Andy Hines is stuck in traffic. Predictable enough for Houston at rush hour, but frustrating none the less. The 44-year-old gesticulates with a wiry, tattooed arm at the lines of red tail- lights forecasting a slow drive ahead, but focuses most of his ire on something less immediately tangible: the future. Or rather, the role of futurology - his chosen profession - in the corporate world.

"I should have just gotten an MBA," Hines says, explaining that futurists are seldom given credit for their ideas within the big organisations where they work. "Even if you are the first one to see something, by the time it gets acted on, 15 other guys have intervened." And it's not just the mainstream that belittles the profession, he says. The big names in the field write a bestselling book and then quickly dissociate themselves from "the rest of us knuckleheads". "It's a new field," he adds with a smile. "I wouldn't do anything else. But it attracts some cranks."