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179
9
Circles of Impression: External Foresight
in Global Enterprises
Magnus Boman and Tobias Heger
Introduction
is chapter analyzes the impact of corporate foresight by means of its
circles of impression, from top management and outward at varying dis-
tances from the management board. e concept of circles of impression
includes processes of communication, and the inuence of this commu-
nication to impact change, and is demonstrated to be useful and possible
© e Author(s) 2019
D. A. Schreiber and Z. L. Berge (eds.), Futures inking and Organizational Policy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94923-9_9
M. Boman (*)
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Kista, Sweden
e-mail: magnus.boman@ri.se
M. Boman
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS),
Stockholm, Sweden
T. Heger
Rohrbeck Heger GmbH, Berlin, Germany
T. Heger
Chair of Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (IME), University of
Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
180 M. Boman and T. Heger
to apply to a wide target class, including strategic and networked foresight
eorts. e comparative study described in this chapter focuses on two
global enterprises: a traditional provider to the mobile industry market,
and a nonprot non-governmental organization (NGO) which provides
disaster relief, education, and medical support worldwide. e corporate
organization in this study went through a phase of substantial growth in
the early 2000s. Currently, however, margins from provision have steadily
decreased in the last decade. Increasing demand for new growth elds and
protability has led this company to implement fundamental organiza-
tional changes. As part of these changes, the CEO commissioned external
independent foresight studies to complement internal foresight activities
in mid-2016, with the aim of detecting new opportunities and opposing
or validating ongoing innovation activities. e corporate foresight study
in this case chapter represents one of those eorts.
e corporate foresight study described here was conducted at the begin-
ning of 2017. e company had previously partnered in an ambitious
networked foresight eort that we ran between 2011 and 2015 (Heger
and Boman 2015). rough a series of workshops and online collabora-
tion eorts, technical foresight reports were regularly distributed to inter-
nal foresighters at the company, as well as, to their counterparts at other
large global enterprises in the partner network. Annual foresight reports
were also shared at large industry congresses like the Mobile World Congress
and CeBIT. At the company, management representatives told us that the
termination of our foresight output in previous years created a small but
noticeable vacuum, leading to the project at hand (Boman 2016).
e second part of the comparative study to be reported on here
relates to assisting a large global nonprot NGO prepare for the future.
More specically, a future volunteer procurement procedure, in which a
tool for internal communication would support further future prepar-
edness, and once acquired a related goal was to support the organiza-
tion by proactively considering the eects of organizational change that
employment of such a tool may bring. Hence, a foresight eort com-
menced and within a year a detailed report was delivered with advice for
the procurement procedure and supportive communication tool.
e nonprot organization is cell-based, headquartered in Sweden, with
signicant autonomy given to each cell. It was decided to ground the study
in one cell, selected by the main stakeholder for its well-functioning activity
9 Circles of Impression: External Foresight in Global Enterprises 181
and high appreciation among sta and volunteers alike. e primary ques-
tion focused on how to keep good volunteers to remain active, and weaker
volunteers to depart, a well-known problem for all NGOs (Drucker 1992).
e main stakeholder in the NGO case was the management mem-
ber responsible for all national volunteer work in the organization. A
second interested party included an IT-person and others, but as the
work progressed, current and future volunteer engagement became the
center-point of the study. A classic quote of relevance from the literature
study is: “e idea of citizen participation is a little like eating spinach:
no one is against it in principle because it is good for you” (Arnstein
1969, p. 216). e cell was a school homework support center in a
Stockholm suburb. We report here chiey on the work relevant to the
foresight aspects, but in order to grasp application at the organizational
level, it is instructive to inspect the organizational roles in the cell at
hand, which we do below in the comparative analysis.
Method
e mode of both foresight activities was top-down, which is shown in
the literature as common practice (Becker 2002). In each situation, the
objectives were dened in advance by top management at the organiza-
tion. For the industrial case, four areas were scoped from the company
side, including a foresight time scale for point of entry (PoE). ree of
the four areas are focused on: media, networks, and industries with PoE
of 0–3 years, 3–5 years, and 5+ years.
