IDEALIST Results in Action is a new eight-part series exploring the project’s practical tools, methods and collaboration formats from an SME perspective, across four areas: Strategic Foresight, Technology Uptake, Supply Chain Resilience, and Collaboration & Networking.
The series is also being published on the IDEALIST LinkedIn page, where each result is introduced through a practical question for SMEs.
We start with the first question:
How can SMEs anticipate disruption before it happens?
Supply shortages, new technologies, regulatory changes and shifting markets can affect SMEs faster than expected. Not every disruption can be predicted, but companies can become better at spotting signals of change, understanding what is driving them and preparing earlier.
This is the purpose of IDEALIST’s strategic foresight work.
The project developed and applied a practical foresight approach combining three main resources: the Foresight Process Guidelines, the Foresight Toolbox and Driver Mapping across the Aerospace & Defence, Energy-Intensive Industries, and Mobility, Transport & Automotive ecosystems.
The Toolbox translates Horizon Scanning into a practical process: collecting information, interpreting and filtering it, making sense of signals and drivers, communicating the results and using them to support strategic discussion and decision-making.
For SMEs, the value lies in asking the right questions early enough:
What is changing around our business? Which signals deserve attention? What could affect us next?
The Driver Mapping work complements this process by identifying influential forces of change and potential disruptions across IDEALIST’s three industrial ecosystems.
How can SMEs and clusters use these results?
The resources can support strategy sessions, Horizon Scanning workshops and discussions on future risks and opportunities. Clusters can also use the methodology to facilitate foresight activities with their member companies.
Beyond IDEALIST: how this result can continue
The Guidelines and Toolbox can continue to be reused after the project in SME workshops, advisory services and strategic planning activities. The methodology itself is reusable, while driver and disruption intelligence will need periodic updating as technologies, markets and external conditions change.
Discover how to run a strategic foresight workshop on our website dedicated page.
Explore the IDEALIST strategic foresight resources
Foresight Process Guidelines: [download now]
Foresight Toolbox: [download now]
Driver Mapping and ecosystem disruption intelligence: [download now]
For further information, contact info@idealist-project.eu