Certified Future Shaping Organization (CFSOrg)®

Overview

Certified Future Shaping Organization is an accreditation reserved for business organizations and government agencies who have developed and deployed a proper and effective program of Future Shaping (strategic foresight & strategic futuring) throughout their organization, resulting in both innovations and transformations that empower them to proactively shape their futures.

Through a process of independent third-party review and assessment, CFSOrg accreditation establishes that your organization has demonstrated a specific level of maturity and capability with regards to being able to undertake Future Shaping practices, processes, and methods and thereafter leverage those results to develop and execute robust strategies designed to preemptively shape its future. This distinguishes your organization as being capable of not only delivering leading-edge value and customer experiences today, but also of being able to do so indefinitely, no matter what new trends and events the future will bring.

CFSOrg accreditation is awarded at five distinct levels, corresponding to increasing levels of Future Shaping maturity and capability. These five levels, from the least to the most capable, are:

1. Level 1 – Three Stars.
2. Level 2 – Four Stars.
3. Level 3 – Five Stars.
4. Level 4 – Six Stars.
5. Level 5 – Seven Stars.

What Organizations Should Apply?

Any organization, regardless of size, sector, or domain, that has committed itself to studying and understanding the plausible future scenarios that could lie before it, and then taking preemptive actions (today) to influence, shape, and ultimately ‘own’ that future – so that it can continue leading its markets with world-leading novel value indefinitely, thereby ensuring its own ongoing, long-term relevance and resilience in the world

If this is your organization, and you are committed to a future that benefits all through positive impacts, then you will benefit from securing this accreditation and thereby demonstrating this commitment and capability to the whole world. You should therefore apply and pursue this accreditation.

This includes:

1. Traditional Product & Service Organizations – High Tech, Durable Hard Goods, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Lifestyle Products, etc.
2. Digital Product & Service Organizations – AI, SAAS, Business Platforms, eCommerce Platforms, Consumer Apps, etc.
3. Niche Organizations – Industry Enablement, Market Access, Resource Aggregators, etc.
4. Government Organizations – Ministries, Departments, Agencies, and sub-units of these.

Benefits

Cultivate a Perpetual Strategic Foresight & Strategic Futuring Engine

Develop the knowledge and capabilities your organization needs to be able to institutionalize ongoing strategic foresight (scanning, analysis, & foresight) and strategic futuring (visions, options, and strategies) so that it can consistently develop robust, future-proofed strategies to pursue.

Lock In Your Organization’s Future

Develop the skills required to ensure that – no matter where the future takes us – your organization will continue to thrive and grow through informed foresights about the plausible future scenarios (even very divergent ones) that could and may arise, so that it is fully prepared for all each of those scenarios.

Turbocharge Your Organization’s Innovation & Transformation Efforts

Foresee the new innovations to develop, the new capabilities to cultivate, and the new organizational transformations to undertake to be able to lead, shape, and ‘own’ your organization’s future – long before its competitors do – leading to innovations, capabilities, and structures that are resilient to the future, no matter what future eventually emerges.

Shape the Future To Become Your Organization’s Ideal & Preferred Future

Develop the knowledge and capabilities required to be able to take explicit actions designed to influence emergent trends and events around you to move toward your organization’s own desired future outcomes (its‘normative future’).

Show the World Your Commitment to Proactively Owning Your Future

Your organization will wear this accreditation proudly as an emblem of its commitment to shaping the futurethrough preemptive and proactive strategies – each involving market-defining innovations, capabilities, andtransformations. It can further use this accreditation as an effective marketing tool to reinforce a message ofdecisive leadership in each of its markets.

Obtaining

Working Through a GInI Authorized Training & Assessment Provider (ATAP)

To obtain CFSOrg accreditation, your organization must contract and work through a GInI Authorized Training &Assessment Provider (ATAP). This ATAP will in turn secure two or more GInI Authorized Innovation Assessors (AInAs) who will execute the CFSOrg review and on-site assessment process with your organization, and thereafter submit their final Future Shaping Maturity Assessment Report (FSMAR) to GInI. Following this, GInI will make a final determination of your organization's passing of this process, and if passing the level of CFSOrg accreditation it will be awarded. After this, GInI will notify your organization and its ATAP of this determination, and will provide your organization with a copy of the Assessors final report (the FSMAR).

The CFSOrg Innovation Maturity Assessment

The CFSOrg Innovation Maturity Assessment is conducted using GInI’s Future Shaping Maturity Assessment Tool, which was developed by GInI exclusively for this purpose. This tool assesses an organization’s level of Future Shaping capability, maturity, and outcomes. The Future Shaping Maturity Assessment consists of seven Group Sections. Each Group Section is further divided into Categories, with there being 27 Categories in all. The assessment seeks to answer four fundamental questions for each category, namely:

The first question is commonly answered through a direct review of select collateral for the program, including Program Reviews, Organizational Operations Reviews, and Strategy Reviews. The latter three questions commonly require Targeted Interviews of knowledgeable individuals to be able to arrive at useful answers.

