Making Vision a Reality: Translating Foresight into Tangible Outcomes

Earlier this month we published an article, where we discussed the topic of capturing tacit knowledge to create actionable foresight – an essential starting point for shaping business strategies and technology roadmaps. In this publication, we aim to delve into another challenge frequently faced by corporate innovation managers: turning foresight into actions, leading to tangible results, especially within a medium-term timeframe.

At NineSigma, we believe that using the worldwide “collective intelligence” and “collaborative innovation methods” is key to solving complex technical, business and sustainability challenges. Incorporating Open Innovation practices not only enhances strategic planning but also translates foresight into practical and tangible results. By connecting foresight to action, companies can drive innovation and seize emerging opportunities, ensuring sustained success in a rapidly changing business landscape.

As a pioneer in Open Innovation with over 20 years of experience, and a facilitator of two proprietary global open innovation networks (NineSights and Open Innovation Council), NineSigma is uniquely positioned to help companies in building a systematic process to comprehend and monitor innovation activities in the ‘outside world’ and create meaningful, accurate foresight and future strategies.

We help our clients:

1. Gather information about the future needs of their customers beyond their existing customer base
2. Keep a pulse on the rapid development of emerging technologies from outside of their industries that could significantly impact their future
3.  Find truly fresh ideas or new disruption
4. Translate foresight into tangible outcomes

Here we provide one example of how this systematic approach from creating the future vision to shaping it might look like.

1. Obtain broad expert opinions on trends and future consumer needs by engaging directly with experts around the world through the global network Open Innovation Council. Examples of recent studies range from gathering broadly expert opinions on next generation engine technologies, digitalization of manufacturing and healthcare, future of hydrogen utilization and hydrogen carriers for long-distance transportation to future interaction with food or future of dishwashing.
2. Identify future technologies impacting your industry, relying on comprehensive technology landscapes gathered by NineSigma’s technical team, screening through all technology readiness levels, combined with open innovation scouting through NineSights.com to ensure no hidden innovations are missed, including disruptive ideas from other industries.
3. Test market hypotheses with the Open Innovation Council’s proven survey mechanism. Currently it is used by companies daily to test market potential of various sustainable materials, low-dielectric materials for next-generation mobile communications, new-type aerial vehicles, automated microscopy, etc.
4. Accelerate technology development by connecting with external innovators, following the lead of companies like Air Liquide in the decarbonization domain (link), or BMW in the field of future mobility (click here).
5. Bring innovations quickly to the markets to shape future needs by finding piloting and go-to-market partners, as demonstrated by RAIGI a developer of a novel hydrogen storage tanks for small size applications (link) or MATERI’ACT (Forvia Group) a developer of a hemp-fiber containing polypropylene (link).

Let’s use the power of global technological advancements and not be afraid to collaborate to co-create the future we all aspire to live in!