The Future Readiness Indicator is an indicator developed by the IMD Center for Future Readiness. It assesses large publicly listed companies on their preparedness for future trends using historical data to compare innovation, resilience, and growth. Companies receive a composite score and are ranked within their respective industries. It was developed by Howard Yu in 2021 and covers 182 companies across six different industries.
The Future Readiness Indicator was developed in 2021 by Howard Yu, with some rankings backdated to 2010 for analytical purposes only. The concept of corporate future readiness has been discussed in management literature as a firmâÂÂs capacity to anticipate disruption, invest in innovation, and adapt to structural market shifts.
The ranking derives from seven primary, equally-weighted factors: financial indicators, projected growth, business diversification, workforce diversity/ESG, R&D, innovation outcomes, and liquidity/debt status, totaling 33 distinct variables.
The data is publicly accessible from company outlets, news sources, and thematic reports. Factiva, CrunchBase, Espacenet, Sustainalytics, and Google Trends also supplement data collection.
The indicator is calculated by collecting each company's historical data, performing computations for each variable, standardizing criteria data, aggregating variables into main factors, and assigning an overall ranking. Each company is ranked from 1 (best) to n (worst, n=sample size) on a 1-100 scale.
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In the luxury and fashion sector, the index reported shifts in rankings among major global brands, reflecting changing competitive dynamics in digital strategy and sustainability performance.
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In the life sciences sector, the index identified leading pharmaceutical companies based on their ability to adapt to long-term industry transformation and innovation dynamics. Roche was ranked among the top pharmaceutical companies in terms of future readiness, highlighting its positioning within the global life sciences industry.
The index has also been referenced in discussions of technology companiesâ strategic positioning, particularly in relation to artificial intelligence and digital platform competitiveness.