Foresight process in software businesses

Corporate foresight is a value-creation tool that enables companies to survive in a competitive, ever-changing business environment. Foresight can be perceived as a company’s capability to commit to continuous environmental scanning and respond quickly to discovered market threats and opportunities. This paper presents the results from a multiple-case study, in which data was collected through a series of workshops and interviews. Based on the foresight experiment in one company, it is evident that staff can discover meaningful business opportunities for their company via a facilitated workshop series. As a result of this study, the rolling foresight process is presented. Companies must conduct foresight as a continuous activity to i) actively scan the environment, identifying trends in consumer and customer behaviour, industrial trends, disruptions, emerging technologies, competitors, clients’ needs, wild cards and weak signals, ii) interpret the identified signals and find opportunities and threats, and iii) prospect the opportunities and threats and evaluate options for decision-making.