The business of today is foresight.

As a management consultant, I witnessed tremendous change in our daily lives and business environment from the start of my career. Back then, I was hired to make corporate transformation work which is big transformations taking place with strategy, processes, organization, technology and data. Again, back then, as a consultant, you work with your team and then present to the client and try to convince them with your work, benchmarks, methods and analysis.

Throughout the years, specializations occurred, where I also worked as a supply chain consultant, then retail industry consultant where I dealt with international expansion, brand strategies, target operating models, collection design and planning, and more advanced analytics work, i.e. markdown optimization, replenishment optimization; and also ecommerce and omni-channel strategies. Each specialization required deep technical knowledge and deep technology enablement. All heavily depended on inside out view of the company and the consultant. Over the years, I realized one missing piece which was the need for outside in view.

For the last four years, I invested a lot in developing tools, techniques, competencies and people to bring outside in view to our projects and more importantly to the deep mindset and culture. As the leader of digital transformation, I am spending quite a lot of time talking and convincing my clients on the value and power of ethnographic research, design thinking and types of innovation.

With these elements, the pace of the change is coming with technology. It is indeed digital that is creating the change. With this change, it is impossible to navigate without an agile mindset and without a multi-disciplinary team.

Now the business is the intersection of business, technology and creativity. Now the business is anticipating, preparing for and managing the change. Now the business is designing the future. Now the business is foresight.

Hakan Göl, Partner and Head of Deloitte Digital Turkey