Costanzo, Laura A. (2004) Strategic foresight in a high-speed environment. [in special issue: Coping with the Future: Developing Organizational Foresightfulness] Futures, 36 (2), 219-235. (doi:10.1016/S0016-3287(03)00145-9).
Abstract
This paper explores how a top management team developed strategic foresight and decided to launch an Internet bank in a context of uncertainty about the future take up of e-commerce. For this purpose, a single inductive case study is used. The settings are those of the UK financial services industry, characterised by rapid change, mainly driven by the new technology. The focus of analysis is Sunshine, a stand-alone Internet bank. The study, which is part of a broader project on the management of innovation in financial services, is based on qualitative data captured from semi-structured interviews undertaken with a number of Sunshine’s directors.
The case study reveals that developing strategic foresight is a learning process, which takes place within a broad vision, and enacts the future by a mechanism of probing it through cheap multiple devices. At a more general level, the data suggest that in turbulent environments the retention of the unity of the whole organisational system is a challenging task, particularly when its physical dimensions grow too quickly. In this context, the data suggest that nimbleness, visible and structured processes, extensive communication glued together by a focused and eccentric management team form an important core capability that impacts on the firm’s ability to develop strategic foresight and innovate continuously without falling apart.
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