9 Mar 2005

Business and futures research

http://www.z-punkt.de/english/05zpunkt.htm

Z-punkt GmbH The Foresight Company is a think tank specialised in scientific futures studies - offers framework knowledge to institutions and businesses.

Founded by Klaus Burmeister in 1997.

The Foresight Company is working in an interdisciplinary team of about 15 people, and can draw upon network of experts.

a link, Excerpt of the book by Klaus Burmeister, Andreas Neef, and Bert Beyers
Corporate Foresight pdf

a link, Corporate Foresight: Practical Experience and Results from a German Survey http://www.download.z-punkt.de/cf-prague.pdf
Cornelia Daheim
is Project Manager (for International Research) at Z_punkt GmbH The Foresight Company in Essen, Germany. Z_punkt supports institutions and organizations in long-term strategic planning with futures studies services, and is also active as the German Node of the Millennium Project at the American Council for the United Nations University (http://www.stateofthefuture.org).



How Do We Make Sense of the Future?
Analysis of Futures Research Methodology

By: Mika Aaltonen (Finland Futures Research Centre)
Theodor Barth (SINTEF, Norway)
http://acunu.org/millennium/mppc-0704/FRM-analysis.doc

(From: AC/UNU Millennium Project Finland Node
http://www.acunu.org/millennium/finland.html)

MAKING SENSE OF THE FUTURE, PAST AND PRESENT (Foresight Hindsight Insight)
"Perhaps the biggest challenge any human being or organisation faces, is how to make sense of their lives, and how to find meaning and direction for their activities. Sensemaking happens when sensible, meaningful explanations are built, evidence is extracted and linked to already existing structures, i.e. mental models, historical events, artefacts – or like in the case of this article – with a purposeful use of methods, especially constructed to do so. (March & Olsen 1976, Weick 1995, Porac & Thomas & Baden-Fuller 1989, Hopkinson 2001).

If we are unable to place a piece of information in context, the meaning of that information is lost. The ways we imagine the future, understand the past and come to grips with the present are extremely valuable in providing continuity and direction to our lives. Sensemaking is rooted in time and space, and occurs at the intersection of three horizons: past, present, and future."

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