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Foresight in the age of chaos
“If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.” – David Bowie
What a year. I am guessing most of you will agree that this was a year like no other, and are wondering whether we should expect this to become the new norm. You might also be wondering why we have started our holiday newsletter with a quote from David Bowie.
I recently watched “Moonage Daydream”, a film documentary on David Bowie, one of my favorite artists. He was obsessed with the idea of chaos, and with the realization that we all like to think of our lives in a structured and linear way but, using an old saying, “life is what happens while you are busy planning.” He believed that only when we accept and embrace this truth are we able to live our lives at our best.
“Trend breaks” are here to stay, the world is too connected, anything happening anywhere generates shockwaves that impact people in the opposite side of our planet, from a global pandemic to a conflict in east Europe: navigating in white waters is the norm.
So, here is my answer to both questions: yes, we believe that we are living the new norm, and we at Foresight feel that this is an opportunity to do something exciting in the world of analytics. Advanced analytics on historical trends to support brand decisions are inadequate at best, and new fresh approaches are needed, that place more importance on structure and causality.
Our clients have embraced this new reality. A big THANK YOU to them for allowing us to look at their data differently and design new approaches that deliver true foresight for winning brand strategies. How did we do this? By designing new frameworks that reflect this new reality, by building custom approaches that make these frameworks agile and actionable, and by applying processes that allow us to embed the “human algorithm” at every step of the journey.
Seeing the FIFA world cup and knowing that we have played a small role in the way The Coca-Cola Company has approached this traditional, yet this year so non-traditional, event is just one example of what gets us excited and honored to be entrusted by leaders behind many global brands.
Talking about excitement, we are pleased to introduce Mariah Marr, Andrew VanCraenenbroek , and Allison Burnett. Mariah and Allison join our consulting team as Associates and Andrew joins as a Business Analyst. And we are equally excited to celebrate our team, that has worked so hard this year to deliver great work, in our featured employee section.
To them, to our clients, to our followers, thank you: you are just about in the right place to do something exciting.
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Disclaimer: 4 people were photoshopped in the picture. I was one of them, out for covid (talking about embracing chaos), another one is Jeff Hunter, board director (he asked to use a picture of Brad Pitt, sorry Jeff but no..). Can you find out who are the other two? 😊
PS: wish you all, and your families, peaceful and happy holidays, and a real break from this new chaos.
Vittorio Raimondi
Managing Director, Foresight Associates LLC
Bonus holiday trivia: which Foresight team member recently recorded and released this Christmas song on Spotify?