Schwarms Pandisciplinary – All companies are creative
Three Questions
What will your future be about?
What does “Thinking First, Data Second” mean?
What is important now – for companies?
What will your future be about?
Given everything that’s unfolding in our world right now, a clear answer might feel out of reach. Though maybe that’s exactly the point: there is no single, inevitable path. Not for any company. Not for us, as human beings. That’s why we prefer to speak of ‘futures‘ rather than 'the future' — because the plural reminds us that we do have agency. That we can shape what’s ahead. Working with us means addressing fundamental questions at a level of depth that’s rarely found in the restless everyday life of a company. A deliberate pause and moment of reflection — which, ironically, often turns out to be the fastest route to innovation.
What does “Thinking First, Data Second” mean?
When we begin working together, things don’t start with conventional analysis. We skip the expensive diagnostic phase. Instead, we immediately imagine the company already in the future — even while we are still grasping the task. From day one, we channel our energy into bold ideas and pioneering solutions. Data comes into play when it's time to test and substantiate those new directions. 'Thinking First, Data Second' makes us more creative: after all, any kind of preliminary research is always based on unspoken assumptions that unconsciously limit what seems possible ... instead of maximizing the space of the conceivable.
What is important now – for companies?
Just like Watzlawick said that we cannot 'not' communicate, we also cannot 'not' shape our future. Right now, many companies are simply trying to keep up. The best possible outcome of that mindset? Sadly, just keeping up. We prefer to support a different narrative: one in which companies tap into their distinct potential — not to become competitively productive, but 'incomparably good'. We combine strategy with creativity, think from the future and anticipate wishes and problems people will have not today, but tomorrow. That’s where the right questions of today are born.
From Trans- to Pandisziplinarity
At Schwarms, we interpret disciplinary expertise not as a limit, but as point of departure — one that’s free to dissolve, constructively, over the course of a project. Without losing its substance. And by integrating all the experience and skills that the people involved bring to the table beyond their basic expertise. This is what we call pandisciplinarity.
In addition to curiosity and empathy, it requires a mindset that no longer treats professional boundaries as fixed. “Transdisciplinary” work often stops short of that because our society is organized vertically: in politics, in business, in research, in education. Almost everything is divided into professional silos that collaborate — more or less effectively. Silos guard their own knowledge and shield themselves from outside influence. However, they are also almost “fully explored”: in the spirit of “diminishing returns”, every small step forward requires an even greater investment. Unless — we change perspective. And start looking for horizontal bridges. There are far too few of them. Which, in turn, is further proof that the greatest opportunities lie in between: between disciplines, between departments — spaces full of untapped potential that (to borrow from Pareto) can create immense impact with surprisingly little effort.
Curiosity helps – and so does anticipation
Futures is the plural of possibilities
Every entrepreneurial person sees opportunities. This is, so to speak, our ticket to active participation. But do we dare to go one step further? Where the term “opportunities” still gives us the opportunity to remain passive, the word “futures” puts us in charge: it emphasizes our creative freedom. Our active role. Our individual view of what is to come. Curiosity helps. So does anticipation.
Why wait?
Trigger your own tomorrow
Rethinking the company
“If you want to change something, you have to do something differently than before.” And “doing differently” in this old proverb is preceded by “thinking differently”. A genuine change of perspective usually requires an external perspective: a view that values the past but is committed and attuned to the future.
Rediscovering the company
A new course often leads us to reevaluate assets and capabilities that may have been taken for granted. Sometimes, it’s the quieter qualities — in new internal or external constellations — that create remarkable differentiation in the global market.
Making it incomparable
Isn’t it curious how many products and companies resemble each other? A phenomenon explained only by the immense effort that has gone into ongoing comparison and ever-closer adaptation. But it is 'incomparability' that creates uniqueness. And uniqueness sparks customer enthusiasm, motivates employees, and multiplies outcomes.
How we can collaborate?
Four formats for momentum, acceleration, and genuine excitement:
Blockchain Funghi
Decentralization as principle
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The Library
In the Schwarms' library, the Economist lies next to Spike magazine and a work by Merlin Sheldrake next to an object by Teenage Engineering ...
