| | June 20218CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONBy Marty Resnick & Kevin Gabbard, Gartner Inc. [NYSE: IT]INVENTING THE FUTURE WITH CONTINUOUS FORESIGHTThe threats associated with modern enterprises remaining stagnant and focusing on previously successful business models cannot be understated. The world is fast-changing, and leaders are struggling to keep up much less look ahead for what's next. Furthermore, local, national and global organizations are so intertwined through social, economic, political and technology disruptions, and emerging trends, that it becomes imperative that enterprises work to discern how one single disruption may impact an entire industry. Enterprise Architecture and Technology Innovation Leaders, with direction from the CIO and collaboration from business leaders, should use Continuous Foresight to engage disruption and build the differentiation that will bring their organization into the future. In an age of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) - organizations require leaders with the skills and vision to lead their organizations by continuously inventing the future. Continuous Foresight Continuous Foresight is a new term from Gartner that leverages the best practices of Strategic/Corporate Foresight and Futurism to continuously validate business models and strategies, as well as understand how to adjust, either to make progress and be successful. Gartner's formal definition of Continuous Foresight is a discipline that an organization perpetually uses to gather process and take action about the information on their future business models and operating environments. Ultimately, Continuous Foresight is an organizational mindset. It is not merely a technology, tool, or framework. It is not just about the latest technology hype, and it is not a project that occurs one time. It is about continuously scanning and responding to disruptions that will impact your business and threaten to undo the digital transformation you have worked so hard to achieve. The future isn't linear, and the mindset for how to anticipate and exploit it should not be either. Practitioners of Continuous Foresight must consider levels of uncertainty that become clearer based on using hindsight, insight, and then Foresight to anticipate the impact disruptions will have on the future. The lower the level of uncertainty, the better organizations can not only predict and respond to those disruptions but exploit them towards a preferred future based on business and customer outcomes. Furthermore, Continuous Foresight is a set of practices that organizations use to drive desired results and attain superior positions in markets of the future and achieve real digital transformation. Continuous Foresight is not limited to and should not start with technology. Organizations must start with how an inbound change that is outside of their control is going to affect their organization, positively or negatively, and how they need to respond to those changes. For instance, it is not about how an organization implements artificial intelligence (AI) and why, but more about how AI will impact business models in the future and how to respond or exploit it.
< Page 7 | Page 9 >