For the NGO case, the suggestion was made to use one particular
volunteer site as a lens to view the entire organization. is suggestion
came from top management, who also led the work on the future pro-
curement, which our foresight study was meant to assist. e timeframe
was to furnish procurement procedure within a year.
e rst study is an example of an outside-in approach to corporate
foresight to complement internal foresight eorts. Its intention matches
Rohrbeck and Gemünden’s (2011) three roles of corporate foresight: strat-
egist, initiator, opponent, and a fourth one that we dub validator. e
former three roles were identied to describe the contributions of cor-
porate foresight to increase the innovation capability of a company that,
182 M. Boman and T. Heger
respectively, explores new business elds, increases the number of innova-
tion concepts and ideas, and challenges innovation projects to increase the
quality of their output (Rohrbeck and Gemünden 2011). We add the val-
idator role to this based on a decade of practical experiences in foresight.
We have observed that companies have a tendency to seek external valida-
tion for their own analyses, partly to actually validate ndings and partly
to motivate decisions ex post, should they fail to deliver results as promised
subsequently. It is thus a role primarily observable for outside-in foresight.
Within the rst case, further dierentiated foresight activities
occurred along the following processes: (1) perceiving, (2) prospecting,
and (3) probing. Perceiving describes scanning the environment, detec-
tion of signals of future change, and connecting seemingly unrelated
developments from diverse elds. Prospecting describes the interpreta-
tive step of understanding change and its potential impact, identifying
relevant developments, and identifying a range of possible reactions.
Finally, probing is about triggering action such as exploring new busi-
ness elds or pursuing new strategies. e foresight study at hand in the
case of the multinational corporation was clearly targeted at the perceiv-
ing stage of foresight. e company also sports a culture that includes a
readiness to listen to external sources, and a willingness to test and chal-
lenge basic assumptions (Rohrbeck 2011, pp. 111–112).
For detecting relevant change in the required elds above, a mixed
sources approach was used including: conference and congress visits,
visits at peer and related companies, interviews with experts, informa-
tion from scientic, closed, and public databases, observations of (and
insights from) daily routines and work in relevance industries, and
closed professional mailing lists, usable under the Chatham House rule.
e use of databases and human experts were deliberate, to ensure
both broad and deep scanning. While database-based methods enable
ecient broad scanning, humans are able to understand and translate
related concepts, and to adapt their terminology to match the current
discourse and enhance the understanding of selected topics eectively
(Rohrbeck 2013). Further, multiple discussion-rounds, following the
Futures Wheel method, were used to deduct implications of identied
developments, including impact developing over multiple hops (Glenn
2009). e study was intentionally carried out independently, not only
with respect to internal foresight eorts, but also in that no company
9 Circles of Impression: External Foresight in Global Enterprises 183
sta was directly involved. A brief alignment meeting with company
representatives was held mid-term to ensure that the study underway
shows possible signicant impact and novelty. For triangulation, the com-
pany invited another trusted independent consultant with whom they
had a long-lasting relationship. We note that our study was also external
in the sense that we have not enjoyed any long contractual history with
the client: our 2011–2015 foresight assignment was for a third party only.
e second case study was also designed as outside-in, independent,
and without previous professional engagement with this NGO. e
project had its roots in a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) out-
reach activity and utilized websites and social media applications to
engage individuals inside and outside of the organization. e CSR out-
reach method was described in a workshop attended by a dozen com-
puter science experts, after oce hours, and in the spirit of contributing
to improving the value of volunteer help in an area where this particular
NGO had limited experience and expertise.
Results: Industrial Case
is section provides in detail parts of the corporate foresight study and
comments on the remainder in general terms, for the sake of brevity.
Furthermore, as several trends may now be considered applicable, we
chose to detail only one of them here, respecting the proprietary nature
of the full account. is account provides ample information to detail
the work process, since additional trends follow the exact same report-
ing structure and were scouted analogously and in tandem. Four sep-
arate trends were scouted as part of the original corporate foresight
activity: articial intelligence (AI), computational medicine, the circular
economy, and distributed ledger technology. e trend we have chosen
for the purpose of illustration here is Robust AI; it highlights the ten-
sion between human and machine in the industry at hand. To be robust
includes not only function at industrial scale and in a commercial envi-
ronment, but also to be accepted as a means to augmenting humans
(rather than replacing them, which always prompts company activities
within CSR). It is related to a number of currently intense research
and development (R&D) areas, including cyber-physical systems,
184 M. Boman and T. Heger
Fig. 9.1 Relevance to scoped areas and PoE for Robust AI
mathematical cognition, machine ethics, computational ethics, and
machine learning.
An executive summary included a short explanation of the trend.
From this, the PoE and its relevance to the company scoping are indi-
cated in Fig. 9.1 by means of asterisks, from one (low) to three (high).
A basic description and its associated challenges and solutions are
presented for related activities (Fig. 9.2).
e executive summary report was compact, with only three slides
per trend, but with each slide came a structured knowledge repository
with comments, footnotes (superscripted numbers in Fig. 9.2), and dou-
ble-checked references. All trends were analyzed with respect to social
impact, business potential, and relevant industry impact (Fig. 9.3).
Within this rst case, additionly, one or two examples of value creation
within each trend were scouted and analyzed with respect to innovation
aspect and relevance. Figure 9.4 illustrates the results for Robust AI.
Company Innovation Capability Increase and Impact
of Process
In any corporate foresight that a large company puts trust in, the basis is
the plane of inuence that the company board operates on. For every step
away from the board, the company inuence diminishes in that the com-
pany’s possibility to exert inuence on external factors and events dimin-
ishes. As often happens, the level of uncertainty also grows. Precisely how
many planes of inuence that should be considered as far as impact is
concerned varies with the task at hand, and with the level of ambition of
the foresight activity. We have given examples at four dierent planes.
Figure 9.5 illustrates the inuence cone of corporate foresight and the
circles of impression that are formed by intersecting at various distances
from the base of the cone. It is important to note that as long as the
9 Circles of Impression: External Foresight in Global Enterprises 185
Fig. 9.2 Challenges to and solutions for Robust AI
company’s view of its surrounding world (including its own company)
is correct, the planes will actually cut circles and not ellipses out of its
foresighting cone. e circles of impression thus become a metaphor for
adequately mapping current and future plans onto planes in which the
company has a level of inuence, ranging from almost 100% to negli-
gible. is is only possible if signals are sent undistorted from sources
of less importance and control to the company board. Analogously,
any company management strategy that requires company employees,
186 M. Boman and T. Heger
Fig. 9.3 Analysis of trends with respect to social impact, business potential, and
relevant industry impact
associates, and subcontractors to adapt must be adequately communi-
cated outwards.
e company in the focal case here took the foresight study as input
for new initiatives as well as existing processes, at various distances
from the main stakeholder (i.e., the CEO and the board that he reports
to). Following is a discussion of an example at each distance level.
9 Circles of Impression: External Foresight in Global Enterprises 187
Fig. 9.4 Innovation aspect and general relevance for Robust AI. (The technical
description has been omitted here. The illustration comes from automated rec-
ognition of emotional expressions in the human face.)
e examples are not exhaustive, yet they are indicative of the various
ways in which impact could (and, arguably, should) always be measured
in cases of external foresight activities in large companies.
188 M. Boman and T. Heger
Fig. 9.5 The influence cone of corporate foresight and the circles of impression
that are formed by intersecting at various distances from the base of the cone
Head of Research
e Head of Research was informed of this foresight study, and in
turn, requested presentation of our results. e one-hour presentation
sparked immediate feedback and a vivid discussion, chiey regarding
the current research agenda, which was found largely to be in keep-
ing with the ndings. In particular, Robust AI is being covered in an
expanding part of the Research department at the company. As the
9 Circles of Impression: External Foresight in Global Enterprises 189
Head of Research is connected to Management Board members, this
relates directly to the validator role of external foresight. e external
study supports decisions the Head of Research champions and must
ultimately defend in front of the board. e discussion was a run-
through of all slides that summarized the ndings. e brevity of the
meeting was intentional because of the extensive knowledge the Head
of Research had of both internal and external research into the trends
evaluated (and naturally less so of those chiey classied as Other
Industries). Consequently, all other roles—strategist, initiator, and
opponent—are sought for on this level as well. is represents the sec-
ond innermost circle of impression: management with strategic respon-
sibilities, close to the company board.
Long-Term Research Partner
Another result of scouting trends pointed to the need for more R&D.
In this specic area, the company already had a trusted research partner
actively pursuing research goals at or beyond state-of-the-art. is led
to a request from the company for new collaboration in this area—a
clear-cut example for the initiator role that this study had. When it
comes to Circles of Impression, this is an example from the third circle.
Whereas the innermost two circles represent potential impact within
the organization, the third considers impact outside of the focal organ-
ization within trusted partners. As a result, it appears that the company
at hand values relatively highly its network of trusted partners. In this
example, these were independent researchers that can be collaborated
with on matters of sensitive R&D.
