others, said the expert who has been described as the Nostradamus of marketing.

Popcorn, with a trendy scarlet-red short hair cut, was at a desk with a Picasso-style sketch produced by a friend on the wall behind her, in New York. We connected with Foster-Pedley, who was under a thatch roof at his home office, in Johannesburg.

In keeping with the theme, we were very kind to each other. We got to say hello to Foster-Pedley’s domestic worker, who made a cameo appearance. Popcorn revealed that she is working on a rap with SA rocker Karen Zoid – this, because Zoid has ‘kindly’ offered to teach her to write a song.

The Popcorn Report author and trends forecaster said she’d be happy to chat to BizNews again; next time the topic may not be so kind, but it is sure to be engaging. We might pick up more on SA-born tech pioneer Elon Musk, whose vision of the future has the world making plans for humans to go to Mars, among his many other inventions.

For a bit of fun and a reminder of the importance of kindness, listen to the conversation with Popcorn and Foster-Pedley here.

PS: Not being kind enough is McKinsey. Transnet rejected its offer of R650m for state capture. It says McKinsey owes SA taxpayers well over R1bn. Transnet’s response has a feeling of déjà vu, with SA business leaders baying for blood in 2018. Listen to this report by BizNews founder Alec Hogg: McKinsey mea culpa for corruption bombs, like it did in 2018. SA leaders roast CEO. LISTEN!

Similar posts

Get notified on new Learning insights

Be the first to know about new  our latest newsletter insights