How the National Association of Jewellers turned strategy work into a living foresight system

Most trade associations already have the signals. What they often lack is a way to turn those signals into something members can use.

The National Association of Jewellers, the UK’s leading trade body for the professional jewellery sector, faced exactly that challenge. With more than 1,700 member businesses and 27,000 employees across the industry, the stakes are high: members expect clear guidance, credible insight, and confidence that the Association is looking ahead, not just reacting.

In 2025, NAJ set out to change how it works with future trends. What began as a strategy day evolved into a structured, shareable, and continuously updated view of the forces shaping the industry.

The challenge: insight without a shared view

Before building its digital trend radar, NAJ was already doing what many strategy and foresight teams do: collecting inputs, identifying issues, and trying to prioritise them.

Ben Massey, Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Jewellers, puts it plainly:

“What we were doing felt quite basic. It was very one-dimensional.”

The output was typically lists or ranked priorities. Useful, but limited. They captured information without showing how different forces connected or how they might evolve.

For an industry shaped by overlapping pressures, from regulation and sustainability to workforce and market shifts, that lack of structure made it harder to form a shared understanding.

“We needed a way to connect different challenges and actually see how they relate to each other.”

That gap mattered most when communicating with members. NAJ needed to show not just what is happening now, but how different signals and emerging trends fit together over time. Members were looking for reassurance that the Association was thinking beyond the immediate horizon.

The turning point: a strategy day that changed the format

In April 2025, NAJ brought its National Committee and Management Team together for a strategy day built around a PESTEL framework. The goal was to map the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal forces shaping the future of the jewellery industry.

Committee members arrived well prepared, having spoken with members in advance and identified key challenges and opportunities. The session produced a rich set of inputs: signals, repeated themes, and early prioritisation.

A small constraint changed how that work came together.

Instead of posters on the walls, the team worked around a large tabletop radar. That visual format made it easier to see relationships, cluster ideas, and have more productive discussions.

“We had the experience. The next challenge was making it digital and engaging for our members,” Massey explains.

That moment clarified the next step. NAJ did not need more inputs. It needed a way to carry that structured thinking forward and make it accessible beyond the room.

From workshop output to a digital trend radar

To make that shift, NAJ moved the radar into a digital environment using FIBRES, an AI-powered foresight platform designed for horizon scanning, signal tracking, and collaborative sensemaking.

What mattered was not simply digitising the output. It was preserving the structure of the thinking and making it possible to revisit, update, and share it.

FIBRES reflects how change really happens — connected, evolving, and across the whole supply chain

Manual tools had helped capture information, but they did not support sensemaking or communication at scale. Other platforms felt too heavy or difficult to engage with. NAJ needed something structured enough for strategic work, but clear enough for committees and members to use.

With a digital trend radar in place, the work changed character.

“It helped us move from complexity to a simple, one-page playbook.”

Instead of a static output, NAJ now had a living view of industry change. A shared reference point that could support discussions, guide decisions, and evolve as new signals emerged.

Why a digital trend radar changed the work

For NAJ, the radar became more than a visual. It created a foundation for structured foresight across the organisation.

It made it easier to:

• bring together weak signals and emerging trends in one place
• show how different forces connect across the supply chain
• communicate long-term change in a clear, visual format
• test priorities with members and refine them over time
• link strategy work directly to member-facing guidance and support

This is where a digital approach to horizon scanning and trend monitoring starts to pay off. Instead of repeating the same exercise every cycle, the work becomes cumulative.

From one-off exercise to ongoing discipline

One of the most important shifts for NAJ has been moving from a single strategy event to a continuous foresight practice. As Massey puts it: “A one-off exercise captures thinking. A continuous system lets you keep testing and refining it.”

The radar is no longer something produced once and set aside. It is something the team can return to, challenge, and develop.

Without that structure, foresight tends to drift back into documents, spreadsheets, and isolated conversations.

“Without it, the thinking becomes fragmented and it’s easy to drift back into old habits.”

