What future awaits your company in a digital world? Scenario thinking is a way for boards and management to test and outline the unknown.
The digital global world is changing as technologies like AI and G5 are being developed. New competitors are surging, and new alliances are forming. The impact is global. What alternative scenarios can be drawn up and in which your company can prosper? Each discussion of alternative futures deepens the board’s knowledge of the dynamics of its business and the world around it.
If you ask board members if they work with scenarios, some say we make different projections the market. Others say there is no time for it; not even if the management does so. Most boards are organized in such a way that little time is left for diving into the alternatives the future might hold.
Scenario thinking opens up for engaging discussions. When one performs a board evaluation and asks a board member to analyse a possible scenario, e.g. a bid for the company, it easily sparks a vivid discussion, for instance about the virtues of a stand-alone alternative.
Now, the pandemic has alerted boards. When the board opens the window it sees that it has to mend its garden. Cuts-downs, lay-offs, even redirecting business. Looking further the board may distinguish a new landscape and different scenarios. Covid has set scenarios on the agenda.