We use Foresight & Futures Thinking to help you thrive in uncertain and transformative times.
The future is yours.
At Near & Next, we harness strategic foresight and futures thinking to anticipate change, identify emerging opportunities and risks, envision transformative futures, and navigate complex, uncertain environments.
Foresight enables the design of resilient, future-ready strategies that help organizations thrive in a world of constant transformation and multiple disruptions.
Futures matter. The way we imagine tomorrow shapes how we act today. Different visions of the future unlock new possibilities, reinterpret the present, and expand our agency.
All strategies and policies are, by nature, bets on the future — so let’s make them informed ones.
More than just a toolset, Foresight & Futures Thinking helps organisations to :
-
Bring new knowledge
-
Imagine possibilities they haven’t yet considered—before disruption forces their hand
-
Reshape decision-making - from short-term impacts to futures-informed, long-term thinking
-
Build cognitive flexibility
-
Reveal blind spots—and prepare for the shifts that could redefine everything
-
Surface the hard questions no one wants to ask—but everyone needs to confront
-
Strengthen resilience in crises
-
Align teams and leadership on long-term priorities
-
Reclaim agency over the future
If you are new to foresight, please have a look at this blogpost.
WHAT WE DO
Using futures in multiple ways
MANIFESTO
The Near & Next approach
What Happens Between Near and Next
The future doesn't arrive fully formed — it emerges, layer by layer. What’s near carries the signals of what’s next. What’s next depends on the decisions made today.
At Near & Next, we help organizations navigate this unfolding edge. We map the shifts already shaping the horizon, make sense of them, and translate what we see into choices that matter and resonate.
We believe that futures are not abstract concepts; they are constructed through daily decisions, collective imagination, and intentional design.
Our work lives in the tension between proximity and possibility — between what is near and what comes next.
What We Stand For
Proximity: Staying close to emerging signals and what’s already unfolding.
Resonance: Identifying what will echo across time, not just what is novel.
Foresight with Impact: Turning anticipation into actionable strategies.
Dialogue Over Prediction: Co-creating futures through collaboration, imagination and inquiry.
Decision as Design: Seeing each decision as a design act that shapes what’s next.
How We Work
We don’t predict futures. We prepare for them.
We don’t impose scenarios. We co-create them.
We don’t offer certainty. We help organisations thrive in uncertainty.
Thereby, we strengthen imagination in many ways:
-
Sensory imagination – to feel what you cannot yet articulate
-
Strategic imagination – to envision possibilities beyond current constraints
-
Social imagination – to understand the human systems no algorithm can map
-
Creative imagination – to generate the genuinely novel rather than recycle the merely new
-
Emotional imagination – to navigate the landscape of feeling that drives all decision-making
-
Scientific imagination – to see patterns in complexity that data alone cannot reveal
-
Contemplative imagination – to find meaning where others see merely metrics
-
Transformative imagination – to reimagine entire systems rather than merely optimize them
ABOUT
Futures science is a multidisciplinary practice.
Near & Next is led by Sylvain Cottong, an economist with almost 30 years of experience advising national and international organisations and companies across public, non-profit, and private sectors in various areas of expertise.
Futures thinking is inherently multidisciplinary — crossing boundaries between management, leadership, economics, technology, society, politics, science, the environment, psychology, and beyond.
It thrives on curiosity, critical thinking, systems thinking, creativity, and empathy — enabling us to make sense of complexity and shape meaningful, future-ready outcomes and decisions.
Near & Next is a brand of strategybuilders sàrl, a Luxembourg-based limited liability company. Trade register: B231601
Discover more of our work and futures thinking by connecting with Sylvain on LinkedIn
LANGUAGES & GLOBAL REACH
We work fluently in English, French, German, and Luxembourgish.
Thanks to virtual collaboration tools like videoconferencing, digital whiteboards (Miro, Mural), and other online platforms, we successfully manage projects worldwide. Our only requirement: using one of these four languages as the working language.
CONTACT
Let’s Work Together