As you likely know, 2012 is the year the world will end. Or so the Mayans supposedly foretold.

But predictions aren’t just the province of novelists and filmmakers. A gaggle of more serious types including scientists, researchers and businessmen have made predictions that are now either hopelessly quaint or downright amusing.

For example, a Michigan banker in 1903 counseled a businessman not to invest in Henry Ford’s new automotive company because he predicted automobiles were just a passing fad but “the horse is here to stay.” Thomas Watson, former chairman of IBM, said in 1943 there was a potential world market for “maybe” five computers.

That’s not to say business predictions are fruitless. Some prognosticators have been startlingly accurate. In 1900, civil engineer John Elfreth Watkins wrote “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years” for the Ladies Home Journal, predicting mobile phones, the rise of television and even webcams. Watkins also forecast that all flies, mosquitoes and roaches will have been exterminated. Sadly, we are still waiting for that day.

Regardless, his example illustrates predicting the future is tricky business. New York Yankees star Yogi Berra, a man known for malapropisms as well as aphorisms, once said “Prediction is very hard, especially about the future.”

But futuristic thinking can be purposeful. Gazing into the crystal ball from time to time offers a chance to step back from the drudgery of the day to day, shift perspective and use creative thinking to plan for future scenarios. Try it out yourself or with your team. Ask what one thing will most impact your organization, positively or negatively, in 2012. The answers may surprise you and lead to fruitful discussion. Imaginings can raise the bar of possibility, focus efforts and lead to breakthroughs previously thought impossible.

With that mental exploration in mind, we’ve crafted a stellar lineup of speakers for our fifth annual Talent Strategies conference this month, taking place Feb. 27 and 28 at the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter.