Establish a Foresight Capability

To be recognized and validated as a forward-thinking CIO, you must establish a structured approach to innovation that considers external trends as well as internal processes.
The CEO is expecting an investment in IT innovation to yield either cost reduction or revenue growth, but growth cannot happen without opportunity identification.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Technological innovation is disrupting business models – and it’s happening faster than organizations can react.
Smaller, more agile organizations have an advantage because they have less resources tied to existing operations and can move faster.

Impact and Result

Be the disruptor, not the disrupted. This blueprint will help you plan proactively and identify opportunities before your competitors.
Strategic foresight gives you the tools you need to effectively process the signals in your environment, build an understanding of relevant trends, and turn this understanding into action.

Establish a Foresight Capability Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how to effectively apply strategic foresight, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Establish a Foresight Capability – Executive Brief

1. Signal gathering

Develop a better understanding of your external environment and build a database of signals.

2. Trends and drivers

Select and analyze trends to uncover drivers.

3. Scenario building

Use trends and drivers to build plausible scenarios and brainstorm strategic initiatives.

4. Idea selection

Apply the wind tunneling technique to assess strategic initiatives and determine which are most likely to succeed in the face of uncertainty.

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Table of Contents

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 8 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Signal gathering

Call 1: Signal sources and gathering strategies.
Call 2: Building and maintaining a useful signal repository.

Guided Implementation 2: Trends and drivers

Call 1: Clustering signals into trends and selecting a key trend.
Call 2: Performing causal analysis, uncovering and selecting drivers.

Guided Implementation 3: Scenario building

Call 1: Building a canvas for ideation.
Call 2: Ideating for specific scenarios.

Guided Implementation 4: Idea selection

Call 1: Applying wind tunneling best practices.
Call 2: Selecting an idea and moving to prototyping.

Author

David Glazer

Contributors

Valerie Fox, Chief Innovation Consultant, The Pivotal Point & Co-Founder, DMZ at Ryerson University
Jerry Koh, Manager, Solutions Lab at MaRS Discovery District
Paul Pochon, CIO & SVP IT (former), Shoppers Drug Mart
Andi Mann, Chief Technology Advocate, Splunk
Susan Doniz, Founder & President, MAS & former CIO at AIMIA
Emma Antunes, Special Advisor to the CIO, NASA
Ivan Winfield, CIO at Seaboard Corporation
Alex Coleman, CIO at Saskatchewan Worker’s Compensation Board
Karl Schroeder, Chair, The Millennium Project (Canada) & Foresight Studies Consultant, Narrative Futures
Deborah Henderson, Worldwide Program Director at DAMA-DMBOK