One of the key outputs of the CFSOrg Future Shaping Maturity Assessment is a Future Shaping Maturity Radar Plot, which graphically portrays the relative strengths and weaknesses of each area of your program for each of the seven Groups assessed. Another key output is a Gap Analysis indicating where specific gaps exist in your program (relative to your targeted scores), thereby allowing you to focus your improvement efforts in the program.

GInI’s Future Shaping Maturity Assessment Tool (FSMAT) evaluates the following seven areas of an organization’s Future Shaping Program:

(the first four of these derive directly from GInI’s Strategic Futures Architecture):

1. Foundation – featuring four categories:
   • the Sponsorship & Leadership used to undergird and lead the program;
   • the Philosophies & Beliefs used to define and shape the program;
   • the Principles & Values used to guide and direct the program;
   • the Culture & Environment used to nurture and sustain the program.
2. Mechanics – featuring eight categories:
   • the Structure & Relationships used to properly institutionalize the program in the organization;
   • the Roles & Responsibilities used to carry out the program in an effective manner;
   • the Role Certifications used to ensure the proper professional capabilities of those fulfilling these roles;
   • the Future Shaping Processes used to execute the program’s different phases;
   • the Program Governance Processes used to govern the program and ensure it is producing its intended results;
   • the Program Governance Metrics used to measure the program’s effectiveness and impacts;
   • the Program Operation Metrics used to operate the program effectively on a daily basis;
   • the Competency Metrics used to ensure the ongoing development of appropriate organizational competencies;
3. Financing – featuring two categories:
   • the Program Funding used to fund the formal Future Shaping Program in the organization;
   • the Project Funding used to fund specific projects and initiatives the program initiates.
4. Enablers – featuring four categories:
• the Training & Resources used to ensure the organization’s people have the training and resources relating to Future Shaping to be able to effectively support the program;
• the Research Tools the organization’s Future Shaping staff will need to be able to carry out their own unique role-specific tasks and activities;
• the Technology these staff will need to empower and support their work;
• the Networks these staff will need to use to further vet and validate their foresights and proposed strategic options.
5. Reinforcements – used to initiate and sustain organizational engagement in, and stakeholder support for, the program – consisting of three categories:
• the Recognition & Rewards used to recognize and reward individuals and teams for their contributions to the program and its efforts;
• the Internal Public Relations, or corporate communications, used to sustain organizational engagement in, and support for, the organization’s Future Shaping efforts;
• the External Public Relations or marketing communications, used to sustain overall stakeholder support for the organization’s Future Shaping efforts.
6. Strategy – actions used to develop, execute, and renew the organization’s Innovation-Driven Growth Strategy with robust strategies for innovations and transformations empowering the organization to shape its future – consisting of three categories:
   • the Innovation Strategy developed and executed for ensuring ongoing Innovation-Driven Growth;
   • the Strategy Management practices used to tie the Future Shaping work into the organization’s ongoing Innovation Strategy Management Process;
   • the Strategy Outcomes resulting from all these efforts, in terms of how effectively the organization is in fact shaping its future to its desired.
7. Outcomes – the outcomes being achieved from the program on behalf of the organization, particularly in terms of how it is empowering to the organization to shape its future to its own normative desires – consisting of three categories:
• the Outcomes, Benefits, & Impacts the program is producing for the organization and its future;
• the Organizational Perceptions of the program and how effective it is being for the organization;
• the ultimate Overall Success being attained from the operation of the program.

Together these make up everything evaluated by the GInI CFSOrg® Future Shaping Maturity Assessment Tool (FSMAT).

Scoring

The CFSOrg Assessment scores and ranks each of these 27 categories in the GInI Future Shaping Maturity Assessment Tool (FSMAT) on a scale of 0 – 10, and weights each of them according to specific GInI guidelines.

The final overall score is thus a weighted average of these 27 categories and will therefore also range between 0 and 10. This allows organizations to be recognized as a Certified Future Shaping Organization® at one of the five possible levels, as reflected in the following chart.

Maintaining

To maintain its CFSOrg accreditation, your organization must pay the annual CFSOrg Renewal Fee as well as pass a full third-party reassessment every two years (biennially).

Investment

The Administrative Processing Fee for CFSOrg accreditation is 5,000 USD. This is to be paid initially and then annually each year on the anniversary of the organization's original accreditation date.

This excludes any fees paid to the ATAP and their AInAs whom your organization retains for either the initial assessment or its annual reassessments.

Other Certifications

Certified Government Innovative Organization

Certified Innovative University

Accredited Innovation Lab

Accredited Business Incubator

Accredited Accelerator Program

Accredited Innovation Training Program

Accredited Innovation Education Program

Innovation Endorsement

Certified Innovative Growth Venture

Certified Future Shaping Organization

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