With a shared system in place, the work stays visible. It becomes easier to maintain a consistent view of the future and avoid starting from scratch.

Making foresight collaborative across the network

NAJ extended this approach beyond internal discussions by introducing a simple validation loop with members.

After developing the initial radar, the Association brought top-level thinking back to members through virtual town halls. The goal was to test assumptions, surface gaps, and refine priorities.

Engagement was not as high as hoped. Even so, the conversations added value. They helped challenge internal thinking and highlight where more clarity or support was needed.

“The aim is simple: keep closing the loop between board thinking and member reality,” Massey says.

That loop is still evolving, but it has already shifted how foresight is approached. It is no longer an internal exercise. It is becoming a shared process across the network.

How conversations changed

The introduction of a shared foresight framework has changed the tone of conversations across NAJ’s ecosystem.

Having a shared framework makes conversations more reflective and forward-looking

Discussions with members and partners now extend beyond immediate issues. They increasingly focus on what is emerging and how it might affect the industry over time.

For Massey, this has also meant spending more time listening.

He describes spending more time in receive mode, comparing what members are seeing on the ground with what appears in the radar. That comparison has become a practical way to validate priorities.

When the two align, it reinforces confidence. When they do not, it highlights areas that need further exploration.

What changed inside NAJ

The most immediate impact has been internal. The radar has given NAJ a clearer structure for deciding where to focus its time, resources, and support.

• What should we do more of
• What should we do less of
• What should we stop doing
• What do we need to start

“It forces us to ask what we should stop doing, not just what we should add.”

Because the Association’s strategy looks ahead to 2030, this is not about dramatic overnight change. It is about making more intentional choices over time, guided by a clearer picture of what matters most.

One early example is how NAJ now develops guidance and content.

Previously, material was often created because it felt broadly useful. Now, it is linked more deliberately to the priorities identified in the radar.

This is already visible in the Association’s Better Business features in its quarterly member journal, where articles align with key themes such as:

• sustainability
• business life cycle
• people, including recruitment, development, and retention
• compliance and legislation

It is a gradual shift, but an important one. It connects foresight to tangible outputs.

Toward a foresight hub for the industry

Looking ahead, NAJ sees this approach as a foundation for a broader role.

We’re bringing insight, resources, and services together around a shared understanding of what’s shaping the industry.

The ambition is to evolve into a more structured foresight hub for the jewellery sector. A place where insight, guidance, and member services are aligned around a clear view of future change.

For a trade association, that means continuously reviewing what it offers and adapting it to remain relevant. It also means helping members understand not only current challenges, but the direction of travel over the next years.

What other organisations can take from this

NAJ’s experience offers a useful reference point for other associations, strategy teams, and foresight functions working with uncertainty.

A few lessons stand out:

Clarity comes from structure
Most organisations already have signals. The value comes from connecting them into a coherent view.

Visual formats improve understanding
Moving from lists to a radar changes how people engage with information and how decisions are discussed.

Digital systems make foresight repeatable
A living platform allows horizon scanning and trend analysis to build over time instead of resetting.

Collaboration strengthens insight
Even partial feedback from stakeholders helps test assumptions and sharpen priorities.

Foresight becomes valuable when it shapes action
The impact shows up in decisions, guidance, and resource allocation, not just in reports.

Looking ahead

NAJ now works with a 0 to 15 year horizon, which changes how it approaches its role.

Having been in reactive mode for many years, the association is now starting to shift towards a clearer view of the forces shaping its members over time, and using that to guide more proactive support.

For Massey, the value is straightforward:

Done properly, this shapes collective thinking, not just opinion.

That shift is still in progress. But the direction is clear. By building a shared, structured approach to foresight, NAJ is strengthening its ability to support members through uncertainty and helping the industry prepare for what comes next.

For teams exploring how to move from scattered signals to a shared view of the future, the underlying question is simple: What would change if your foresight work stayed alive after the workshop?

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