Environment
Finally, another trend indirectly led to a collaboration between the
authors and a representative of company management related to a sci-
entic paper on company Sustainability Development Goals. is
paper was handed out at a roundtable on policy, attended by several
ministers of state from dierent countries, soon after its completion.
190 M. Boman and T. Heger
While technically not an activity directly part of the foresight project,
it can be related to aspects that dene the strategist role of foresight.
Particularly, it can be understood as an attempt to consolidate opinions,
spark discussion, and help create a vision for this particular eld beyond
the focal organization, potentially leading to increasing activity therein.
e company environment represents the fourth circle. While for
all organizations grouped in the third circle, the focal organization has
more or less direct communication line and at least latent relationships,
the fourth circle encompasses everything outside of internal trusted rela-
tionships for which the desire to make a lasting impression is still true.
For this, instruments in the form of meetings, workshops, and round-
tables play a prominent role, as do activities with public appeal. In this
example, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social engagement
were supported in various ways through the policy meeting and the
engagement to which meetings lead.
Results: NGO Case
e results of the foresight project with a global nonprot providing
services worldwide, presents a number of examples of the circles of
impression metaphor in the form of insights, anecdotes, and empirical
observations. Established in 1865, this NGO possesses a unique organ-
izational structure, with close to 100 million people working together
as sta, members, and volunteers. e case presented here covers work
done pro bono in 2015–2016.
e second half of this chapter, studying organizational foresight,
brings to light four related concepts applicable for comparative anal-
ysis: universe of discourse, hypothesis, criteria for choice, and stepped
analysis. In order to proceed properly with this comparative analysis,
however, we must begin with summarizing the results of the work com-
pleted with the NGO. (e nal comparative analysis will be presented
in the Discussion section later.)
Presented as a case of best practice, the support center at the NGO
(i.e., our focus) was indeed found to work well. An engaged and com-
petent leadership facilitated measured growth in center activities and
9 Circles of Impression: External Foresight in Global Enterprises 191
the number of individuals helped. e center coordinator lead had been
there for six years, and in the last two he had been a very active leader,
constantly pushing for improvements and new means to engaging vol-
unteers. Notably, however, the coordinator had not experienced much
horizontal or vertical sharing of information within his own organi-
zation. ere had been only regular contact with groups similar to his
own within the Stockholm region; and most often, this contact was
based on the other organizations’ initiatives.
e center, regardless, was growing exponentially. ere were
900 volunteers on the mailing list, with 392 being active that year.
Approximately 100 other individuals had come only once to volunteer.
e volunteers were organized by almost 30 coordinators, a number that
had grown steadily in recent years. Some volunteers also took on tasks
for which the lead-coordinator had no time (for example, running a
social media page for the center). General tasks involved both online and
on-site activity, and the center had a streamlined structure, which helped
to maximize chances for volunteer engagement (Wisner et al. 2005).
e results of this observational empirical study identied the follow-
ing eleven steps as important to new volunteer engagement:
1. Find a contact address on the NGO webpage, or local poster or
billboard.
2. Click on a link leading to the generic application/screening page.
3. Fill out the application with the volunteer’s personal information.
4. Receive an automated verication email. (e email stated it may
take up to two weeks to process, however, we received a personal
answer from the lead-coordinator the same day.)
5. Read through all the information about the organization, for exam-
ple, what is expected as a volunteer, how to get there, etc.
6. Sign up as a helper, on one or several occasions, on the center’s
schedule page.
7. Arrive at the center and engage in a short introduction from one of
the coordinators (if this is your rst time).
8. Tick your name o on a list of all volunteers signed up for that
date.
192 M. Boman and T. Heger
9. Get matched with an individual to help based on your preferred
subject/competence and the needs of the individual in the queue
awaiting assistance.
10. Begin helping the individual with whom you are matched.
11. Attend a wrap-up for volunteers 15 minutes before the end of the
session, in which the volunteers share their background, what they
might have experienced during that day, and their general reections.
e individuals who were assisted by volunteers at the center were also
interviewed, as were the general coordinators, lead-coordinator, and vol-
unteer helpers. e sta generally are nonpaid workers, and tend to be
members of the NGO. ese interviews elicited comments and situated
knowledge. ree primary conclusions from the observational study
surfaced:
• Peer-to-peer slow and careful internal information spread appeared to
be the most eective option for leveraging the best practice of the
center, and mechanisms to make this happen were suggested.
