In our fast-changing environment, businesses face a lot of uncertainties and risks just to keep themselves afloat. Amy Webb, futurist and CEO at Futures Today Institute, believes that organisations, that want to remain competitive, should engage in future forecasting. This process will help organisations to predict trends and create effective strategies to tackle them. In other words, by discerning present patterns and how changes to them can affect organisations, an organisation will be able to proactively build processes and stay ahead of the curve.
Webb has come up with a 6-step methodology that will help organisations maximise their future forecasting abilities and help them ascertain their best methods. The infographic below details the steps an organisation can take to do future forecasting.
There are 2 important things to note when utilising Webb's methodology. The first thing is that Webb believes that industry trends often emerge from the fringe - that is seemingly unrelated events may have connections later on. Consequently, organisations should always keep an eye on newly-emerging technologies and information to determine how it may impact their organisation in the future. Secondly, future forecasting requires both creative and logical thinking. Therefore, future forecasting teams has to have both creative and logical thinkers. Creative thinkers will be able to come up with unique and radical perspectives. While logical thinkers can narrow it down and figure out which viewpoints will work well.
In conclusion, for an organisation to continuously remain ahead of the curve, they'd have to engage in future forecasting and catch trends as they are materialising. That way, organisations can create the future that they want to see.
Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. - Søren Kierkegaard