Foresight in corporate organisations

Abstract

Abstract Strategy formulation is strictly intertwined with the analysis of the likely evolution of the business environment, in order to detect promptly the opportunities and the threats brought about by emerging trends and to deal with them properly (strategic foresight). Today many companies put much effort into strategic foresight, and also in the literature on strategy there is a growing attention to strategic foresight. However, it still seems there is a lack of a general framework of analysis that clearly defines how all the foresight activities should be carried out in a firm and should be integrated in an organic way, in order to support strategic decision makers at corporate, business and functional levels. This is the main issue we have taken into account through the study of some relevant European and US firms that have established foresight units, in order to deliver support for long term strategy formulation. Keywords: foresightstrategy formulationscenario analysis Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the managers of the foresight units of the firms that were involved in our research project for delivering their experience and views. In particular, we wish to thank Peter Cornelius (Shell), Klaus Heinzelbecker (BASF), Patriksallner (Nokia), and Josephine Green (Philips). Notes Of course, both companies do not omit to put some thought into ‘wild cards’, as in the case of BASF for global epidemics or technological quantum leaps.