Scenario Planning Facilitation Case Study

Scenario Planning is a strategic planning approach designed to explore possible outcomes of implementing our strategy before actually starting to implement; in other words, let’s try to explore possibilities and probabilities so we can plan for success, possible failure and how we will respond to both.

Situation

There were concerns among senior executives that, because the company had a more-than-5- year track record of uninterrupted success, that too many were becoming complacent and not fully accounting for anticipated changes in the marketplace and the onslaught of potential competitors trying to erode their market share (42%) and their business.

Objectives

Our objectives were to help the senior executive team explore strengths, weaknesses, opportunites and threats and devise an internal corporate communication strategy to articulate our findings in a way which would help facilitate more universal understanding among corporate personnel about the perceived challenges ahead, as well as the strategy to address them.

Process

To accomplish this we developed three different future scenarios. In one of these scenarios, the company’s  business was acquired via a hostile takeover.  In another, a key competitor developed an exclusive relationship with another country’s government to purchase raw materials at a deeply-discounted rate per unit.  In the third, a key stockholder took the business private.  Cross-functional teams were assigned to each scenario. They were instructed to gather evidence and to develop arguments as to why their description of what the future held was the most likely. After each group made its’ presentation and case, the entire group agreed on strategies to address each potential scenario, should they come to fruition.
We then shared our findings and planned strategies company-wide.

Results

Our results included:

1. Feedback from employees hearing about customer problems has increased significantly
2. The corporate “Suggestion Box” concept has grown to include not just the physical Suggestion Box, but to rotate executives through meeting with small employee groups on Fridays for a series of “Brown Bag Lunches”, for frank discussions about challenges and solution strategies
3. Employee Retention Rate increased by almost 50%
4. There is far greater internal communication taking place about marketplace realities, keeping both challenges and solution strategies a more integral part of everyday awareness at the company  

For More Information

If you are interested in exploring Scenario Planning as a facilitation technique please contact us at 508-358-8070 or scenarioplanning@ppiw.com.