John Naisbitt

John Naisbitt (January 15, 1929 – April 8, 2021) was an American author and public speaker in the area of futures studies. His first book Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives was published in 1982. It was the result of almost ten years of research. It was on The New York Times Best Seller list for two years, mostly as No. 1. Megatrends was published in 57 countries and sold more than 14 million copies.

John Naisbitt
Born(1929-01-15)January 15, 1929
Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
DiedApril 8, 2021(2021-04-08) (aged 92)
Velden am Wörther See, Austria
Occupation
  • Author
  • public speaker
  • academic
Alma mater
SubjectFutures studies
SpouseDoris Naisbitt

Biography

John Naisbitt grew up in Glenwood, Utah and studied at Harvard, Cornell and Utah universities. He gained business experience working for IBM and Eastman Kodak. In the world of politics he was assistant to the Commissioner of Education under President John F. Kennedy and served as special assistant to HEW Secretary John Gardner during the Johnson administration. He left Washington in 1966 and joined Science Research Associates. In 1968 he founded his own company, the Urban Research Corporation. Naisbitt founded the Naisbitt China Institute, a non-profit, independent research institution studying the social, cultural and economic transformation of China located at Tianjin University. In 2009, Naisbitt published China's Megatrends, a book analyzing China's rise. He has been an adviser on agricultural development to the royal government of Thailand, former visiting fellow at Harvard University, visiting professor at Moscow State University, faculty member at Nanjing University in China, distinguished International Fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia (the first non-Asian to hold this appointment), professor at Nankai University, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, and a member of the advisory Board of the Asia Business School, Tianjin, and has been the recipient of 15 honorary doctorates in the humanities, technology and science. John Naisbitt and his wife Doris were based in Vienna and Tianjin.

Naisbitt died on April 8, 2021, at his secondary residence in Velden am Wörther See, Austria.[1][2]

Impact

On futurists

Naisbitt has had an influence on modern futurists, such as David Houle and others.

On social and political thought

Although Naisbitt has not written an explicitly political book, in 1982 his Megatrends book he expressed early enthusiasm for radical centrist politics. The book states, in bolded type, "The political left and right are dead; all the action is being generated by a radical center."[3]

Bibliography
  • Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives. Warner Books, 1982
  • (with Patricia Aburdene) Reinventing the Corporation: Transforming Your Job and Your Company for the New Information Society. Warner Books, 1985
  • (with Patricia Aburdene) Megatrends 2000: Ten New Directions for the 1990s. William & Morrow Company, Inc., 1990
  • Global Paradox: The Bigger the World Economy, the More Powerful Its Smallest Players. William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1994
  • Megatrends Asia: Eight Asian Megatrends That Are Reshaping Our World. Simon & Schuster, 1996
  • High Tech High Touch: Technology and Our Accelerated Search for Meaning. Broadway Books, 1999
  • Mind Set!: Reset Your Thinking and See the Future. Collins, 2006.
  • China's Megatrends: The 8 Pillars of a New Society. HarperCollins, 2010.

References
  1. "US-Zukunftsforscher John Naisbitt ist mit 92 Jahren gestorben" [US futurologist John Naisbitt has died at the age of 92]. BR24 Rundschau (in German). April 10, 2021. Archived from the original on October 15, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  2. "US-Autor und Trendforscher John Naisbitt 92-jährig gestorben" [US author and trend researcher John Naisbitt dies at the age of 92]. Die Presse (in German). Austria Press Agency. April 9, 2021. Archived from the original on September 28, 2022. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
  3. Naisbitt, John (1982). Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives (First printing ed.). New York: Warner Books. p. 161. ISBN 0-446-51251-6 – via Internet Archive text collection. The political left and right are dead; all the action is being generated by a radical center.
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