3 June 2013:

A recent project from Von der Gracht & Stillings (2013) highlights the significance of innovation for sustainable performance of organisations in order to create long-term competitiveness.

The authors introduce the concept of “dynaxity” (the linkage of dynamism and complexity) and organisational need for “dynaxibility” (the ability to deal with the dynaxity). In order to stay flexible and manage uncertainty (“in order to remain competitive in times of high dynaxity”), companies have to constantly re-think, modify and re-design their organisational structures, concepts and methods.

An-innovation-focused-scenario-process-Fig-1

The authors describe the innovation-focused scenario process from Bayer MaterialScience in four stages:

An-innovation-focused-scenario-process-Fig-2

Lessons learned from their project include:
– corporate foresight has to be a continuative and – to some extent – an open process;
– corporate foresight – and in particular scenario processes – are really strong if a multitude of diverse
stakeholders are included;
– the integration of different techniques and approaches makes scenario building powerful; and
– one-third of the project time for a foresight project should be devoted to scenario development, and two-thirds of the time should go into the scenario transfer and application.

Reference:
Von der Gracht, Heiko A. & Stillings, Christopher 2013, “An innovation-focused scenario process: a case from the materials producing industry”, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, May, vol. 80, no. 4, pp. 599–610.

Link to full text article:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162512001394

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