Who are the foresight professionals and the end users. Strategic foresight is the ability to create and maintain a highquality, coherent, and functional forward view and to use the insights arising in organizationally useful ways. Pdf strategic foresight for collaborative exploration of new. Andy hines in his article, strategic foresight, identifies six critical steps to develop the foresight you need to navigate in this rapidly changing environment. This involves taking a deliberate look at how internal and external factors affect the success of an organization. As shown in figure 1, strategic thinking focuses on futures options available to an organisation, before decision are made about which options to pursue. Strategic foresight is an element of futurology and a concept under the strategic planning umbrella.
In so doing, they can identify strategic threats to avoid or mitigate as well as new opportunities to exploit. Leigh identified five ways in which strategic foresight teams can contribute to more innovative government. Strategic foresight research aims to enable resilience over time and to meet the needs of government and society, by identifying. It starts by discussing the need for strategic foresight over the next decade, and a set of qualities, structures and processes that facilitate the use of strategic foresight for renewal. Strategic foresight is a set of skills and tools used to explore potential futures, so that you can plan for and take advantage of them. Two components are organically linked to strategic foresight. Bishop graduate program in futures studies, university of houston, 4800 calhoun road, 110 cameron building, houston, tx 772046020, usa 1. Understand the era we are in certain or uncertain, slow changes or fast ones 2.
The the literature emphasizes the importance of planning for the future, but not muc h. Strategic foresight analysis usually involves the following stages. Strategic foresight and government to bind themselves into rigid positions. In forresters workforce computing playbook, my colleagues and i maintain that a workforce computing strategic plan should include the following elements.
Strategic foresight is the ability to create and maintain a highquality, coherent. Strategy, a word of greek origin meaning a military generals knowledge, has been used for centuries yet its sister term, strategic management, is a relatively new concept. Published in futures, may 2010, pp282294 inquiries to. Hence you should act in accordance with the following principles. Kaufman and steven walleck, strategic management has four basic elements. The feasibility and purpose are key to strategic planning, but also the organizational culture and structure will play a role in this stage. Gluck and his mckinsey consulting firm colleagues stephen p.
Bill barton, former center head for american express consumer lending operations, helped me understand this distinction in this way. Strategic foresight requires a longer and broader view of the environment and, as we at the institute for alternative futures iaf would argue, a conscious attention to the organizations vision and visionary scenarios in the environment. Strategic foresight october 2019 strategic foresight for. For example, a company can look at how its human resources data, including employee turnover rates and staff satisfaction, have an impact on the organizations. Strategic foresight was launched so the emergency management community can seek to understand how the world is changing, and how those changes may affect the future of emergency management. A quick and clean guide to creating foresight by richard a k lum, strategic foresight. The following statements provide a definition of the concept of strategic management and the scope of business strategy. Strategic foresight analysis 20 report 3 introduction strategic foresight is the ability to create and sustain a variety of high quality forward views and to apply the emerging insights in organisationally useful ways. Strategic foresight is a concept i deem synonymous with corporate foresight. In broad terms, strategic foresight can be practiced on three levels. Foresight can combine or utilize participatory foresight andor deskwork foresight, and. The idea for this strategic foresight primer was born out of.
The strategic foresight analysis sfa 20 report was the product of initial efforts to establish institutional foresight within act to provide nato, national leaders and defence planners with a common perspective of the challenges facing the alliance in the decades to come. The book first explores how we think about the future, looking at ambiguity and uncertainty. Strategy should not suppress the initiatives, creativity and professionalism of management and company employees. An overview of strategic foresight, and several futures tools that can be used to build a strategic foresight capacity. Nevertheless, there are three areas, which are defined for each system. Tools such as horizon scanning and scenario planning are being applied in ecology. Guidelines for strategic foresight edited by andy hines and peter bishop is the essential handbook for every aspiring analyst and, students of strategic foresight. The influences on, and elements of, strategic management discussed above are summarised in the figure above.
He focuses on succession management and leadership development in smallmedium businesses and ministries. For our new methodology for businessfield exploration, the elements of all three. For one, resultsbased management rbm demands an enhanced cohe1. Risks and preparing for them to futureproof policies. Eight elements of strategic planning from success to. What are the key elements of the strategic management process.
Action is then taken to implement the chosen options. At the same time, practical application of government foresight in strategic. By broadening the understanding of what could occur, the less wellknown risks and challenges ahead can be identified and prepared for. Strategic foresight analysis sfa first published in september 20 with interim update dec 2015 sfa is a collaborative effort. Strategic foresight the contemplation of alternative plausible future contexts for better strategic decisionmaking in the present harnesses these ways of thinking. Presentation at aair forum, sydney, nov slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. Instead, our discipline rests on a series of core principles about what makes content effectivewhat makes it work, what makes it good. For example to detect adverse conditions, guide policy, shape strategy, and to explore new markets, products and services. Second in a twopart series elements of a strategic plan. Whats your futuresix steps for gaining strategic foresight page 2 scanning the second step is scanning.
