The primary purpose of scenario planning is to develop a better understanding of the business environment to aid corporate strategic visioning. A secondary purpose can be to engage in the public domain on policy. The methodology provides a useful framework for getting to grips with the key uncertainties and risks in the broader business environment.
On a global scale, these includes geopolitics, macroeconomic developments, regulation, climate change and technology. Many of such trends cannot be predicted. However, it is possible to distinguish future alternate outcomes and consider how these might blend together. In this way, two to four images of alternative futures can be composed and presented through narratives, selectively underpinned by quantification.
In this course, we will cover the purpose, development, and use of scenarios for strategy and decision making. It is highly interactive and will include an exercise to develop initial sketches of scenarios describing the future business environment relevant for a hypothetical or real organization.