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Being able to anticipate and shape the future
is the goal of every leader. "Fortune favors the prepared
mind," wisely advised Louis Pasteur more than 100 years
ago. So, how well do modern institutions prepare? In recent
decades, leaders have often been caught unaware by momentous
events -- oil shortages and gluts, the collapse of the Soviet
empire, and technology that quickly transformed whole industries.
The age-old question is, how can organizations learn to
anticipate and find opportunity in such sudden crises?
The future will always be unpredictable,
but with the right techniques it can be imagined and managed.
Leading companies and governmental units have learned a
way to think smarter about the future. The authors of Learning
from the Future reveal how those innovative organizations
harness imagination and strategic management techniques
to create scenarios that simulate future opportunities and
threats. Using these scenarios to test current decisions
and get a jump start on building new capabilities for the
future is a rich learning experience.
This book makes preparing for unpredictable
futures a practical part of every manager's job. It show
how scenario learning readies companies for industry and
market evolutions and customers' new needs. Scenario learning
envisions how industry segments may gain or lose profit
potential, how certain technologies could dominate a market
or fail to be accepted, how new trends could propel mass
markets, what circumstances could derail a merger. This
new foresight methodology is a critical source of business
advantage.
To help readers construct truly useful scenarios
and learn from them, this book offers the latest insights
of 25 internationally known scenario developers. Their case
studies explore rapid technology innovation, regulatory
destabilization, actions by new or traditional competitors,
and investment opportunities.
The authors previous book, The Portable MBA in Strategy,
brought you the brightest and best ideas for winning in
the marketplace of today and tomorrow. Now, by combining
these proven methods of strategic management with scenario
thinking, Liam Fahey and Robert M. Randall take you on a
fast forward expedition -- Learning from the Future.
Liam Fahey, PhD, a consultant to a number
of leading North American and European firms, is an adjunct
professor of management at Babson College and a visiting
professor of strategic management at Cranfield School of
Management in the United Kingdom. Dr. Fahey has authored
or edited six books on management, most recently The
Portable MBA in Strategy (Wiley), with Robert M. Randall.
Robert M. Randall heads a San Francisco-based
publishing business that operates management magazines;
he writes management articles, books, white papers, and
brochures. He and Liam Fahey are collaborating on their
third book, Strategic Management
Tools (Wiley).
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