The advanced role of corporate foresight in innovation and strategic management - Reflections on practical experiences from the automotive industry

This paper portrays the current state of practice of a corporate foresight unit within a multinational automotive company, working with this task assignment for more than three decades. It describes how the early detection of medium- to long-term developments in the broader business environment, including social and market developments, is integrated into innovation and strategy processes. The purpose of this paper is to give an account of foresight practice in an automotive company that (1) covers the full range of roles and practices of a mature foresight group, (2) describes case examples how such roles and practices are played out in practice and (3) concludes with general recommendations for organizational design and processes. The paper highlights five major fields of foresight practice which encompass strategic issues in different working fields: early detection in new business environments, trend research for the generation of product innovations, prospective evaluation of innovation ideas, exploration and development of new business, and cross-functional dissemination of future-related issues. Practice examples in each field detail features of the integration of foresight in corporate processes. The paper finishes with characterizing the organizational architecture of a mature corporate foresight group, a discussion and overall conclusions.