Strategic Futures Compass: a compass for decision-making in a fragmented world

Next week, EMS Éditions is publishing the new book ‘Strategic Futures Compass – Navigation Guidebook Under Deep Uncertainty’ for CEOs and leaders of organizations.

Authored by Camille Gauthier, a researcher, futurist, and consultant affiliated with Nextcontinent, the book offers executives a practical way to make decisions when the future can no longer be forecast with confidence.

In the face of geopolitical tensions, technological disruption, and ecological and social transitions, the book calls for a shift from prediction to navigation: no longer picking one future, but building a strategy that remains relevant whichever one unfolds.

Its central tool, the ‘Strategic Futures Compass’, brings together in a single view the trends already at work, contrasting scenarios, and the strategic postures an organization can adopt in each of these worlds. It covers six ruptures, twenty-four scenarios for 2040–2050, and twenty-four archetypes, several of them brought to life by client cases from the Nextcontinent network.

“Under uncertainty, there is no such thing as one future, only fragments of futures revealed by trends, scenarios and archetypes. The Compass helps leaders listen to them rather than bet on one,” said Gauthier.

The result of a research project conducted with Nextcontinent and the ESSEC Management Research Chair directed by Professor David Autissier, the book is written for executives, strategists, and transformation leaders. One of France’s leading experts in change management, Autissier has co-authored more than 75 books on management and change.

Reflecting on the book launch, François Pouzeratte, President of Nextcontinent, said in the preface: “Uncertainty is no longer the exception. It has become the rule. It is no longer a risk to be managed, but the raw material of business transformation.”