• It became important to avoid introducing any new technical solu-
tions to the center’s current use of information and communications
technology (ICT) while sta and volunteers were interacting with
individuals needing assistance (as this may disrupt the process).
• To export the best practice to a small town with dierent demo-
graphics and social networks, is a considerable challenge, as volun-
teers in a small town are most likely in need of support from peers,
as well as, from the NGO itself. And the life-cycle is also likely to be
shorter, in that a small center might start up, serve its purpose, and
then cease. is appears to be normal and expected.
e conclusions above, in turn, prompted a number of organizational
questions (listed below):
• Would an existing and frequently used intranet at the NGO (thus
far used only for administrative purposes) be a resource by which to
alleviate the burden of the situation, and is adding personalization to
it enough of a motivator to engage its users?
9 Circles of Impression: External Foresight in Global Enterprises 193
• To what extent is the center a success story, to be extrapolated from
and to be inspired by? Can the model be exported from the larger
city areas in Sweden to less populated towns?
• Is it a role of the NGO to provide any cross-functional means to
support collaboration, for example, between and among coordina-
tors, making it possible to cross geographical distances? Can the gap
between cities and towns be bridged in this way?
• Is there a simple ICT solution available today that would t the
entire NGO operation? How simple and reliable are such solutions,
and what are the direct and ongoing maintenance costs?
• How does succinct help to the center align with general help to the
broader organization, with a minimum viable product for coordinat-
ing the coordinators, or enabling peer-to-peer coordinator (digital)
collaboration?
In concluding the foresight study with the NGO, two workshops were
conducted—one with the primary stakeholder and a few members of
the organization’s management, and one workshop with lead-coordinators.
e latter followed the format and structure that was employed for ear-
lier foresight work (Heger and Boman 2015), which is also described
for the company of our rst case study here. is fact notwithstanding,
it should be clear by now that the two cases considered are almost as
contextually dierent as two foresight studies can be.
Discussion of Comparative Analysis
In a nonprot nongovernmental organization, the management and
board structure are often dierent from that in a commercial com-
pany (Farmer and Fedor 2001). e primary stakeholder in innova-
tive projects such as foresight studies, however, are often quite similar
in position and role. For example, the stakeholder reported to in the
NGO case was again in upper management (similar to the individual
described in the corporate case here). His responsibility (in the rst cir-
cle) was to coordinate the cells and their lead coordinators (second cir-
cle). e lead coordinators were “coordinating the coordinators” (which
194 M. Boman and T. Heger
constitutes the third circle). In turn, the coordinators managed the
volunteers (fourth circle). Although the two organizations considered
in this comparative study are decidedly dierent with respect to prot
concerns, they exist similarly in an ecosystem of policymakers, media, as
well as, employees and shareholders (stocks/membership). e respec-
tive managements also share the problem of communicating future
considerations top down, often using multimodal channels that are
less than optimal for the purpose. (For instance, a proposal for a new
intranet might be disseminated via an email to all employees, a less than
ideal modality.)
To continue the analysis, four concepts were identied as a unifying
framework for review of foresight in both the corporate and nonprot
organizations studied here. ese phenomena or processes include: uni-
verse of discourse, hypothesis, criteria for choice, and stepped analysis.
Universe of Discourse
All organizations support communication through a range of objects,
events, attributes, verbiage, relationships, etc. is phenomenon denes
the Universe of Discourse (UoD). In both studies, UoD was established
in close cooperation with the main stakeholders. e UoD in the NGO
case, however, was supported by the direct observations made (see
Fig. 9.6).1
e term Circles of Impression is novel, and as a related concept, had
to be aligned to standard concepts for this comparative study. e
standard term used here was Stakeholder. A simple lexicon was created
also for term pairs like Company Board—NGO Board.
Hypothesis
e research hypothesis for the comparative study is that the Circles of
Impression metaphor is generalizable to a spectrum of organizations, as
represented here by a completely commercial multinational enterprise
and a nonprot, non-governmental organization (NGO) working glob-
ally to provide free services.
9 Circles of Impression: External Foresight in Global Enterprises 195
Fig. 9.6 Conceptual model of information flow in the volunteer facility organ-
ized by the global NGO. (Translated from Swedish.)
Criteria for Choice
e grounds for this comparison study lie in the lexicon of the organ-
ization, as well as, with the main stakeholder in each organization.
