1. Summary: Exploring value creation from the corporate foresight activity The article Exploring value creation from the corporate foresight activity explains in details, both technical and the human aspect, the value creation from the future research. As the future research involves a monitory as well the human capital the return on investment is an important debate. While discussing the return on investment the time line is also a concern that when the return of the present investment would be physically enjoyable. The paper starts with a brilliant introduction of the thesis statement and the author has argued the most common question “Have the predictions been accurate? ‘With the question ‘‘did our futures research create any value?’’ …show more content…
From both the views the examples and the empirical evidences suggest foresight activities to be a very good investment for the organization. But the dilemma of time of the research activity remains. Through the case discussion it is concluded that the corporate foresight activity can result in • Identify relevant change • Trigger innovation initiatives • Challenge innovation development • Contribute to overcoming dominant mental models • Moderate strategic discussions • Support the breaking away from path dependency • Support the search, development, and acquisition of strategic resources through scouting networks, etc. From a researcher’s point of view the author has suggested a linking of foresight activity to the knowledge pool of the organization (may it be strategic body) and has ended with a long standing research question; how can firms become future-oriented? The author has found out main four success criteria for corporate foresight activity 1. Foresighters committed to creating value, 2. Participation of internal stakeholders, 3. Analysis that follows a systemic logic, and 4. Methods and processes that are tailored to companies’ needs. Strengths and Weakness of the author’s argument. The author of the article have suggested many point on the use of corporate-foresight activity and have supported his argument with a detailed literature analysis and empirical evidences , the argument made by the author are quiet
Future planning is another critical organizational factor for business performance. “Opportunities often come through innovation and a new way of viewing the marketplace – seeing the market from the perspective of those who can change the competitive terrain.” (Bruner, 2003, 10) Bruner argues that the goal of management is to see the future before it arrives, and offers scenario planning as a means for this, where leaders identify key decisions or focal issues, environmental factors that influence the success or failure of the decision, as well as driving forces or trends that influence the environmental forces. They rank the forces by importance and uncertainty to specify possible scenarios, and then examine how well the decision would perform in each given scenario. “Far from being uniform, this world is made up of all kinds of worlds.” (Gosling and Mintzberg, 2003, 58) The worldly manager recognizes this fact and
Every organization should have a strategic plan to achieve its goals in a limited time period, the strategic plan has many variable models. The strategic planning process that we studied needs a collaboration between the organization’s staff, board members, and strategic plan committee. This strategic planning process has ten guide steps.
Within the various layers of the company there are different opinions about the added valie of long-term planning.
The Case Study concerning MacFarlane solutions is an interesting one to note down regarding strategic planning in an organization. From the information given, it appears that the small business expanded merely due to the insight of Bill MacFarlane and the planning that he gave forward. (McDonald 2011 pg. 736) Bill started off after working in a firm and having an experience of more than forty years. He specialized in what he knew and then gave forward what he was good out. There was risk in his ventures as the expert started out, however he trusted his instincts and went out with the planning.
The strategic planning is considered as a management tool that is remarkable factor in many organizations (Abdallah, 2013, n.d.). It is only used for single idea with nay management tool i.e. to support organizational associated to do better job. It is usually concerned to regulate the direction of an organization in response to altering environment, ensure the members working toward the similar goals, and to focus on organizational energies to measure activities (McBain, et al., 2012, n.d.). However, strategic planning is well organized effort of an organization to make its basic actions and decision that guide and create what an organization, why it does, and what it does in future. It is also defined as it is an ability of the manager to accomplish the planned goals of an organization along with management quality. Nowadays, individual development is necessary aspect because it is a planning procedure by the help of which the managers gain knowledge and leadership skills to accomplish long term goals of an organization (Lowe, et al., 2012, p.1021). The researcher of this report has chosen the Tesco organization which one of the world’s largest retailer sector in current days. It is employing more than 326,000 people, functioning around 2,318 stores, and one of the major food retailer companies. It is also running Tesco.com website to provide online services for their customers. Its major market was estimated in the UK where it is operating four banners of
Any organization that does not have plans for the future will always be at the risk of collapsing. The plans of any organization are the ones that trigger it to make some changes that will help it face any challenges that may be encountered in the future. There are those challenges that an organization may face in future such as competition from a similar organization that may come up with similar services or products that the organization is offering and yet make them better. Due to this, the company has to have plans for improvement that may help take it to the next level that will enable it to compete effectively with other organizations. Therefore, there are three categories of improvement that any organization may have and ones that may help the same organization to improve and be better (Harrington, 2007).
