Future-Fit Accelerator: Becoming a future-fit organization

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The world is facing various crises, such as climate change, social inequality, and loss of biodiversity. These crises pose a major challenge for society on their own, but they are also reinforcing each other. Boards are increasingly recognizing these risks, however most companies struggle to see how they can contribute to solving these crises and incorporate positive societal impact in their strategy. To guide companies in their journey to become a force for good, TOSCA and the Erasmus Centre for Energy Transition (ECET) have designed the ‘Future-Fit Accelerator’ program.

Being future-fit as a company goes beyond simply having the ability to adapt to current challenges. It means pioneering a new direction, which requires flexibility and new business models. If you want to accelerate on your transformation journey, it is better not to walk this path alone. In our experience, collaboration with relevant stakeholders, such as government or academic institutes, is essential.

During our round table, Rob van Tulder, emeritus full professor and (co)founder of the Department of Business-Society Management, Malou Kroezen, Managing Director of the Erasmus Center for Energy Transition and Nicolette Loonen and Ulrike de Jong, Founding Partners at TOSCA, discussed why future-fit organizations are needed and what it takes to become a future-fit organization.

Why do we need future-fit organizations?

The world is facing a cascade of crises, from the climate emergency to escalating geopolitical tensions, that together form a perfect storm. 

This turbulent environment is well captured by the VUCA framework:

• Volatility: Rapid unpredictable changes
• Uncertainty: Less reliance on the past
• Complexity: Multiple and interconnected crises
• Ambiguity: Uncertainty about the causes and consequences

All the risks that currently exist are interconnected and affect us all. Organizations that do nothing will see costs increase exponentially. Examples include costs such as reputational damage, operational and insurance damage, and missed growth opportunities.

What is a future-fit organization?

Coping with today’s complex challenges requires companies to evolve into future-fit organizations. These organizations typically embody 7 ‘resilience’ principles:

• The behavior is aligned with a shared vision and purpose
• Up-to-date understanding of an organization’s context
• Ability to absorb, adapt, and effectively respond to change and crises
• Good governance and management
• A good diversity of skills, leadership, knowledge and experience
• Coordination across management disciplines and contributions from technical and scientific expertise
• Effectively managing risks

How can your organization become ‘future-fit’?

To help companies to become future-fit, TOSCA has joined forces with Rob van Tulder and Malou Kroezen to set up a 12-month program, which is endorsed by the UN Global Compact.

This program focuses on:

• Understanding the organization’s starting position via a company scan, identifying the gap between ‘intention’ and ‘realization’
• Overcoming box-ticking tendencies and identifying ‘tipping points’ to surpass
• Capacity building of five employees as change agents: from ‘I can’t’ to ‘we can’
• Strategizing: Moves from ‘risks’ to ‘opportunities’ as the leading frame
• Backcasting: Use real societal needs as strategic ‘north stars’
• Creating a ‘Sustainable Corporate Story’: Start strategizing and invest in vision and purpose, while others are only focusing on ‘compliance’ and being reactive.
• Investing in collaboration within sector/value chain/ecosystem

The program consists of two tracks:

• An in-company track: this track focuses on your own company team, consisting of five change agents
• A learn & share track: we bring teams from all participating companies together.

These two tracks mutually reinforce each other.

Want to know more?

You can watch our recording to get more insights into this program:

Or check our website here:

https://www.futurefitaccelerator.com/

Reach out to us via info@toscatribe.nl to discuss how future-fit your organization is.