Thinking
What is Foresight?
“The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed.”
– William Gibson
“Foresight” forms around a disciplined formal structure to create and maintain a high quality, coherent and usable view of the future, and to use the insights arising from that view in productive ways. For example Foresight can be used to detect future opportunities or markets as well as adverse conditions, possible barriers to innovation, or changes to an operating environment. Foresight can guide strategy, shape policy and be used to develop new opportunities, resources, markets, products and services. In short. it sets the stage for innovation.
How do you identify risks and opportunities for growth in a world of constant change?
Risks & Opportunities
The future is not entirely predictable, but uncertainty is navigable. An organization sensitized to relevant emergent trends in Society, Technology, Politics, Economics, Ecology, and shifts in Values and culture (STEEPV), is one that can be resilient and adaptable. Change happens quickly. Identifying which indicators to monitor and understanding their implications for your organization builds your strategic advantage.
Our Approach
Our approach to Strategic Foresight includes a full spectrum framework to ensure bias is avoided and to include the full peripheral view. We use participatory engagement to build capacity and clarify purpose within your organization. We use “farsight” to look into emerging possibilities. We use “nearsight” to identify likely intersections of consequence in the near future. We look at your present to establish challenges and potential. And finally, we look at your past to understand context and history.
We don’t predict the future. We do help you understand what scenarios are preferable, possible and probable. We believe that forewarned is forearmed.
Find Weak Signals of Change
We use a methodical research approach to identify trends that are likely to specifically pertain to your sector. We distill both our understanding of the environment surrounding your activity and the “weak signals” of change on the far horizon. We detect groundswell shifts in perception, behaviour and worth as you grapple with uncertain times in a continuum of change. Using these findings, it is possible to create plausible scenarios of the future, both positive and negative, and measure their implications for the evolving opportunities of your business in the competitive landscape and society at large.
© KerrSmith Design 2023