Application of foresight planning in strategic business planning

Abstract

Foresight planning discusses the processes which anticipate opportunities and threats which may arise in a foreseeable future from mid to long term time frames. Foresight planning also encourages innovation, strategic evaluation and shaping the future proactively. Thus, unlike in traditional planning which pursued in preventing failure, foresight planning prioritizes resilience which is early detection of threats and fast recovery. Strategic foresight or in other words foresight planning helps a company to make long-term plans especially when the future is unpredictable. That is the main difference between foresight planning and strategic planning. Strategic planning focuses mainly on a future direction based on the learnings in the past, whereas strategic foresight looks 10 to 20 years ahead in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Chaos and Ambiguity) world and shaping the strategic direction of the company.