Strategic Foresight in Business Management
Tools for Creating Strategic and Competitive Advantage
Under conditions of constantly growing volatility and ambiguity, competitive advantage goes to those who best deduce the forces acting on their industry and who most capably adapt to profit from them.
Strategic foresight is not about predicting the future. Instead, it explores possible futures alongside the opportunities and challenges they might present. The Strategic Foresight in Business Management program is a comprehensive introduction to the approaches and tools of strategic foresight. Based on scientific approaches to foresight and scenario work, the program equips you with the skills to implement a continuous foresight-based strategy process.
During the program, you will learn to utilize foresight tools in strategy work, create scenarios and act based on them. By attending this program, you will be able to:
- Apply analytical frameworks to decisions when variables are uncertain and long-range
- Learn critical analysis of the limits of the tools in interpreting the competitive environment
- Apply theoretical and practical experience using methods of strategic foresight, including the ability to select among the toolkit options
- Integrate the tools of strategic foresight into the rest of the business strategy, decision formation, and leadership decision-making process
- Turn strategic foresight perspectives into new initiatives, products, services, and business models
4.5 ECTS credits can be transferred from this program to the Aalto Executive MBA or Aalto MBA program.
The program’s NPS is 75 (2024). The program truly provides a new way of looking at strategy work and teaches practical tools.
Unparalleled in scope and effectiveness, the program combines scientific rigor with practical tools and techniques of strategic foresight.
After the program, you will be skilled in using foresight methods and tools to build and implement a continuous foresight-based strategy process.
Benefits
This program illustrates, with real-world examples, group work, and guest speakers, how to develop a foresight perspective to make better strategic decisions. Your organization’s strategy will become a continuous process instead of a static document by using foresight tools and scenarios.
For
The Strategic Foresight in Business Management program is designed for senior executives and managers responsible for strategic decision-making and direction-setting in their company, business, or division.
It is also relevant for
- Leaders who need approaches and tools that help them understand industry change and future operating conditions and how to transfer these insights into creating winning strategies
- Management consultants or those with an interest in strategic planning or business adaptation to market change
Contents and Schedule
The program combines the latest academic knowledge on foresight-based strategy work and its practices with real-world examples and experiences of forerunner companies in the field. It is designed to give you a holistic approach to foresight-based strategy work and to equip you with the skills, tools, and courage to put strategic foresight into practice.
The program incorporates interactive workshop-style lectures, group work, and guest speakers, blending analytical models with worked examples and real-world situations. Based on theory, it is decidedly pragmatic in style and approach, selecting the best materials and solutions from both academic and business sources.
Schedule
Strategic Foresight Takes More than Artificial Intelligence
Strategic foresight helps organizations to see not only risks but also the business opportunities that lie ahead. The key is ensuring that scenario work does not become a detached entity but that it actually informs decision-making,” say foresight experts Eeva Vilkkumaa and Johannes Koponen.
Instructors
Johannes Koponen
Johannes Koponen is a PhD researcher at the University of Helsinki.
Koponen is an accomplished professional with a strong background in future research, platform business model innovation, and scenario-based methodologies.
Currently, Koponen is leading the development of Konsensus.me, a cutting-edge peer prediction platform he founded. The platform is designed to enable organizations to make well-informed, long-term decisions. His work also encompasses researching institutional constraints that hinder society from fully harnessing the potential of digital platforms.
Koponen earned his M.Sc. (Tech.) in Knowledge Intensive Business from Aalto University. He has a comprehensive understanding of communication and media research, futures studies, and product and service innovation. Koponen is pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Helsinki's Faculty of Communication, where his thesis focuses on the future of media business models.
Eeva Vilkkumaa
Eeva Vilkkumaa is an Assistant Professor of Management Science in the Department of Information and Service Economy at Aalto University.
Professor Vilkkumaa is an expert in modeling uncertainties and developing mathematical models to support decision making and resource allocation at companies and public organizations.
