Many large and forward-thinking companies have established capacities specializing in strategic foresight, scenario planning, and trend analysis. These teams or individuals are responsible for identifying emerging trends, potential disruptors, and long-term opportunities and threats, actively contributing to the corporate long-term strategies. While it’s challenging to provide an exhaustive list, we present a series of examples of companies known for their investment in foresight activities helping them to achieve long term goals and desired futures.

Shell has a well-known Scenario Planning team that has been at the forefront of developing and applying scenario planning techniques in the corporate world. They use scenarios to explore potential future energy landscapes and make strategic decisions accordingly. Their scenarios team has developed two important long-term models of the world’s energy system. These help test, quantify and explore the ranges for future scenario stories. When viewed together, they offer a perspective on the current global energy landscape, as well as the ability to model a number of futures. Is hydrogen the future? What is the role of biofuels? How long until all the world’s cars are electric? They explore how the future could unfold by offering different possible versions of the future. Their scenarios have been used by the leadership teams in Shell and by the external public to help make decisions for more than 50 years.

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