Trend Management
Our Trend management Loop
-
1Focal issueDefine the area of focus.
-
2SignalsScan data bases and knowledge.
-
3PatternsAggregate signals to patterns.
-
4TrendsDefine trends with impacts.
-
5ClusterAnalyze clusters and related trends.
-
6EvaluateRate and assess trends with experts.
-
7MonitoringObserve and assess developments.
-
8TransferResults and strategic implications.
What is trend management?
Trend management is based on a process-driven approach and monitoring that enables organisations to recognise relevant technological and social trends as early as possible and integrate them into their processes. Organisations implementing trend management have better trend knowledge that enables them to continuously identify changes to trends, to evaluate the resulting opportunities and risks of these and to derive specific recommendations to keep on top of their strategic orientation, as well as their operations and market environment. A trend radar that enables the continuous recording, analysis and systematic integration into the organisation's processes allows you to keep on top of potentials and risks at all levels of the business. Our world is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable with enormous changes sweeping through society, technology, and markets.
Over the past decade, analysing trends has developed into a common practice to better anticipate future developments and impacts. It is important to recognise, understand and use them in time. Trend management is a systematic approach to the analysis and monitoring of important developments that enables organisations to recognise relevant technological and social trends as early as possible and to capitalise on new opportunities early. The direction and impacts of trends can change quickly, making it increasingly difficult to obtain a reliable picture of the future. A systematic approach to trend management that is integrated into your organisation’s processes allows you to discern the signs of the times early and to uncover opportunities and risks relevant to the environment you operate in.
Systematic trend management
Trendradar
The Foresight Strategy Cockpit Trend Management Module
THE IDEA: DATA AND PEOPLE DRIVEN
We believe that the core of each trend management process is the interaction between people and data. In today’s organizations, a diverse expertise is essential to finding new signals and combining future impacts with strategic implications. However, the term expert has often been too narrowly defined. For holistic trend management, every individual unit of an organization has insights to share and more importantly data to back them up with. Instead of working in data silos, data and expertise have to be shared and systematically aggregated. Thus, we have developed a software and data-driven concept - the trend management Loop, with places the Foresight Strategy Cockpit front and center.
COLLABORATIVE TREND MANAGEMENT
With the FSC, the amount of coordination and programs needed to manage trends and signals are reduced to one. Through a holistic aggregation of internal information, external expert knowledge and data-driven insights, every unit can collectively contribute to the assessment of relevant trends and their developments. All insights created can be exported as ready-to-use reports just by the click of a button.
Trend radar
Our Trend Radar is a powerful and highly customizable form of visualization where each trend is ordered in relation to a central criterion such as time frame, impact or uncertainty. Using the time axis below the radar, trends over time can be easily monitored.
DATA-DRIVEN SCOUTING & MONITORING
Besides people-driven knowledge, data is the backbone of each trend management process. The FSC gives access to indicators and media analysis to monitor country-specific trends in real-time. With our data-driven environmental scanning, new signals or market developments can be detected via our own Browser Add-On integrated in the FSC.
Our values in short
-
Collaborative Trend Management
-
Trend-Monitoring in real-time
-
Browser Add-on and App for faster integration of relevant pieces of information
-
Automated Reporting functions for fast communication
-
Fully supported and trained by our Foresight experts
FSC Modules
Through strategic foresight methods such as Trend Management and Scenario Construction, we can reduce the complexity and uncertainty of a rapidly changing globalized world.
Fact Sheet
-
All-in-one Foresight platform for unlimited users
-
Modular and web-based system
-
Combines qualitative and quantitative data
-
Various data visualizations
-
Real-time data and expert integration
-
Online team collaboration
-
State-of-the-art technology and security standards
-
Supports teams of futurists and scouts for future knowledge aggregation
Overview of all Methods
-
Reduce the amount of coordination and programs needed to manage trends and signals to a single software solution. Through a holistic aggregation of internal information, external expert knowledge and data-driven insights, every unit can collectively contribute to the assessment of relevant trends and their developments.
