As leaders, we can all be better about being more prepared for the future, but its something Ive seen many struggle with. Its much easier to analyze the data from today and know what strategies need to occur within the next one to three years. But what about five years from now? How about 10 years? If you find yourself struggling to clearly see what the pathway is for your company to move ahead, differentiate, and be better prepared for trying times, a CFOchief futurist officercan help.

In my opinion, the pandemic will not be the last great accelerator. The rapid adoption of new technology and ever-shifting underlying cultures within the workforce will create future hurdles that can be overcome if you are willing to do the deep thinking or have someone on your leadership team that can think ahead and spot an area you want to either work toward or avoid.

What a certified futurist does is study the patterns from a historical perspective, identify innovations and cultural movements from today, and perform ethnographic research to hear the anecdotal stories around the topic of study. A futurist is then able to translate that data into forecasts that lead to innovative insights and strategies that can help make companies more future prepared and better able to outperform their competitors.

Here are five benefits of hiring a chief futurist officer.

1. BETTER STRATEGIC PLANNING

Futurism is the step needed before strategic planning. A chief futurist officer can guide you to better and more far-reaching, innovative ideas than just solving the problems of today. By working with your chief futurist officer, you can instill new innovative ideas into your strategic plan to be better prepared for the future.

2. DIFFERENTIATION

When I ask most leaders if they want to differentiate themselves in the market in the next five years, almost everyone raises their hand. When I then ask them if they know how to do it, only about half of their hands remain in the air. A chief futurist officer can be your guiding light. With their study of your market, they can identify opportunities for innovations that can scale and be assimilated into your practice, as well as analyze how your competitors might shift over the next decade too.

3. DAILY FORESIGHT

One of the main responsibilities of a chief futurist officer is to scan the horizon for what is happening now in order to know what will come next. This is a daily activity they need to perform themselves and then instill in the company so that it becomes a common and shared practice. This prepares your entire company to be on the lookout for changes that could cause opportunities or weaknesses in the future of the company.

4. STAKEHOLDER INSIGHTS

The two biggest questions I get from leaders center around What do my future clients want? and How can I attract and retain better talent? Working in concert with your human capital resource manager, your chief futurist officer will be able to identify the right people who will not only have culture fit today but culture adaptability for tomorrow. With this same lens, they can analyze what the needs of your clients are today and 10 years from now to help you understand how your product and offerings can pivot.

5. CULTURE ANALYSIS AND TALENT ATTRACTION

The biggest opportunity is to use a chief futurist officer to understand the divide between your perceived culture and the actual lived culture of your workplace and then forecast what a truly successful culture could be. As talent looks for new jobs, culture and experience are likely high on their lists. If you can state what your culture will be in the next 10 years and all the opportunities between now and then, that can serve as a great attractor for the talent you want to hire and retain.

Looking ahead is hard. Your brain is geared to think about your future self as a stranger, but with futurism and a chief futurist officer, they can turn that uncertainty into innovative strategic planning to follow and act on.

Certified FuturistMark Bryan, Director of Innovation & Research at M+A Architects, creates data-driven solutions & future-driven forecasts

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Five benefits of hiring a chief futurist officer