BUS602: Marketing Management

The diagram depicts the life cycle of a change, from emerging issue to full-blown trend, both in terms of the number of observable cases, and in terms of public awareness. Perceiving weak signals of change requires very different sources from collecting evidence for more clearly defined issues and trends. 

A robust scanning strategy will monitor change along this curve (Figure 26) using appropriate sources at each level and discriminate between the uses and usefulness of data emerging from different points of the curve. Discriminating between the uses and usefulness of data is essential to manage the tension between requirements for evidence-based strategy and policy making, and the nature of horizon scanning which seeks to extrapolate possible outcomes from limited intelligence. A clear audit trail from fresh evidence and intelligence to robust presentation of the results is essential to Horizon Scanning.