A major multinational bank wanted to spot early opportunities in an increasingly uncertain environment - particularly at the Business Unit level - and to test the strength of its existing strategies.

Creating a shared vision of the future 

Outsights worked with the Management Team to develop Scenarios to achieve four key objectives: 

• To engage the Management Team in a structured and creative conversation about the future;
• To develop shared perspectives - or "points of view" - on the possible developments in the Bank's external business environment;
• To stretch and test thinking about the mid to longer-term future beyond the immediate business plan period;
• To generate ideas and options for the Business Unit, as well as to test and validate existing ideas.

Over a period of six months, Outsights developed Scenarios which were used in a series of workshops entitled "Points of View on the Future" for top and middle management. The workshops took on a "safe house" approach with discreet working sessions designed to encourage broad, creative and open thinking about possible future business opportunities against the Scenarios.

Turning the future into reality

The Scenarios were presented to the Board at the end of the process with recommendations for action. In all, 13 strategic options were tested, including the Bank's headline strategies, its management agenda and the suggested strategies emerging from the Scenarios. It was recommended that Scenario planning be incorporated into the following year's strategic management process and that the Scenarios should be communicated throughout the Bank in its quarterly newsletter, which would also track developments in the Scenario indicators. The Board further adopted actions coming out of the Scenarios such as placing more focus on its online, acquisition and brand building strategies.