Scenario planning is a tool for looking at the future with an open mind and planning accordingly. In the book, the Art of the Long View, Peter Schwarz goes over this in wonderful detail. Since predicting the future is impossible, sceneraio planning opens ones mind to the future in ways that would have helped those bidding on 3G spectrum. There are probably some other thought experiements and due dilligence that would have helped them too, but that's another story. In reading a recent Telephony editorial by Peter Leyden, he listed as his favoite web site Long Bets.com This site asks futurists to put their money where their mouth is. You place bets on things you think will happen in the future, real bets (min $1000) and the bet is collected at once as a chartible contribution. As are your winnings. Clever.