Strategic Foresight

Tools for Creating Strategic Advantage

Under conditions of constantly growing volatility and ambiguity, competitive ad-vantage goes to those companies who best deduce the forces acting on their indus-try, and who most capably adapt their businesses to profit from them.

But nobody can predict the future. A lot rests, therefore, on an executive man-ager's superior ability to judge the course and timing of new initiatives under uncertain conditions.

The Strategic Foresight program is a comprehensive introduction to the approaches and tools of industry foresight, and how these link to the management decision-making process to create strategic advantage.

This program illustrates with examples, activities and guest speakers, how to develop an integrated management foresight perspective to make better business decisions under conditions of external uncertainty, and turn this advantage into profitable real-world products and services.

Participants will emerge having applied the industry foresight toolkit to their own company and industry, giving them a real-world future-management agenda to take back into their organisation’s own planning process.

Program Benefits

This program illustrates with examples, activities and guest speakers, how to develop an integrated management foresight perspective to make better business decisions under conditions of external uncertainty, and turn this advantage into profitable real-world products and services.

Gain new tools and methodologies for market foresight

Improve competence to turn foresight into new business initiatives

Learn how to test your strategic choices against current cross-industry change drivers

Develop skills in using foresight approaches in decision-making and creating strategic advantage

Be better prepared for the future

By attending the program you will be able to:

• Determine and apply analytical frameworks for decisions whose variables are too uncertain or too long range to be evaluated with standard analytical tools

• Understand appropriate uses of business forecasting and planning, and current best practices, including a critical analysis of the limits of these tools in interpreting the competitive environment and creating strategic advantage

• Apply theoretical and practical experience using methods of industry foresight, including the ability to select among and critically apply the toolkit options, to better interpret the evolving external environment and manage associated risks and opportunities

• Integrate the tools of industry foresight into the rest of the business strategy, decision formation and leadership decision-making process

• Turn industry foresight perspectives into new initiatives, products, services, business models, or customer interfaces

• Critically assess the business forecasts of competing businesses, industry “gurus”, management consultants, or the media

Contents and Schedule

The program incorporates interactive workshop-style lectures, group work, videos and guest speakers, blending analytical models with worked examples and real-world situations.

Based in theory, it is decidedly pragmatic in style and approach, selecting the best materials and solutions from both academic and business sources.

Introduction to Strategic Foresight

Schedule

June 13, 2018

Location

Helsinki, Finland

• Sources of strategic uncertainty
• Understanding changing business externalities and their role in company success and failure
• Managing limits in foresight. Mental models and biases in management analysis
• Strategic Foresight, Design Thinking and Adaptation to Design
• Design the future and have an impact on it
• Introduction to DARPA Model

Strategic Foresight Tools

Schedule

June 14, 2018

Location

Helsinki, Finland

• The role of vision and future design (from the DARPA Model)
• Explaining the toolset framework
• Forming and testing scenarios
• Real world scenario process examples and situations
• Building prototypes with Legos

Creating Strategic Advantage from Industry Foresight

Schedule

June 15, 2018

Location

Helsinki, Finland

• From foresight to strategy – management decision-making on the basis of industry foresight
• Rebuilding strategic planning
• Strategy from predetermined elements and scenarios
• Embedding principles for foresight when returning to work