Foresight Friday: Fiona Harkin, director of foresight

Every Friday, we offer an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals we’re all talking about. This week, director of foresight Fiona Harkin tackles the tariff tornado.

: Wednesday 2 April 2025, now known as Liberation Day for Americans. Others are viewing it as a shakedown of the global economy. The Trump administration released its roll-out of global tariffs – an economic gamble not seen since the Smoot-Hawley tariff Act of 1930, which raised tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods and is now widely viewed as contributing to the Great Depression by increasing costs for US and global consumers, due to the ensuing trade war it triggered. Although Russia, Belarus, Cuba and North Korea have been omitted from Trump’s ‘friend and foe’ tariffs list, the Heard and McDonald Islands – home to penguins, fresh air and zero people – have earned themselves a 10% ‘reciprocal’ tariff. Cue memes. Lots of them.

: Aside from the memes, I know that many of our clients will be assessing the impact on their businesses. These tariffs deliver more uncertainty in what has always been an uncertain world. But the weathervane looks to be spinning at whiplash speed. So, how can we help? We know that businesses are increasingly having to deal with the here and now, but focusing on the beacon in the distance is a steadying strategy. The Future Laboratory and its services, from this intelligence platform, LS:N Global, to our bespoke Foresight consultancy, is a lighthouse among fast-changing tides. Our Foresight Masterclass Academy, created by our founder and leading futurist Martin Raymond, has now been made available on LS:N Global to all of our members.

: Not only that, but our latest macrotrend, New Codes of Value, is a timely reassessment of what value – and values – mean to consumers when there’s a global economic paradigm shift. It will shortly be joined by our next Communities report, launching 25 April. To truly grasp what these new values mean for your business we need to first identify the consumers who are driving change. Backed by proprietary Future:Poll data, this Communities report pulls back the curtain on five consumers who are united by a vein of shifting values. The new values that emerge, identified through each person’s purchase patterns and brand attitudes, cross geographical, demographical and financial gulfs. We’re calling this group The Value Vanguard. 

: In an age of AI, the importance of hearing from real people cannot be overlooked and offers your business a competitive edge in a sea of ChatGPT strategies and generic insights available to all.