Why strategic foresight ensures your organization is ready for the future

Many leaders today feel they are navigating a world changing faster than their organizations can adapt. From geopolitical shocks and technological disruptions to mounting climate risks and economic uncertainties, the pace and scale of transformation are stretching organizational resources and operations to their limits.

Yet amid this volatility, a new class of organizations is emerging – whether government or business, they anticipate change, explore emerging risks and opportunities and adapt their strategies before disruption hits. Part of what sets these organizations apart is not luck or size but their ability to anticipate using what we call strategic foresight.

Strategic foresight is the capacity to explore multiple plausible futures and develop strategies that remain robust across a range of scenarios. For the most advanced organizations, it also involves shaping narratives that align long-term objectives, visions and value creation with broader societal and environmental goals.

However, plausible futures are not what will happen but what might happen. So, how can leaders know if their organization is future-fit? How do you benchmark a capability that is intangible yet essential for long-term success?

These questions are why the EDHEC Business School and the Dubai Future Foundation are launching a new Organizational Future Fitness self-assessment tool in collaboration with the World Economic Forum’s Global Foresight Network. The research-based framework and best practices are one way organizations in the private, public and non-profit sectors can reflect on their capabilities, benchmark against peers and identify opportunities for improvement.

Strategic foresight is no longer a “nice-to-have” for businesses but an essential asset. Leading companies are already demonstrating how foresight capabilities can enable resilience, drive innovation and create sustainable value:

Shell, for example, has been using scenario planning since the 1970s to anticipate geopolitical risks such as the oil embargo imposed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. It continues to use this strategy to navigate the energy transition.

Cisco, meanwhile, employs technology foresight to spot emerging tech trends, guide research and development investments and position itself in markets of the future.

Organizations with foresight capabilities don’t just react to change, they shape it. They are more agile in crises, better prepared for disruption and more consistent in their long-term commitments to stakeholders.

Strategic foresight is also gaining ground in the public sector, where uncertainty is particularly difficult to respond to due to long planning cycles, political pressures and systemic interdependencies.

Governments and multilateral institutions are using foresight to:

The Finnish Parliament, for example, has institutionalized foresight through its Committee for the Future, which systematically integrates future thinking into national policy debates.

Singapore’s Centre for Strategic Futures focuses on government policy foresight and the Dubai Future Foundation enables Dubai’s future readiness.

Similarly, the European Commission, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and various UN agencies have established foresight units and developed foresight tools and guides that contribute directly to strategic planning and cross-governmental and global coordination.

Future fit public and non-profit sector organizations are enabled to benchmark their capabilities, advance cross-sector learning and connect with a global community of foresight practitioners working toward more adaptive approaches to public sector management and societal impact.

The world is entering a period of cascading disruptions. According to the Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025, the top risks over the next two to 10 years include misinformation, adverse weather events, ecosystem collapse and conflict; uncertainties that are inherently interconnected and fast-evolving.

Foresight is not about predicting the future; it is about preparing for the unexpected and taking responsibility for shaping the path ahead.

In an era of increasing complexity, future fitness is the foundation of resilient, sustainable and purpose-driven organizations. The new self-assessment tool offers a first step in that journey.

Some of the things the Organizational Future Fitness self-assessment tool enables leaders to do is engage in a structured dialogue with their leadership team on how the organization leans into the future; benchmark foresight capabilities against peers in the same sector; and identify strengths and blind spots across key foresight dimensions, such as sensing change, formulating scenarios and translating foresight into strategy.

By reflecting, benchmarking and learning about the key capabilities that enable future fitness, leaders can better align their strategy with long-term value creation for stakeholders, society and the planet.

We invite you to follow the Forum’s Global Foresight Network and participate in this Future Fitness initiative. The insights and tools you gain will further develop your understanding of the systems dynamics affecting your organization’s future readiness through exploration of the Strategic Intelligence platform, which monitors the issues and forces driving transformational change across global topics.