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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The Future is Now: Anticipating Not Knowing.

To meet the challenges of tomorrow, we need to anticipate and prepare for the unknowns. This means understanding the systems and contexts that drive what is happening today in order to better understand what will happen next. It also requires a mindset shift towards embracing uncertainty instead of trying to eliminate it.

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Developing Blockchain Strategy.

You should read this if… you are a CEO or board member exploring whether and how blockchain could create value beyond hype and cryptocurrency. This article explains what blockchain is—and isn’t—and outlines the key considerations when developing a blockchain strategy that aligns with your organisation’s purpose, operating model, and risk appetite. It highlights the characteristics and benefits of blockchain (such as transparency, security, and distributed trust), contrasts public and private blockchains, and explores how decentralised approaches like DAOs could enable new models—including payment‑by‑outcomes contracting in the social sector—helping leaders make informed, strategic decisions about if, where, and when blockchain makes sense.

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Using Design Thinking to Deliver Innovation.

You should read this if… you are looking for a practical, structured way to drive innovation without jumping too quickly to solutions. This article explores the Double Diamond design thinking framework and explains how alternating between divergent and convergent thinking helps teams first understand the right problem and then develop the right solution. It shows how using the Double Diamond encourages deeper insight, collaboration, and experimentation—reducing risk while uncovering new opportunities—so innovation efforts are grounded in real needs and better equipped to deliver meaningful, future‑ready outcomes.

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What's the Difference Between Business Uncertainty and Risk?

You should read this if… you are a leader who wants to make better decisions by clearly distinguishing between what can be managed and what must be navigated. This article explains the difference between business risk and uncertainty, showing how risk involves known variables that can be analysed and mitigated, while uncertainty reflects unknown or unknowable conditions that cannot be reliably predicted. It argues that conflating the two leads to false confidence and fragile strategies, and that leaders who recognise uncertainty as a distinct challenge are better equipped to use foresight, expand options, and make more resilient decisions in complex and rapidly changing environments.

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"What if?" - A great question to start strategic thinking.

You should read this if… you are a business leader who wants a simple but powerful way to strengthen strategic thinking and decision‑making under uncertainty. This article introduces “What if?” analysis as a foundational strategic question that helps leaders explore possible, probable, and preferred futures rather than relying on a single forecast. It explains how deliberately asking “What if?” surfaces hidden risks, challenges assumptions, and expands the range of strategic options available, enabling organisations to prepare more thoughtfully for what might happen next and to design strategies that support impact and future growth in a changing world.

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The Benefits of Systems Mapping.

You should read this if… you are curious and want to better understand the complexity of your operating environment and make more informed, confident decisions. This article explains the benefits of systems mapping as a way to visualise how different elements of a system interact, revealing relationships, feedback loops, and unintended consequences that are often invisible in linear thinking. It shows how systems mapping helps leaders step back from isolated problems, ask better strategic questions, and identify leverage points for change—supporting clearer sense‑making, stronger collaboration, and more resilient decisions in an increasingly interconnected and uncertain world.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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