business foresight and acumen
temporal horizons. These are chosen accordingly to the characteristics, needs and data available. The foresight methodologies can be classified in either qualitative or quantitative techniques, however evidence shows that the most industrialized countries had chosen the qualitative approach by adopting among all techniques, the Delphi method, expert panels, scenarios building and identification of critical technologies.
A central objective of Technology Foresight is usually to identify technologies expected to have a strong influence on the future development and well-being of a business. In some countries, for example the United States and France, the principal goal of TF has been to elaborate lists of critical technologies. Other countries, like Japan and Germany, have chosen to identify critical technologies employing the Delphi technique.
The common criteria in the selection of critical technologies is their potential to stimulate or influence economic and social development, the scientific and technological knowledge base, and national security and in turn effect the business. As a matter of example, the studies in these countries are relatively unanimous in their conclusions about the fields of technology that will be most important in the future:`
 Information technology (components, applications, networks, multimedia)
 Health and medical care (medical technology, biotechnology)
 Production technology (automation/robotics, process technology, micro/nano production, sensors)
 Materials technology (ceramics, composites, electronic and photonic materials)
 Environmental technology (clean processes, waste management, recycling, global environment)
 Energy technology (efficiency, generation, renewable energy)
The majority of TF programmes have also concluded those multidisciplinary fields such as phonetics, bionics and bio-electronics will be among the important fields to pay attention to in the future.
Implications of Technology Foresights
Most Technology Foresight projects conclude with a group of recommendations to the countries’ governments about how these recommendations can support emerging technologies and fields of strategic research. The recommendations are generally classified within one of the following captions:
 financing of investigation and development,
 development of specific technologies,
 Technology diffusion and operating conditions for the industry.
Technology Diffusion
A common recommendation is that there should be increased interaction between universities and research institutes on the one hand and the industry on the other. Another recommendation is that the government should support the diffusion of new, strategic technologies from the research sector to the industry sector.
Many countries point to IT as the field where the state should concentrate its efforts of technology diffusion.
Operating conditions for the Industry
Improve the conditions under which the industry and the private sector operate. This task frequently refers to the government as being most important in this connection, which is to support the development of a good innovation climate. Important areas for governmental initiatives and support are: standards, laws and regulations, intellectual property protection, communications, financial infrastructure, general education, literacy, infrastructure adapted to smaller companies, environment, and participation in international organizations.
Outputs of the Technology Foresights
The TF projects carried out so far in several countries of the world have come to a series of important global mega tendencies that foresee how the world is going to develop socially and economically within a time frame of [next page]