Having a strategy for the future isn’t futurism.
The tension that sits between selling a future strategic position and selling value now is not easily fixed.
Everybody understands why the pull of the future is less strong than the current target and the £1 revenue in your pocket is worth more than the £10 you may get next week/ month/ year.
We know that policy, regulation, crisis, competition and discovery affect us. We know it explicitly but, in business, it’s often easier to overlook intuition because of need to get through the to-do list.
This is where the concept of hyperbolic discounting* thrives: the big picture may be interesting but measured against what needs doing next, it’s just abstract.
Despite that, we’d suggest that being informed about how future markets may develop has huge value.
Having a view of emerging consumer trends, developing technology, competitive activity and changes in regulatory landscapes can significantly improve today’s decision making: how to promote, how to communicate with the target audience, who the target audience is and how to manoeuvre to your next market position – what the next market position needs to be.
Strategy based on data specifically analysed to meet your need is a newly accurate science and it doesn’t rely entirely on history.
And so, having a strategy for the future isn’t futurism.
Doing what is necessary and doing what is right aren’t always mutually exclusive. It’s just a matter of timing.
We’ve put together an example of how we see a market segment in a downloadable infographic. This one looks at the consumer health market but we have others.
[button link=”https://share.hsforms.com/1TNCLUcsyQtqcFpLPxty7rg2xevn” type=”big” newwindow=”yes”] Download our free infographic[/button]
*Hyperbolic discounting – the tendency for people to choose a smaller reward sooner over a larger reward later.
Future thinking. Future-proofing. It’s what we do.