Imagine logging into Facebook to pay your bills. Or having free Internet, on the condition that you always wheel your virtual shopping cart past the Telstra checkout. For now, the big banks rule the digital payments industry, raking in fees from the many way.

When signals like Why Facebook or Telstra could be the next PayPal emerge, organisations that engage early have the advantage of choosing their response rather than reacting to events. That gap between those who prepared and those who did not is where competitive positioning is actually made or lost.

The most important question is not whether Why Facebook or Telstra could be the next PayPal will matter, but how quickly it will matter in your specific context. Leaders benefit most from mapping the ripple effects early — not just the direct impact but the second and third-order consequences that arrive later and hit harder. That is the practical work of foresight.