Using Foresighting to Inform Business and Research Strategy

Customer – Automotive Engineering Consultancy

 

Brief – The automotive industry is fiercely competitive with all businesses experiencing severe price pressure and major change.  This company’s core business was under threat, and with major investments in capability already committed, needed to find an evolutionary strategy.

 

Contribution – A series of foresighting (future watching / scenarios planning) workshops used several different scenarios to explore some possible futures for the automotive industry on a relatively long timescale.  The consequences of these scenarios on society, transportation and the industry were used to understand what this could mean for the company.  This understanding drove a hierarchy of market, product, technology and research plans that established a clear link between market pressures and the company’s research programme.

 

Outcome – The substantially increased understanding of the situation facing the company was used to inform the overall business strategy.  The overall strategy development process resulted in a transformation of the company back into a thriving business.