Foresight Factory conducted research for the report in July 2026 with around 40 senior business leaders across the UK, North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Respondents included specialist, management, departmental-leadership and director-level positions.

The research found that 85% of those interviewed said foresight is strategically important, but only 15% had a dedicated foresight function, and 12% described their organisation as ‘genuinely future-led’.

The report has attributed this gap to a short-term focus within organisations, with only one in four leaders reporting that they look beyond five years’ time for planning, compared with 71% who named a one-to-five-year window as their key planning horizon.

Meabh Quoirin, founder and chief executive at Foresight Factory, said: “Business leaders are caught in a cycle of slow growth and cost-cutting. As they struggle to see past day-to-day pressures, and investors push ever harder for short-term returns, sustainable growth through innovation, acquisition and digital transformation only gets harder to reach. Foresight risks being lost at the very moment businesses need it most.”

• Quoirin is one of the speakers at the MRS Foresight Conference, taking place on 14 October 2026. For more information, visit the MRS website.