Driving forces and key drivers ultimately determine the necessary endpoints for the four distinct scenarios, which is the desired outcome of the Alternative Futures methodology. This chapter expand upon “Phase Two: Explore” and “Phase Three: Synthesize” of the specific methodology defined in chapter two of this thesis. First, the “Explore” phase outlines all driving forces and key forces that affect the research question. Then the “Synthesize” phase narrows the list of driving forces and key factors down to two critical uncertainties. Finally, the resulting two critical uncertainties leads to the creation of the futures matrix.
A well-prepared planning which involved detailed analysis, examined on the business plan and strategy are necessary in order to enable comparison between strengths and weaknesses of the own company against competitors. This is to understand the timing for changing conditions and situation and thus achieve victory. In reality, we say that business competition is similar to a real war and thus triumph or defeat in the competition will definitely determine the status of a company. For example, Toyota used to seek for advice from Ford company which is an extremely strong competitor at the time that Toyota automotive still in new. But nowadays, what we can see is the situation has interchanged and Ford is now looking for the ideas from Toyota. This showed us that companies who are able to conduct detailed and thoroughly business planning and strategy will win in the business
About this discussion, I would like to introduce two steps. First step, I want to introduce the potential advantages of formal strategic planning approaches. Then I will introduce the second step: some important reasons about the formal strategic planning is of limited benefit to organisations operating in uncertain and dynamic environments. Finally, the main purpose of this paper is to prove the formal strategic planning is of limited benefit to organisations operating in uncertain and dynamic environments. My conclusion will emphasize it again.
This article has two main purposes One is to review general considerations in strategic planning and the second to introduce the TOWS Matrix for matching the environmental threats and opportunities with the company 's weaknesses and especially its strengths. These factors per se are not new; what is new is systematically identifying relationships between these factors and basing strategies on them. There is little doubt that strategic planning will gain greater prominence in the future. Any organization—whether military, product oriented, service-oriented or even governmental—to remain effective, must use a
It is usually considered by organizations to capitalize on a magical idea virus that aims to achieve future economic – such a stance is based on what future will hold? And long-term planning responds to this very notion. Drucker strongly dismisses that and proposes that it is not absolutely necessary for every business to search for the idea that promises future. He furthermore says that future cannot be known and it is not determined and not formed but can be shaped through strong willed action; A proactive approach regarding how future should be is what generates ideas, actions that lead to success in future. Small organizations who believed in what future should hold have earned success in long run such as IBM or Xerox. Long term planning is not only for large companies but also for small businesses that the future. An idea is not just an idea but an
To forecast and plan: “examining the future and drawing up the plan of action for future”.
Scenario planning is suggested as not just about submitting numbers and creating budget but recognising the wider context of events. This is done by developing a small number of scenarios through identifying key uncertainties in the environment which describe how the future might unfold and then mapping decision trees consistent with optimising shareholder outcomes (McKelvey, 2014). To analyse and contrast the variables a matrix can then be produced giving several scenarios with a probability attached. The factors considered from the macro-environment could either be a positive or negative impact on the organisations competitiveness. The idea is that, the best way to prepare for an eventuality is to think through the event and consider alternatives for responding to those situations should they occur (Von Oetinger, 2004). Firms can use these in two ways, firstly to examine each scenario and determine whether the organisation 's current strategy would allow survival and success, or organisations can examine a desired future state and plan the actions that must be taken to achieve that scenario (Nelson, 2014).
With an increasing change of market,experts and specialists arouse widen concern about long-term mind-set in firms becoming more significant through manager’s strategies.For a rough define ‘long-term’, ‘a multiyear time horizon for value creation’(Barton and Wiseman,2014).Investing in and creating a profitable new business within the time indicates how company leaders compare business’s value. The purpose of the essay consider the tendency when corporate leaders shape business between long-term and short-term view and the source of those problems will be proven. In addition ,how enterprises put their weight among customers, shareholders and employees discuss later.
To bring out something innovative, every country and relevant departments encourages ideas and the best ways to be known for this reason. Planning and management play an important role in in any aspect of profession. There is need for budgeting, staffing along with other strategizing options in almost all line of work. In the factors of global economy and