USA +1 (269) 806-4566

USA +1 (269) 806-4566

THE FUTURE OF PACKAGING 

PACKAGING FORESIGHT for your business

For over two decades, leading companies have relied on PTIS and Leading Futurists to guide their strategies and programs, through every three year Future of Packaging consortia, and now with our valued global alliance partners, provide insightful Packaging Foresight that you can use to help guide and grow your business.

Contact us to stay ahead of key drivers and trends impacting packaging.

Brian Wagner
brian@ptisglobal.com
269-806-4566

Leaders Co-create the Future of Packaging

Nov 1, 2021

Harnessing foresight to get to “Good VUCA”
By the Future of Packaging team
Our colleague Mike Richmond of PTIS is a big proponent of the VUCA concept, an acronym that originated in the 1990s U.S. Army War College. It stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, and it’s what we all face in our work in packaging. That’s “Bad VUCA”.
But Mike puts the focus on moving from Bad VUCA to Good VUCA, and we think everyone in the packaging sector can and should be too. Good VUCA is Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility. The tools of foresight are central in moving you there.
Why? It’s all about untangling the things that cause you trouble, finding new meaning, and understanding your best directions forward.
In fact, the stakes are higher than ever. The packaging sector is facing a time of ever more Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.
Packaging executives understandably are focused hard on what to do now, and how to build towards a successful future. But it’s hard to know what decisions will not just avoid problems but will ensure growth and success.
In three decades of our Future of Packaging (FoP) programs, we have advanced the process of taking our sponsors from Bad VUCA to Good VUCA. We are at work now building our next program, which commences in January 2022.
But whether or not you join us (we think you should!), your goal should be to make that bad to good transition.What does it take? Here are the steps to success:

  • Define the landscape you are operating in and will operate in in the near future
  • Create future views—scenarios of that landscape, fleshing out what the future could be, and what you want it to be
  • Don’t assume continuity – Allow yourself to imagine transformational change, since it will be what we need to succeed in the future
  • Be specific about future outcomes, put your organization and what you do in those future views
  • Identify the biggest issues and problems you face
  • Identify the opportunities you have
  • Begin to identify strategic actions you can take to get you to future success
  • Share the thinking and your conclusions widely—bring others into your future view with you

Naturally, we are ready to help.
If you’d like to learn more about the Future of Packaging program and how it can help guide you to good VUCA, don’t hesitate to reach out to John (jbmahaffie@leadingfuturists.biz), Mike (mike@ptisglobal.com), or Todd (todd@ptisglobal.com)
Quotes for our times…

“To create the future, a company must first be capable of imagining it.”– Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad, management theorists, Competing for the Future 1994
“We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” –John W. Gardner (1912-2002), Former United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
“In a world of uncertainty and swift change, what is most prized is a coping mechanism for the unknowable.” –Bernard Boar, (1947-), technology author
“You’ll be sort of surprised what there is to be found once you go beyond ‘Z’ and start poking around!” –Dr. Seuss
Some additional resources:

The Future of Packaging – PTIS and Leading Futurists Collaboration
Since the late 1990s, leading companies from across the packaging value chain have relied on PTIS and Leading Futurists to guide their future-focused strategies, leveraging foresight tools to anticipate change and navigate through uncertain waters. Every three years we offer the Future of Packaging program for a multi-sponsor deep dive into the shape of change for the sector.

Our tools help to assure your packaging is hitting on key global trends and stay ahead of competitors. These services can be delivered live or remotely and include:
  • The Future of Packaging Programs
  • Scenario Planning Programs and Workshops
  • Customized Trends & Insight Workshops
  • Teaching techniques such as Horizon 3 thinking
  • Ongoing future insights newsletter
  • Individual company “Future-proofing” audit of packaging, operations
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