foresights
The decisions leaders make today are shaped by what they understand about tomorrow. That's precisely why we built foresights—a dedicated space for sharing the ideas, trends, issues, and signals influencing the futures of leaders and their organisations.
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futures insights: Universal Basic Income.
Universal Basic Income is a system where all citizens of a country or state receive an income from the government to meet their basic needs. What could futures that include Universal Basic Income look like? How could it be funded?
futures insights: Robots as charity fundraisers.
As artificial intelligence and machine learning continue to evolve, so too will the role of robots in charity fundraising. Can we expect to see more human-robot teams in our futures?
Using Foresight to Work in the Space of Not Knowing.
The best way to deal with uncertainty will vary depending on the situation. However, some tips for dealing with uncertainty include being flexible, staying open-minded, and not being afraid to take risks.
6 Principles of Business Growth.
You should read this if… you are running a business and looking for a grounded, long‑term view of how sustainable business growth actually happens. This article outlines six core principles of business growth—universality, scalability, replicability, gradualism, optionality, and flexibility—arguing that growth is not driven by shortcuts or one‑off wins, but by systems and choices that can endure and adapt over time. It shows how applying these principles helps leaders design growth strategies that remain resilient in the face of uncertainty, avoid over‑extension, and create the conditions for steady, repeatable progress rather than fragile, short‑term gains.
futures insights: Direct-to-Avatar Services.
Direct-to-avatar (D2A) is a new business model that allows companies to sell their goods directly to avatars or digital twins of customers in the virtual world. Could it become a reality?
futures insights: Leased Standard of Living
A leased standard of living could exist where people pay one monthly subscription to receive all the goods and services they need - housing, food, entertainment and transport. Could this work appear?
futures insights: Social Ranking Systems.
Social ranking systems - part of our futures, or unlikely to happen? Have we already made the decisions that pre-empt a social ranking system?
futures insights: Participatory Budgeting.
Participatory budgeting - reality or fantasy? How could citizen lead decision making change the way you operate your for-purpose organisation?
Strategic Foresight - a robust method for dealing with adaptive problems.
You should read this if… you are a CEO or board member grappling with change that cannot be solved through incremental fixes or existing expertise alone. This article explains why strategic foresight is a robust approach for addressing adaptive problems—challenges that require shifts in thinking, behaviour, and business models as the world changes. It shows how foresight helps leaders anticipate emerging change, distinguish adaptive from technical problems, and create the conditions for meaningful, long‑term adaptation rather than short‑term solutions. By applying strategic foresight, organisations can become more agile, better aligned with future operating contexts, and more capable of delivering sustained impact and growth amid ongoing uncertainty.
Transforming your Business Model with Futures Intelligence.
You should read this if… you believe your current business model is no longer delivering the growth or resilience it once did. This article explores why business model transformation is often necessary as markets, technologies, funding models, and customer expectations evolve, and explains how futures intelligence can help leaders rethink how value is created and delivered. It shows how stepping back from “business as usual” and using foresight to explore emerging change enables organisations to identify new opportunities, challenge entrenched assumptions, and intentionally design the next phase of their business model—before external pressures force change on their terms
Futures Scenario Planning.
Futures scenario planning is using future intelligence to inform alternative visions of possible, probable, and preferred futures, and interpreting how those futures might impact your organisation.
Backcasting - A Tool for Planning and Decision Making.
You should read this if… you are a leader who has a clear vision of where you want your organisation to be but are unsure how to translate that future ambition into concrete action today. This article introduces backcasting as a foresight tool that starts with a desired future and works backward to identify the decisions, milestones, and actions needed to get there, rather than extrapolating forward from current conditions. It explains how backcasting helps leaders manage uncertainty, align strategy with long‑term goals, and design more intentional pathways through complexity by focusing on what must change to achieve a preferred future.
Think Like a Futurist for Impact and Future Growth.
You should read this if… you want to move beyond reacting to disruption and start actively shaping future impact and growth. This article explains what it means to think like a futurist, showing how foresight helps leaders make sense of uncertainty by exploring trends, imagining multiple possible futures, and understanding how today’s decisions influence what comes next. Rather than predicting outcomes, it demonstrates how futures intelligence gives leaders greater agency—helping them minimise downside risk, spot emerging opportunities, and take informed action over a practical five‑to‑ten‑year horizon so growth and impact are designed, not left to chance.
The Business Case for Foresight.
You should read this if… you are building the case for investing time and resources in futures thinking rather than relying solely on historical data and short‑term forecasts. This article sets out the business case for foresight, explaining why traditional data‑driven planning becomes unreliable in fast‑changing, uncertain environments. It shows how foresight complements existing analytics by exploring multiple possible, probable, and preferable futures, helping leaders make decisions with greater confidence, creativity, and reliability. By strengthening strategic agility, alignment, and the ability to shape rather than simply react to change, foresight becomes a practical capability for navigating uncertainty and supporting better long‑term outcomes.
5 Benefits of Using Foresight.
Foresight is the ability to see beyond the present and into the future, and when used correctly, it can provide several benefits. So if you're looking for a way to boost your organisation's performance, foresight may be just what you need. In this post, we'll explore five benefits of using foresight in business. Keep reading to learn more!
10 Tips to Manage Uncertainty and Fast-paced Change.
In today's rapidly changing world, it is more important than ever to be able to manage uncertainty and fast-paced change. Many organisations struggle with this, but there are ways to manage it effectively. Here are 10 tips to help you get started.
What is Futures Intelligence?
You should read this if… you are a CEO or board member who wants to strengthen decision‑making for impact and growth in a world where past data alone is no longer enough. This article explains what futures intelligence is and how it brings together trends, signals, and emerging change to support foresight‑informed decisions. It shows how futures intelligence helps leaders move from insight to action by making sense of uncertainty, exploring multiple plausible futures, and understanding how choices made today shape longer‑term outcomes. By embedding futures intelligence into decision‑making, organisations can act with greater confidence, align strategy with emerging realities, and intentionally design pathways to impact and future growth rather than reacting after change has already occurred.
Are Australian Charities Rich or Poor?
You should read this if… you are interested in an evidence-based view of whether Australia’s charity sector is building balance sheets or converting revenue into service delivery. This post uses publicly available ACNC data (covering over 49,000 charities, with annual datasets available back to 2013) to examine sector “wealth” and balance‑sheet health, and finds that most Australian charities raising revenue from the public in 2019 appeared financially healthy, with assets and liabilities broadly proportionate to sector revenue. It notes that charities holding land and property tend to have larger balance sheets and that property value increases—particularly in metropolitan areas—have supported balance‑sheet strength, while revenue growth did not appear to be disproportionately used to inflate balance sheets; it also argues that adding cashflow data to ACNC reporting would enable a more complete assessment
Managing the Risk of Innovation.
Innovation is a tricky beast. It's not always clear that the risks outweigh the rewards. For those of us in for-purpose organisations, getting the business case right to fund innovation is critical; uncertainty can be a roadblock, but it doesn't have to be.
12 Questions to Get Started Using Strategic Foresight.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to using strategic foresight in your business. The key is to experiment, find what works for you, and adapt as needed.