The ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ will change entire systems of production, management and governance. To prepare the ASX-listed miner for a changing world, the company’s Executive Committee established the 4.0 Pioneer Lab to help Rio Tinto firmly move into the 21st century. Armed with this mandate, the team of six hand-picked emerging leaders from across the globe interviewed experts ranging from technology to geopolitics and from manufacturing to sustainability to develop comprehensive scenarios of the organisation’s global future operating environment. The patterns that emerged, and the new and credible insights gained, underpinned the development of their adaptive strategy.