Summary
Analysing trends has become the norm when it comes to anticipating and preparing for the future. In today's world, understanding trends can make the difference between success and failure for companies – it’s vital to recognise potential risks and opportunities a trend can bring about early.
Keeping abreast of the times is vital for the ability to assess ongoing developments as accurately as possible. This is no easy task however: We need to acknowledge that established procedures to keep up with the change of important developments are becoming increasingly unreliable. As the pace of change accelerates stability and continuity are slowly turning into concepts of the past and challenge our ability to recognise changes early.
This is largely due to the fact that new megatrends and technological developments emerge in a plethora of domains. At the same time the impacts and complexities of factors shaping these developments are increasing which poses a challenge to our ability to anticipate changes.
As we learn about these developments, we must be prepared to adapt to a continuously changing environment in which they unfold. Yesterday’s reliable insight can quickly turn into tomorrow’s risk factor. It is thus increasingly difficult for organisations to clearly discern a trend’s potential risks and benefits in advance. Previously established methods have reached their limits to obtain a reliable picture of the future.
To provide organisations with a tool to better deal with these challenges we have developed our trend management module: This enables you to record and analyse trends, to enrich them with internal information, external expert knowledge and data-driven insights, and to perform a continuous monitoring and strategic integration of the results into your organisation’s processes.
The FORESIGHT STRATEGY COCKPIT (FSC) provides a platform to systematically analyse trends and the potential risks and opportunities they might pose at all levels of the organisation. The FSC can easily be integrated with your organisation’s existing processes reducing coordination efforts and enabling your organisation to successfully conduct future-oriented trend management.
Speak to our experts to learn more about how trend management can be applied to your context.
Frequently asked questions and answers
Trend management software is a digital tool that assists companies and organizations in systematically capturing, analyzing, and evaluating relevant trends and developments in their respective market or field. With this software, users can capture and analyze large amounts of data from various sources to identify changes and new opportunities early on. 4strat's trend management software is specifically designed to provide strategic insights into the future and predictions based on robust data analysis.
Our trend management software, the Foresight Strategy Cockpit (FSC), provides a comprehensive solution for reducing coordination and program effort. It enables holistic aggregation of internal information, external expert knowledge, and data-driven insights. This allows all organizational units to efficiently contribute to the evaluation of relevant trends and their developments.
With our software, you can choose between different types of visualizations and export results as a finished document with the click of a button. This facilitates systematic trend management and keeps you constantly up to date.
The Foresight Strategy Cockpit integrates all aspects of our approach into a web-based analysis support system. It allows users to integrate their knowledge, share it, and evaluate developments. Additionally, it includes an indicator and trend database, as well as access to real-time media analysis.
Our Foresight Strategy Cockpit significantly reduces the coordination and time required for managing trends and signals. By holistically consolidating various sources of information, every team member can contribute collectively to evaluating relevant trends. Furthermore, all insights gained can be easily exported as reports to foster a collaborative working environment.
Yes, our FSC provides access to indicators and media analyses, allowing you to track country-specific trends in real-time. The data-driven environmental scanning also enables the early detection of new signals or market developments.
Trend management is a systematic approach to the analysis and monitoring of important developments that enables organisations to recognise relevant technological and social trends as early as possible and to capitalise on new opportunities promptly.
The direction and impacts of trends can change quickly, making it increasingly difficult to obtain a reliable picture of the future. A systematic approach to trend management that is integrated into your organisation’s processes allows you to discern the signs of the times early and to uncover opportunities relevant to your unique context.
The implementation of trend management processes allows for a holistic consolidation of internal information, external expert knowledge and data-driven insights in your organisation. This provides the basis for an ongoing assessment and monitoring of relevant trends and their development that can be incorporated into daily business practices. At the heart of ongoing trend management activities therefore lies the goal to identify, evaluate and exploit business opportunities.
