We live in the economy of the shock. Every week an unexpected crisis, a technological revolution or a new social trend. In this scenario, many brands are reacting as if they were shipwrecked on a salvation table: they survive, but at the mercy of the current. High performance CMOS are, to a large extent, magnificent surfers of tsunamis.
In this volatile environment, adapt is no longer enough. Not even anticipate. What defines the organizations that really lead is not their ability to anticipate, but their ability to design the present with an extended and connected vision with the impact they want to generate. This way of operating, where strategic creativity is crossed with systemic thinking, is reconfiguring how brands build value. We do not talk about futurology, or agility without purpose. We talk about what we could call anticipated thinking: a discipline that combines analysis, intuition, and action with intention.
This approach is born from a certainty: The future is not predicted, it is built. But not from distance or from hypothetical. It is built from the present. Design futures may sound inspiring (it is), but applied to organizations that require flexibility and short-term results, has the risk of falling into abstraction, post-it narrative or in projection paralysis. Not everything we work in a strategic-creative workshop or session has the impact we would like in the short term. What is the use of inspiring if that inspiration does not bring action? Instead, designing present is a demanding, concrete and transformative practice. It forces to make decisions today that generate immediate impact, resonate in the long term and contribute to something larger than a campaign or a product line.
Thinking three steps ahead is not dreaming about what is coming. It is to intervene strategically in what is already happening, to mold what will be relevant. And that implies a type of creative leadership that combines vision, courage, listening and impeccable execution.
Of the reaction to the design of present
The first step to adopt anticipated thought is to abandon the logic of the reaction. Many brands, even positioned, operate in an accelerated response model: getting on the trend, activating a campaign with the last generative AI, making real time marketing so as not to lose the train of the moment. It is what we could call one step ahead. But sometimes what seems like proactivity is usually anxiety with budget.
A revealing example is the case of Platoon. During the pandemic, its growth was meteoric. He took advantage of the rise of the Home Fitness with agile and viral campaigns. But when the context changed, the brand did not know how to reconfigure its narrative, or redesign its proposal from the present. While the market evolved towards hybrid experiences and mental well -being, Peloton continued to optimize performance in an exhausted model.
Two steps ahead is already better. It is what brands like Spotify, which observe emerging trends, listen to cultural signals and prepare products or features before the market demands them massively. Thus initiatives such as Spotify Wrappeda simple but brilliant idea: convert the consumption of data into emotional narrative. The campaign became an annual ritual for millions of users, reinforcing connection, customization and organic virality.
But there is a key difference between anticipating and leading. Thinking three steps ahead requires stop optimizing for today and starting designing actions in the present that impact tomorrow and transform the environment. This is what Lego did when reimagining his brand beyond the toy: a cultural platform based on shared creativity. That launch of LEGO IDEASwhere any fan could propose new sets that end up producing if they reach enough support, it was not just co-creation. It is a strategy to build community, open innovation and innovative brand reputation. Everything at once. And all from the present.
See before anyone else what is not yet named
Anticipated thinking requires a fundamental ability: identify weak signals. Most strategic decisions are supported by market reports, benchmarks, already validated trends. But the transformations that change the rules do not appear there. They arise on the margins: Niche communities, digital subcultures, invisible forums, experimental initiatives.
Glossier He was not born as a beauty brand, but as a blog (into the gloss) that documented real conversations with real women. In a market dominated by aspirational messages and codes of perfection, the brand knew how to listen to the emerging desire for authenticity and participation. When he launched his products, he was no longer selling cosmetics: he was inviting a community to build his own beauty idea.
Detecting these weak signals does not require only technology. It requires sensitivity and that fine intuition that is nothing other than highly refined experience. A listening culture. And a radar that points beyond the obvious. The brands that do well not only capture what happens. They capture what begins to beat.
Think of systems, not campaigns
One of the most common marketing traps is confuse notoriety. Speaking a viral campaign may seem a triumph but if it is not connected with a long -distance narrative, it is just a flash. What we need today are meaning systems, not loose messages.
