Chess or go?

For several decades now, scenario planning has helped organizations to be better prepared for crises.

Paul de Ruijter and Henk Alkema (ex-Shell strategist with over forty years of experience in scenario thinking) look back at Scenario Planning over the past few decades and look forward to the future of strategy and scenarios.

Scenarios are trend sensitive. Sometimes they are in vogue, and sometimes hardly anobody is interested. The authors, however, believe that scenario thinking is always useful. Short term thinking does not work, which has once more been proved by the credit crisis in the last decade. Thinking ahead, using scenarios, appears still to be as important as it was for the first oil crisis. The fact that the recent credit crisis came as a surprise for many stakeholders illustrates that many people over the previous years insufficiently looked and planned ahead. To stimulate scenario planning De Ruijter and Alkema share their vision on the need of renewed action, drawing from decades of experience.

You can read the article below. Want to know more about how De Ruijter Strategie can help your organization with scenario planning? Please contact us!

“Bad scenario’s don’t exist, only bad preperation.”

Paul de Ruijter

“By using language and visuals, we can create the future today.”

Jolanda van Heijningen

“The future cannot be forecasted, but it can be foreseen.”

Renate Kenter

“History shows us how unpredictable the future can be.”

Friso van Nimwegen

“The complexity of the future requires multidimensional thinking, anticipating and acting.”

Sharda Tewari

“Being well prepared is better than hoping that things will work out.”

Reinier Hattink

“Conducting research about the future is the greatest thing there is.”

Femke Pennink

“Without having a clear strategic goal, you are the puppet of circumstances.”

Kwint Kramer

“To be able to think about the future, you need to have the figures in order.”

Jannie Pruimers-Lanenga

“Discovering connections between data and trends remains fascinating.”

Iris Lijkendijk

“”One cannot drive with just the rearview mirror; look ahead and overtake! That’s the essence of scenario planning.””

Aryzo Arrindell