Both individuals, with organizational support, wanted to understand
the future pertaining to daily tasks, and how to secure success in the
future, considering ongoing challenges to their respective endeavors.
ere are two primary, yet somewhat opposing, organizational missions
here, however. e NGO embraces an altruistic perspective in help-
ing individuals and society, and the for-prot commercial operation
focuses on scal prots. is provides motivation to utilize the Circles
of Impression metaphor to study foresight in organizations with starkly
diverse missions.
196 M. Boman and T. Heger
Stepped Analysis
Stepped analysis implies sequential review over time. In the NGO case,
to picture the entire information ow via the lens of a particular and
successful cell in the organization was necessary to establish a common
ground with all of the coordinators of volunteers. It thus made sense to
present the conceptual model developed (see Fig. 9.6) with a follow-up
workshop in which the main stakeholder also participated with the
coordinators of volunteers. A lexicon by which to communicate results
was in this way not only established, but accepted among the very peo-
ple modeled, as a result of the observational study.
In the corporate industrial case, the lexicon terms had to be provided
much more formally and independently, by means of ocial material
from the company (i.e., marketing material). Meetings with the stake-
holder were both formal and informal, however, meeting notes were
used to provide feedback rather than the clearly dened entity types and
data types used during the NGO case follow-up.
Another dierence between the two cases related to the level of sensi-
tivity of the data at hand. While the NGO case was open to broad discus-
sions across the organization, the industry case was kept quiet, so much
so that the foresight study was carried out in secret. A year after comple-
tion of the industrial case, only a handful of people have seen the results.
Challenges facing all foresight studies involving stepped analysis
include access to information regarding possible related trends. In the
NGO case, this posed less of a problem because reviews existed primar-
ily within the organization itself, with a focus on internal transitioning
of processes to ones better aligned with meeting future challenges. e
industrial foresight case, however, required looking at possible trends
from other competing companies. e end result for the industrial case
in this study may then be for its organization to transition in part by
changing its own structure and functions. is would then mean hiring
new sta, learning new technologies, starting new projects, renaming
and changing short-term targets, and more, in order to more fully adapt
to that which the foresight study highlighted and recommended.
is nal point—the dierence in scope of trend analysis for the
two organizations studied—may result in some readers thinking that
9 Circles of Impression: External Foresight in Global Enterprises 197
a comparison of apples and oranges was conducted, at least in the quan-
titative parts of the discussion. is possibility notwithstanding, a benet
occurred; and this benet was that of hindsight. e study engaged in analy-
sis by zooming in and out, encompassing circles of impression from varying
angles. With greater analysis of each circle, study began to nd additional
similarities. One such similarity was how the perspectives could be distorted
when viewed from the side, in the sense of a tilted view (see Fig. 9.5).
Along these lines, both of the cases in this comparative study could
then be coded for either bias or lack of privilege. Bias reects a con-
scious choice to look at a company problem from a certain perspec-
tive, with foresight being used to identify criteria that simply supports
a predetermined decision. For the NGO in this study, this could mean
that the upcoming procurement of software for organization communi-
cation may have already been tilted toward a favored provider of such
software, for instance. Regarding the corporate organization in this
study, another concept—the lack of privilege—may result, for politi-
cal or managerial reasons, that only some members of a company are
allowed to view information that the upper management sees, thus lim-
iting others’ knowledge and possibilities of rational choice.
Conclusion
e impact of independent corporate foresight activities for multi-
national enterprises are rarely reported in the research literature, even
when anecdotal evidence is of some interest. Here, eorts have been
made to describe a process for an outside-in foresight study for both a
global corporate entity and global nonprot organization. e hope is
to complement internal insight in some detail. is study was concep-
tualized with the help of a common model (i.e., the three roles of fore-
sight complemented by a fourth one), and considered for the impact of
its eort and contribution to the current knowledge base (the latter by
exemplifying, within both corporate and nonprot organizations, cir-
cles of impression at various distances from the most important strategic
functions). Even when particulars may vary with the organizations at
hand, and with the ambition of foresight, the notion and approach are
generalizable to multiple cases.
198 M. Boman and T. Heger
Note
1. All entity types, relations, and data pictured are inside the UoD; the
frame of the picture is thus the frame of reference. Given this informa-
tion model, creating a unied database (in, e.g., SQL), is straightfor-
ward, since all non-lexical objects (i.e., entity types like “coordinator”)
and lexical objects (i.e., data types like STRING) are listed and related
by means of attributes.
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