Successful organisations usually embark on a periodic process of identifying appropriate business strategies for growth. This deliberate process is widely known as strategic planning. It is an activity that allows organisations to set priorities and focus areas and align resources towards achieving the business goals.
The strategic planning approach defines where an organisation is going, the various initiatives and actions needed to make progress, and develop a monitoring and evaluation framework. Some of the reasons that most organisations embark on strategic planning include:
- Ensuring the achievement of shareholder value objectives
- Defining future performance
- Aligning resource allocation to both current and future value drivers that are linked to strategy
- Identifying measures that are linked to strategy execution.
- Clear definition of actionable and measurable investments
One key imperative in the strategic planning process is understanding the volatile external environment of the organisation. Over the last couple of decades, there have been unprecedented changes along political, economic, social, technological, and environmental lines, affecting the different strategies that organisations have adopted. From the gulf war in the 90s to the 2018 financial crisis and from the middle east uprisings to the Ebola crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, organisations worldwide have had to discard, change, and amend their various business strategies to remain in business amid these unprecedented changes.
Many believe that the typical shelf life for a strategic plan, specifically during economic volatility, is less than one year following all these unprecedented events. Businesses need to implement a scenario-based planning system to remain competitive in such uncertainties. Scenario-based planning will enable the companies to react quickly to delays, respond dynamically to market and industry conditions and commit resources, technology, talent, and capital toward areas of opportunity and away from risk.
Scenario-Based Strategy Development is an interactive process driven by data gathering via stakeholder interviews and industry research. Scenario Planning is a means to improve strategy development & realisation. It differs from other planning methods as it doesn’t focus on one outcome or possibilities but explores the joint impact of various uncertainties, which stand side by side as equals.
pcl.’s approach to scenario-based planning includes:
- Map, explore and analyse the critical driving forces that will shape the future operating environments of the organisation
- Craft scenarios that describe the plausible futures the organisation may be faced with
- Develop robust and dynamic possible responses that will prepare the organisation for the range of futures that might unfold
At pcl., our proven scenario planning framework supports organisations to anticipate future threats and opportunities by identifying early warning signals of impending change. It also helps to;
- Identify critical capabilities and resources necessary to deal with future challenges.
- Create sustainable competitive advantages.
- Identify attractive opportunities for future business growth at an early stage.
- Use scenarios to develop and examine the effectiveness and robustness of strategies potential long term investments.
Send an email to strategy@phillipsconsulting.net to start your scenario planning journey today.
Written by:
Obinna Udeagha
Head, Delivery & Operations
