Hi folks:
We invite you to submit your research to explore the theme of Reshaping capitalism for a sustainable world for the EURAM 21th Conference.
Please join my co-proponents is introducing a special track (T13_10): Strategic foresight for Capitalism 2.0: examining competencies, process and its role in performance.
A Brief Overview of the Special Track:
Strategic Foresight (SF) allows organizations to expand planning horizons to construct future
strategies that satisfy aspirations without compromising performance. While leaders stand ready to
play the critical role in strategy, do they have the competencies and know-how to direct firms into
Capitalism 2.0? SF concepts and capabilities incorporated into strategic and cross-functional action
offer high-efficacy processes and competencies to improve future contextualization.
For leadership, facing widening income gaps, strategic disconnects, failure saturation, regulatory
pressure, and ever-expanding duties owed to more constituents, this topic seeks contributions
furthering theory and practice of SF in navigate paradoxes in perspective linking performance over
time.
My Co-Proponents on this Special Track:
Candice Chow, DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University
Jonathan Calof, Telfer School of Business, University of Ottawa
Andy Hines, University of Houston
Eva Hideg, Corvinus University of Budapest
Bill Irwin, Huron University College (Western)
Judit Gaspar, Department of Decision Sciences, Institute of Business Economics, Corvinus University of Budapest.
Strategic Foresight for Capitalism 2.0
Capitalism 2.0 signals a growing need for business and society to contemplate future wealth
generation, a rethinking sometimes called conscious or enlightened capitalism. Emphasizing
ecological and societal relationships, sustainable enterprises seem poised to assume obligation for
value creation beyond profit maximization. Leaders need the deeper and nuanced contextualization
of Strategic Foresight (SF) to contribute meaningfully. In Capitalism 2.0, what will innovative
ownership and corporate structures look like? Is it possible to minimizing tax and harm, while
improving employees' lives? How does a growth worldview impact consumerism in a future of work
absent employees? Do Western societies look to the east to redefine liberties? Is capital
democratized? Is it Hunger Games-esque? What is the role for institutions and open technologies,
and corresponding impacts on sovereignty? Cleptocracy 2.0 anyone? Management should be
fluent in SF to challenge status quo thinking, ultimately imbedding SF in structure. Combining trend
insights, deep data, and unique approaches to envision future states, SF is cross-functional and
relies on practitioner perceptions to inform myriad future complexities.
If as Day and Schoemaker (2008) contend, it is true that just 23% of CEOs undertake scanning for
weak signals indicating embryonic events - precursors of possible futures how can leader's rely on
soundness of future perspectives when ignoring probabilities, plausibility and desirability? Without
utilizing SF in planning, it seems contiguous that directors, governments, lobbyists, activists, and
others would fair no better when expunging quasi-fiduciary responsibilities to broader society. SF
proficiency could therefore be influential in organizational performance and improving future
readiness, or what Miller (2007) term Futures Literacy within otherwise opaque contexts.
Manifesting Capitalism 2.0 might be tough. Rasmussen et al (2010) remind leaders that the inherent
transdisciplinarity of future thinking can be challenging. Unlike employees who can remain
functional experts or outright disengaged citizens, management serves performance in its beyondprofit
sense and are increasingly expected to consider interests of broader stakeholders. Since
organizations must respond to new realities to remain competitive, then future trends, market
movements and anticipatory mindset are key determinants of competitiveness. A growing
disconnect seems to exist between management's comprehension of contexts and that demanded
for success - trends, technologies, business models and complexity are growing faster than
management's ability to keep up. SF can step in to offer better vantage points to possible futures,
and help leaders shape Capitalism 2.0 and their organization's place therein.
Best,
Jan
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Jan Klakurka
Chair, Department of Management and Organizational Studies
Huron University @ Western University
London, Ontario
519-438-7224 ext. 263 or 289-644-4199
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