Fostering Foresight: Working at a Strategic Data Consultancy

We at Foresight strive to maintain a laid-back work environment: we have an open-plan office, eat lunch together, and organize weekly team activities. We take the work seriously, but not ourselves. Everyone has an active role in shaping the company culture. Colleagues can work cross-functionally, switch desks and do fun stuff together. 

Our mission is to enable data-driven decisions by designing solutions to answer the most challenging questions – thus helping leaders shape the future of their brands. It might sound like a tall order – we do this through active collaboration with brands to dive deep into existing data to shed light on their ideal consumers, motivations, and drivers. We then take what we find and translate it into insights and actionable commercial elements. 

Lots of decisions need to be made while brands grow, and decision-making is often an art and a science. However, science alone will not give you all the answers – the Foresight Team has developed practical frameworks, processes and tools over time that blend art with science to provide sufficient clarity and confidence to support marketing decisions. 

Our work is similar to that of a strategic marketing agency: we position brands commercially to go from A to B. But how do you get there? That’s a business question that typically comes from upper management. You start answering questions like how many consumers you need to win to get to point B, how you win those consumers, and what you need to focus on. 

At the same time, what we do is very different from the work of a marketing consultancy. We craft a coherent strategy to meet business goals, and while getting the tagline and UVP right is fundamental (and often more qualitative), what the Foresight Team does is more data-driven. We analyze large (existing) data sets, look at what consumers do, what they consume, and why, and apply our proprietary advanced statistical analysis techniques to understand what brands can do to propel their growth. 

We’re proud of our human side – the way we approach things, how we talk about humanizing management consulting, being more real, and cutting the middle man. Our clients very much enjoy the chemistry and camaraderie we offer, and they think about us as an extension of their team and not only as a vendor. We’re proud to be able to bring the caliber of outside-the-box thinking without the overhead structures (and the fees they come with). 

 In a few words, we’re humble, honest, and human. 

If you’re thinking about a career in strategic consulting, here are some skills and traits you will need: 

• Analytically wired: this is fundamental. Our work is dealing with problems – you must be able to structure them, break them down into parts, and start thinking of solutions. 
• Curiosity: this is the second most important trait. Curiosity as an analyst manifests in asking yourself why you’re pushing buttons after you have been pushing them for a while. You have to be able to tell a story and think, ‘What am I expecting to see from this set of data?’ 
• Open comms: don’t be shy to ask questions – it’s how we find answers and truly understand the data and its implications. 
• Team player: in a smaller company, you cannot hide. You need to be able to communicate, manage expectations, and align with people 
• Be real and humble: we take care of each other. Everyone has a personal life and problems they need to solve outside of work, too. 

We’re proud to be based in the Twin Cities and boast a set of office decor showcasing our work with clients through small gifts we received over the years. Some of these are:

• a cool wall clock from Coca-Cola counting down to the 2026 FIFA World Cup 
• antique Jim Beam bottles 
• some Coke brands that only exist in Japan 
• a soccer ball with a letter from Brad Ross, VP Global Sports & Entertainment Marketing and Partnerships at The Coca-Cola Company  
• poster from United Way related to an event for which we landed our analytics on a pro bono basis 

And there’s also a wall-mounted rack for Vittorio’s bike. We always have music on in the office that overlooks the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis. If you’re ever around, visit us – we’d love to show you around the office.