We’re hearing the word “foresight” quite a bit today here at the ARF’s Industry Leader Forum. As I’ve noted in a previous post, I think the word is being used in a general way to mean “thinking ahead of the curve” and not in the specific sense used by professionals working in “strategic foresight.” I [...]

One of the futures of market research could be managed crowdsourcing. I’ve been thinking and writing about this idea now for a while and I believe that the model for this market research future exists within a triangle formed by MROCs, closed innovation and design communities like those run by HYVE, and open-ended cooperative solving [...]

I have believed since the late 1990s that there will eventually be a merger of market research with the more future-oriented “strategic foresight”. In fact, you can read my thinking about this here. (See pages 8 and 16.) A new Boston Consulting Group report supports this thesis. You can read it all here. But, I [...]

In the December 2009 edition of Research World, Gwen Ishmael and Michael Richarme give six (6) recommendations for making MROCs work for product innovation. It is worth a read. Summary: 1. Start with a clear purpose in mind. So obvious, but yet so vital considering how infrequently it is done in organizations. 2. Set clear [...]