ABSTRACT
Indecision, n: The chief element of success; ‘for whereas,’ saith Sir Thomas Brewbold, ‘there is but one way to do nothing and divers ways to do something, whereof, to a surety, only one is the right way, it followeth that he who from indecision standeth still hath not so many chances of going astray as he who pusheth forwards’
The Devil’s Dictionary
How and why does foresight in industry differ from its institutional counterpart in the public domain? In this chapter I shall draw extensively on papers I wrote from the 1970s onwards to answer these two questions. All companies practice foresight, and have always done so, though not necessarily as a formal activity conducted by a recognisable ‘department’ shown in its organisation chart. To industry and business, which I shall refer to under the simple word ‘business’, anticipation (or foresight) is the basis of successful continuity and always has been; it is not a newly discovered or optional activity. I make no apology for the sometimes heavy influence of personal experience from nearly 45 years in business and industrial research.
