Entrepreneurial Insights From Data to Strategic Intelligence Driving the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 provide a basis to address global challenges. The SDGs are aimed at eradicating poverty, protecting the planet, and to ensure prosperity for all. In this context, achieving the SDGs demands innovative solutions in entrepreneurship, particularly within the everchanging volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world. The emergence and continuous development of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, Blockchain, and Robotics continues to reshape the global landscape, further contributing to the VUCA world. Structured content analysis was done on 50 World Economic Forum (WEF) Strategic Intelligence Topics (SITs) articles. The research findings from the content analysis communicate an insightful message, that the analysed WEF SITs articles resonate towards the importance of strategic - data, information, intelligence, and innovation, for strategic intelligence. This paper underpins the importance of strategic intelligence, in empowering entrepreneurs to effectively navigate the VUCA world to drive impactful growth towards the SDGs. In the VUCA world, entrepreneurs must harness the power of AI to identify emerging opportunities and anticipate potential disruptions, transforming raw data into actionable intelligence. This intelligence translates to strategic decision-making, enabling the development of innovative solutions to address VUCA world challenges, contributing to the attainment of the SDGs. It is crucial that entrepreneurs recognise the challenges of the VUCA world in order for them to contribute meaningfully to achieving the SDGs. Through the message relayed in the 50 WEF SITs articles, it is clear that the VUCA world will continue to accelerate, coupled with the transformative potential of emerging technologies, which presents opportunities for entrepreneurial insights to be achieved, by moving from data to strategic intelligence to drive the SDGs. Finally, this paper emphasises the importance for entrepreneurs to embrace a pre-emptive, agile approach in driving the achievement of the SDGs within the constantly evolving VUCA world, to work towards achieving the SDGs through strategic intelligence.