IKEAas we all know, it has been doing this for years. His concept of “democratic design” –beleza, functionality and sustainability available to everyone – is not a slogan, but a strategic architecture that is expressed in products, catalogs, digital experiences, cultural collaborations and climate activism. It doesn’t matter if you see an ad, visit a store or read a column in The Guardian: the meaning system is alive, consistent and permeating each layer.
The brands that think three steps ahead do not only look for attention. They want to resonate. And that emotional reverberation is built when people feel that the brand is part of an important conversation, not just an advertising campaign.
Operate in three times without fragmenting
One of the most complex challenges for creative and business teams is to coordinate different temporalities. The metrics of the present push towards the short term, this is not new. However, Strategic ambitions require coherence in the medium term. And reputation and deep connection are played in the length. Anticipated thinking demands to work simultaneously in the three planes, without contradicting themselves.
Nike He has demonstrated it for years. With campaigns that activate urgent conversations, he comes to mind “Believe in Subject. The brand achieved immediate impact (sales, notoriety), reinforced cultural positioning (diversity, courage, social justice) and consolidated long -term values that today attract young generations with moral conviction.
The key is not to choose one of the three times. The key is to design present that impact the future without giving up now. And that is only achieved with a creative thought that operates as choreographynot as a rigid sequence.
Community: The new value epicenter
The audience is not enough. The brands that continue to operate under the logic of a passive audience that observes from the outside are losing real connection capacity. The new forms of relationship require another approach: the community as a living space for exchange, co-creation and resonance. The brand as moral framework that not only guides the actions but also leads those resignations that will generate the credibility and authority necessary to exaggeratedly connect with those communities where you want to establish yourself.
Patagonia He understood this from the beginning. Its climate activism is not just storytelling: it is real participation. From allowing its customers to repair free products to donate 100% of its benefits to environmental causes, the brand has built a community that not only consumes, but defends, amplifies and protects its values.
It’s not about pleased everyone. It is about building a shared sense. And that implies giving up total control and all like. It implies opening spaces for participation, accepting contradictions, and working from authenticity.
Test, launch, learn: the most powerful strategic cycle
Instead of investing months in perfect presentations that are never implemented, the brands that think three steps ahead bet on the prototest: launch small versions, measure impact, learn, iterate. This cycle is not only faster: it is more effective.
Airbnb He developed his “experiences” system based on local prototypes, before climbing globally. Netflix Different series covers test according to user profile. Tiktok Constantly adjust the interface in pilot markets before releasing large -scale changes. They are strategies with scientific logic, but with design intuition.
The Strategic creativity It becomes, thus, a living discipline. Able to learn from error. Able to respond without losing purpose. Capable of evolving without losing identity.
It is not enough to imagine: you have to build precisely
Thinking three steps ahead is not just having a great vision. It is also having the ability to implement it by making history from each action. Many bright ideas fail not due to lack of creativity, but for lack of execution. The brands that achieve it align strategy, culture, technology and operations. Diverse teams. Agile processes. Safe spaces to think and try. Leaders who combine intuition with data. And, above all, a culture of decision -making that does not fear complexity.
The design of present is demanding. But that is where real relevance is played. The strategic leadership we need is not the one that predicts, but the one who builds. In a world saturated with auguries and promises about what is coming, which authentically connects are brands that act responsibly about what is already here. Thinking three steps ahead is not a differentiation strategy: it is an act of leadership.
And leading today does not mean having all the answers. It means having the courage to ask the right questions. It involves intervening in what is not yet resolved and building desirable futures from the decisions we make right now. It’s not about being a visionary. It’s about being aware. And act.
Anticipated thinking is not only for those who innovate. It is for those who, from any industry, decide to design the present with the strength of a clear vision and with the sensitivity of those who know that the future is not expected. It is designed. Here. Now.
