Strategic foresight

Strategic foresight is a fairly recent attempt to differentiate "futurology" from "futures studies". It arises from the premise that:

The future is not predictable;
The future is not predetermined; and
Future outcomes can be influenced by our choices in the present.^[1]

Strategic foresight may be used as part of the corporate foresight in large companies.^[2] It is also used within various levels of Government and Not for Profit organisations. Many concepts and tools are also suited to 'personal futures' thinking.

Strategic foresight can be practiced at multiple levels, three different levels being:

Pragmatic foresight - "Carrying out tomorrows' business better"^[3]
Progressive foresight - "Going beyond conventional thinking and practices and reformulating processes, products, and services using quite different assumptions"^[4]
Civilisational foresight - "Seeks to understand the aspects of the next civilisation - the one that lies beyond the current impasse, the prevailing hegemony of techno/industrial/capitalist interests".^[4]

Two approaches to futures studies that are especially focussed at those last two levels of strategic foresight are Critical futures and Integral futures.

Strategic Foresight Group defines foresight as a combination of forecasting with insight. While forecasting requires methodologies, generated by computers or otherwise, insight requires deep understanding of the subject concerned. Foresight is developed by applying forecasting methodology to the insight. Strategic Foresight relates to foresight of strategic issues. Thus, strategic foresight can be developed by scientific study. It is not about intuition or guess work. The difference between strategic foresight and futurology is that strategic foresight provides alternative scenarios for the future. Futurology attempts to provide a definitive picture of the future.

Quotes

Strategic Foresight is the ability to create and maintain a high-quality, coherent and functional forward view, and to use the insights arising in useful organisational ways. For example to detect adverse conditions, guide policy, shape strategy, and to explore new markets, products and services. It represents a fusion of futures methods with those of strategic management (Slaughter (1999), p. 287).
Take hold of your future or the future will take hold of you (Patrick Dixon Futurewise publ 2005)

↑Jump back a section

References

^ Amara, Roy (1981), The Futures Field. Futurist, February, April and June 1981
^ Rohrbeck, Rene (2010) Corporate Foresight: Towards a Maturity Model for the Future Orientation of a Firm, Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag, Springer, ISBN 978-3-7908-2625-8
^ Hamel, G., & Prahalad, C.K. (1994), Competing for the future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press
^ ^a ^b Slaughter, Richard A. (2004), Futures Beyond Dystopia: Creating Social Foresight. RoutledgeFarmer, London, UK, ISBN 978-0-415-30270-8; p .217

Johnson, G., Scholes, K., & Whittington, R. (2005). Exploring corporate strategy (7th ed.). New York: FT/Prentice Hall.
Rohrbeck, R., S. Mahdjour, S. Knab, T. Frese (2009) Benchmarking Report - Strategic Foresight in Multinational Companies Report of the European Corporate Foresight Group: Berlin, Germany.
Schwarz, J.-O. (2008) Assessing the future of futures studies in management, Futures, Vol. 40, Iss. 3, 237-246.
Slaughter, Richard A. (1995), Futures for the Third Millennium. Prospect Media, St. Leonards, NSW, Australia, ISBN 1-86316-148-1.

↑Jump back a section