Podcast: How to forecast the future and minimise risk to your organisation
Minimising risk by trying to predict the future is the aim of every senior leader, in every organisation – but getting it right can be extremely difficult.
In the latest Melbourne Business School podcast, political scientist and futurist Professor Sohail Inayatullah explains how to best forecast the future through examples from his own client work.
"I've just finished a project with Interpol, and they asked how do we go from reacting to crime to proactively solving it? The answer is we start to predict the changes in organised crime to get ahead of the game, which is a top-level example of how we work to predict the future," he says.
Predicting the future of an organisation, an institution or the government is difficult, but in adapting to changing conditions, business leaders can prepare for it and create a narrative they need to shape it, Professor Inayatullah says.
"Forecasting the future of an organisation is far more difficult for those who don't like uncertainty, but for those who can embrace it to develop scenarios and visions it's a far more exciting possibility."
Professor Inayatullah is a visiting professor at Tamkang University's Graduate Institute of Futures Studies and UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies at the Islamic Science University of Malaysia. He is an associate at Melbourne Business School.
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