Whether you’re responding to seismic changes in your industry or attempting to adopt a longer-term approach, changing your company’s future orientation can have significant advantages. Research has proven that companies that have a strong focus on the future are more productive and creative. To be more forward-looking, you can inspire your employees and management to create new strategies and processes that help the organization prepare for the future.
The development of future-oriented innovations requires a method of dialog to identify business opportunities as well as possible barriers. This can be accomplished by using a framework for futures literacy which includes futures knowledge as well as futures awareness and the capability to make decisions about the future. Futures literacy is the capacity of an individual or company to identify futures, construct them, and then articulate them. It is based upon the notion that creating and articulating futures is multidisciplinary. It involves numerous domains, spheres and stakeholders. Futures awareness is the ability to recognize the possibility of future opportunities and is dependent on an individual’s awareness of their individual perception of the world around them.
In order to achieve forward-looking innovation, it’s essential to create products and services that improve the lives of the people. These improvements are the result of a collaboration amongst various high tech process stakeholders and require a thorough analysis of present problems and alternative solutions. This type of innovation requires a radical epistemic transparency and the capacity to listen to suggestions for the foreseeable future.