In your business, hospital, college or other not-for-profit, how much time and effort are you and your colleagues spending today on tomorrow?

• What resources are you devoting to analysis and summarization after studying newspapers, periodicals, trade journals, searching the internet, attending conferences, consulting experts, interviewing customers and public figures, discussing issues with your managers and employees?

• Have you determined and will you frequently update the probable positive and negative impacts of the following as they will change:

scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations; federal state and local laws and regulations and tax policies, foreign policy, local wars and terrorism; world trade, globalization and protectionism; cultural impacts on employees’ work habits, quality and productivity; national and offshore outsourcing; immigration policy; environmental disasters; poverty and crime; educational standards and graduates’ capabilities; death or disability of your key leaders; employee ethical breaches; customer loyalty and fickleness – their rush to novelty and resistance to change; known – and perhaps more importantly – unknown competitors; possible moves based on their reading of what is out there? Their diligence in this endeavor may be much greater than yours.

What will the future hold for your organization –rapid or steady growth, slow or early death?