Let’s have a brief look at brands using foresight. Today, it’s BASF.

Many large and forward-thinking companies have established capacities specialising 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.

BASF has a longstanding history of using foresight. Currently, an internal think tank at BASF performs a range of foresight functions to understand change and identify new business opportunities and growth fields.

BASF New Business GmbH’s (BNB) mission is to develop new business fields outside BASF Group’s existing portfolio. It follows long-term trends and innovative topics in industry and society as well as new future markets, analyses their growth potential, and examines whether possible new business fields are suited to BASF operations. The subsidiary then transforms suitable topic areas into a new business field for BASF.

There are four operational areas at BNB. The Industry Foresight Team identifies and analyses search fields for new business opportunities in new markets for BASF. The mission of the globally operative Scouting & Evaluation Team is to further develop and evaluate new business ideas identified by the Industry Foresight Unit. The New Business Incubation Team systematically further develops the business ideas and plans adopted by the Scouting & Evaluation Team to achieve a viable proof of concept and also implements the market launch strategy. The Business Expansion Team creates new business fields through marketing, sales and technological duties. BNB includes also Chemovator GmbH, a wholly owned BNB subsidiary, which serves as BASF’s internal incubator, offering a protected space for all employees to accelerate speed-to-market for innovative business ideas. In addition, BNB currently has three Business Build-Up units: 3D printing (in the form of wholly owned BNB subsidiary Basf 3d Printing Solutions GmbH), E-Power Management and Functional Feed Additives.

BNB focuses on new chemistry-based materials, technologies and system solutions, thus driving technological progress by developing new products on an enduring basis.

BNB works in close collaboration with BASF’s global research programs and corporate divisions to evaluate technology and markets. It also cooperates with research institutions, universities, start-up enterprises, and industrial partners.

Further information at the BASF webpage.