Wolfgang Grulke never wanted to be tied down by employees, a head office or an administration system. But he did want a business that would enable him to travel the world and help companies change their businesses by understanding the future better. He has achieved this through FutureWorld, a virtual organisation that relies on a network of independent gurus to present workshops and consult with clients on how to harness future knowledge to make informed decisions today.
He travels with his wife and spends about half his time working with FutureWorld clients. The other half he uses to indulge his interest in palaeontology and marine biology. (His first glimpse of the sea was at the age of 12, and exploring its depths and treasures has been a passion since then.)
By June this year he will have travelled to China (where he has just launched FutureWorld), Europe and the US several times.
He came to SA with his family 50 years ago when his father joined the mines in Welkom. "If I hadn't come I wouldn't have had such a varied life," says Grulke, who has little trace of his native German accent. "We thrive on change in SA and think more broadly than most. That doesn't happen in a lot of the older countries of the EU. "
After a half-hearted attempt at physics and maths at Wits ("it was boring and I really wanted to do art") he joined IBM. He worked for the company in SA and the UK for about 20 years. "It was a great business school," he says. It was during this time that he started wondering about how one creates quantum growth in businesses - and the result was FutureWorld. "It's about creating the belief that they can [achieve such growth], and then helping them do it - there is nothing more satisfying on the planet."
