The Evolving Role of a Futurist within an Organization
The role of a futurist in an organization is to foretell the organization’s future and what it desires to achieve following defined procedures. Particularly, to achieve the futurist predictions, the organization has to take given actions (Hines & Gold, 2015). Therefore, it is the futurist role to predict the anticipated future and lay a framework on how to achieve the desired predictions.
History of Futurists within the Organization
Notably, the aspect of futurist dates back in the early twentieth century. In fact, the aspect was resultants of strategic planning that were later used in the World War 1. In fact, futurism and strategic planning have similar traits with brainstorming, although the concepts are not same (Hines & Gold, 2015). Unconsciously, strategic planners have used the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to achieve the sought after results.
Importance of the Futurist Role Today
The concept of futurism is imperative for every organization that needs to survive in the days to come given the ever growing technology advancements. Indeed, the principle was used by scholars and businesspeople who in turn achieved magnanimously in their academic and businesses respectively. In the early years, futurism was seen as a business model for organizations that had complicated ways of carrying out their tasks (Smith, 2015). Therefore, futurism is significant today compared to 20 years ago because the aspect enables organizations to predict their future; hence, steering their organizations to the right direction of success.
How Organizations might use Futurism today
Given the fast growing society, the concept of futurism in any organization is necessary because it enables the firms to survive successfully and remain significant in the market. In essence, the organizations can effectively use a futurist to create methods that encourage and anticipate the desired future of the organization (Andy, 2016). In addition, the futurist can use the historical trends and his/her expertise in the related field to foretell the future; hence, placing the organization in a better position of competitive advantage.