Future studies is :
A tool for strategic planning
A way to analyze environment and challenges
A way to surface tacit knowledge
Future studies is not :
Precognition
Telling the certain future
Final process of strategy
Future studies is a tool for strategic planning which have been used in large companies and organizations for decades. Most of the needed information is already inside the organization, which makes it possible to use this information also in smaller and medium sized organizations. The key challenge usually is that this information is in a form of tacit knowledge. Therefore, it is not usually seen in those processes which are used to create organizations strategy.
Future studies as tool for strategic planning gives wider understanding as well as gives some idea of futures’ possibilities and threats. This gives a possibility to react faster to otherwise unnoticeable future changes in different kind of environments.