Story telling and strategy

Client Context & Challenge

• Whilst processes were in place to support functional strategy development in a UK pharma business, engagement across functions had been variable. But there was a desire to explore new ways of engaging senior managers from across the business in strategic thinking.
• As part of strategic planning, the company also wanted to identify strengths and weaknesses across its existing strategies and identify strategic gaps.

Approach

• A scenario planning exercise was designed and implemented.
• The overall process included:
  - the development of initial stimulus material (external trends)
  - initial sense-making by members of the leadership team – adding their perspective and making connections
  - cross functional workshop to develop driving forces and strategic questions
  - follow up workshop to develop outline scenarios
  - the crafting of four scenarios and production of final materials
  - a final workshop to explore robustness of existing strategies, identify potential gaps and areas for further exploration.
• Participants (directors and senior managers) were invited to attend sessions, rather than compelled. Of critical significance were the interactive workshops and the user-friendly format of the final scenario documents.

Outcome

• Participants gained a broader understanding of external trends and issues through cross-functional sense-making.
• A set of 4 scenarios were developed and used to engender an appreciation of different potential futures.
• The scenarios provided insights to the strategic landscape, informing the communication of the future environment to HQ as part of strategic planning.
• Very positive feedback on both the process, experience and data / information produced.