In the field of management, strategic management involves the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by an organization's top management on behalf of owners, based on consideration of resources and an assessment of the internal and external environments in which the organization operates.
Marketing strategy is a long-term, forward-looking approach to planning with the fundamental goal of achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. Strategic planning involves an analysis of the company's strategic initial situation prior to the formulation, evaluation and selection of market-oriented competitive position that contributes to the company's goals and marketing objectives.
Scenario planning, also called scenario thinking or scenario analysis, is a strategic planning method that some organizations use to make flexible long-term plans. It is in large part an adaptation and generalization of classic methods used by military intelligence.
Morphological analysis or general morphological analysis is a method developed by Fritz Zwicky for exploring all the possible solutions to a multi-dimensional, non-quantified complex problem.
Futurists or futurologists are scientists and social scientists whose specialty is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities about the future and how they can emerge from the present, whether that of human society in particular or of life on Earth in general.
The Natural Step is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded in Sweden in 1989 by scientist Karl-Henrik Robèrt. The Natural Step is also used when referring to the partially open source framework it developed. Following publication of the Brundtland Report in 1987, Robèrt developed The Natural Step framework, setting out the system conditions for the sustainability of human activities on Earth; Robèrt's four system conditions are derived from a scientific understanding of universal laws and the aspects of our socio-ecological system, including the laws of gravity, the laws of thermodynamics and a multitude of social studies.
Futures studies is the study of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures and the worldviews and myths that underlie them. In general, it can be considered as a branch of the social sciences and parallel to the field of history. Futures studies seeks to understand what is likely to continue and what could plausibly change. Part of the discipline thus seeks a systematic and pattern-based understanding of past and present, and to determine the likelihood of future events and trends.
Strategic foresight is a planning-oriented discipline related to futures studies, the study of the future. In a business context, a more action-oriented approach has become well known as corporate foresight.
In futures studies, especially in Europe, the term "foresight" has become widely used to describe activities such as:
Futures techniques used in the multi-disciplinary field of futures studies by futurists in Americas and Australasia, and futurology by futurologists in EU, include a diverse range of forecasting methods, including anticipatory thinking, backcasting, simulation, and visioning. Some of the anticipatory methods include, the delphi method, causal layered analysis, environmental scanning, morphological analysis, and scenario planning.
Strategic thinking is defined as a mental or thinking process applied by an individual in the context of achieving success in a game or other endeavor. As a cognitive activity, it produces thought.
Backcasting is a planning method that starts with defining a desirable future and then works backwards to identify policies and programs that will connect that specified future to the present. The fundamentals of the method were outlined by John B. Robinson from the University of Waterloo in 1990. The fundamental question of backcasting asks: "if we want to attain a certain goal, what actions must be taken to get there?"
Strategic assumptions surfacing and testing (SAST) is a method for approaching ill-structured problems. It can be applied as a dialectical approach to policy and planning.
Strategic sustainable investing (SSI) is an investment strategy that recognizes and rewards leading companies that are moving society towards sustainability. SSI relies on a consensus-based scientific definition of sustainability, and the assumption that ‘Backcasting from Principles of Sustainability’, whereby a vision of a sustainable future is set as the reference point for developing strategic actions, is the preferred approach to strategically move a company towards sustainability. It was developed by researchers at the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden.
The Humanitarian Futures Programme (HFP) was originally initiated at King’s College, London, as an action research programme based within the School of Social Science and Public Policy at King's College London and over a decade worked with a wide range of social and natural scientists, representatives of governments, international and non-governmental organisations, as well as the private and humanitarian sectors. Its purpose was to identify future humanitarian challenges and solutions.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to futures studies:
Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is a systematic decision support process, aiming to ensure that environmental and possibly other sustainability aspects are considered effectively in policy, plan and program making. In this context, following Fischer (2007) SEA may be seen as:
Integrated Management is a process for developing a business model that encompasses not only the financial priorities of an enterprise but includes measurements for an enterprise's environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. The applications of Integrated Management are limitless, as any organization – public, private and non-profit alike – can leverage the process of integrating ESG data into their annual reports, functional roles and decision, and though this integration find new opportunities for improvement, expansion and value creation.
Strategic planning and uncertainty intertwine in a realistic framework where companies and organizations are bounded to develop and compete in a world dominated by complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty in which unpredictable, unstoppable and, sometimes, meaningless circumstances may have a direct impact on the expected outcomes. In this scenario, formal planning systems are criticized by a number of academics, who argue that conventional methods, based on classic analytical tools, fail to shape a strategy that can adjust to the changing market and enhance the competitiveness of each business unit, which is the basic principle of a competitive business strategy. Strategy planning systems are supposed to produce the best approaches to concretize long term objectives. However, since strategy deals with the upcoming future, the strategic context of an organization will always be uncertain, therefore the first choice an organisation has to make is when to act; acting now or when the uncertainty has been resolved.
United States Army Futures Command (AFC) is a United States Army command aimed at modernizing the Army. It focuses on six priorities: long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicle, future vertical lift platforms, a mobile & expeditionary Army network, air & missile defense capabilities, and soldier lethality.
AFC's cross-functional teams (CFTs) are Futures Command's vehicle for sustainable reform of the acquisition process for the future.