Foresight workshop how to guide foresight workshop how. By contrast, strategic foresight seeks to help decision makers think through uncertainty. Strategic foresight is an underutilized tool for longterm planning in ecology. Lessons from using scenarios for strategic foresight. The book is written in understandable, accessible language. Introduction framework foresightis a methodforcarryingoutforesight projectsdeveloped attheuniversity ofhouston. It is about mirroring the possible and potential futures against the understanding of organizationspecific capabilities, and those of ones competitors.
Know the difference between a fact and an assumption 3. The role of scenarios in strategic foresight sciencedirect. By jonathan tucker in discussing the value of strategic foresight, it is important to distinguish it from forecasting. Strategic change needs planning as a lot of issues arise and need to be solved. A brief overview of strategic foresight workshop slides. Using strategic foresight institute of chartered foresters. In this sense, strategic foresight is fundamentally different from the notion of five or 10 year plans. Whether this exercise is performed by the ownermanager, the successor, the board of directors, or a management committee, the exercise comprises eight elements. Strategic foresight is a collaborative effort of the emergency management community facilitated by the federal emergency management agency fema. A thorough strategic planning exercise outlines the companys main direction while at the same time defining its needs in terms of leadership quality and in terms of financing. Elements of a strategic plan a plan spells out where an organization is going over the next year or more and how it is going to get there. Only when you have answers to questions about each of these five elements can you determine whether your strategy is an integrated whole.
Global strategic foresight community reports world. Strategic foresight analysis can help decision makers map the future. The figure is intended not as a prescription of what strategic management should be, but as a framework which readers can use to think through strategic problems. Pdf entrepreneurship, innovation and strategic foresight. It employs scenarios to consider how trends and developments in a number of areas may come. Most strategic plans focus on one or two such elements, often leaving large gaps in the overall strategy.
Skip the strategic foresight process and go straight to writing a strategic plan characteristics of the person doing a strategic foresight 1. At its best, the process allows policymakers to explore possible futures, and pursue policies that are most likely to bring them to fruition. In line with this, slaugther 17 has introduced the conceptualization of foresight as an organizational ability. Foresight is a strategic thinking capability, so the use of foresight methodologies occurs at this first stage of the strategy development. To a large extent, choosing the right blend of participants for a particular. Strategic foresight considers possible, probable, and desirable futures. Strategic foresight efforts at both the broad contextual and sectorspecific levels can interlink and reinforce each other as part of an ongoing system of integrating futures thinking into policymaking. Forecasting seeks to predict discrete events in the future. Pdf strategic foresight promotes the enactment of organizationally useful actions and repertoires. Statebased consultants were selected based on their ability to best impact the targets in. This campaign illustrates our flexible and tailored approach to campaigns. Simply put, a strategic plan is the formal ized road map that describes how your organization executes the chosen strategy. The value of strategic foresight presidential transition. The goal of the mission statement is to state in plain language how the workforce computing strategy relates to business objectives.
This type of a workshop can involve a small team or a larger group of decision makers or stakeholders depending on your organizations interest in foresight and strategic planning. Pdf the organizing dimensions of strategic foresight in high. Exploring futures the houston way andy hines, peter c. Whats your futuresix steps for gaining strategic foresight. Strategic change and the successful implementation have one aim, a higher organizational performance. The benefits of strategic foresight planning kreischer. This article discusses the role of scenarios in strategic foresight. Strategic foresight advice should be broadly based, and wherever possible backed up by empirical evidence, so that it can be contested and debated by others in the policy domain. Strategic foresight primer committee of the regions. This guide assists organizations in preparing for and conducting a twohour foresight workshop utilizing scenario planning techniques.
The requirement for institutional foresight is affirmed by recent. There are many ways in which foresight could play a more significant role in ecology. Environmental scanning is the foundational step in the strategic management process. Five strategic foresight tools to enhance business model. National, international studies and a series of workshops trends that will shape the future strategic context defence and security implications out to 2030 and beyond common understanding of the future. Strategic foresight is generally focused at the mid or longterm time frame. Strategic foresight is the ability to create and maintain a highquality, coherent and functional forward view, and to use the insights arising in useful organisational ways. Four basic elements of strategic management bizfluent. Scanning is the process of looking internally and externally to identify what is on the horizon that may impact the organization relative to the issues you framed in the prior step. Strategic foresight also requires a combination of analysis and creativity that constitutes, in the excellent term of foresight consultant riel miller, rigor ous imagining. Framing, scanning, forecasting, visioning, planning, and.
English is the dominant language, the term foresight, introduced in the 1990s, was adopted. To effectively spot new trends, strategic foresight teams need to have a much wider range of information sources than. In such firms, foresight is an ongoing series of efforts that informs management about possible future states and what is needed to realize these. Strategic elements runs the national field campaign for this immigration reform project.
765 1190 560 1225 565 973 520 43 749 37 868 605 1049 1019 1344 967 1248 1440 216 323 1142 198 569 1536 1397 1190 642 1282 214 596 37 421 1123