Planning for long-range impacts

- Executive decisions are typically made in a highly ambiguous environment. It's tough to predict the future. This means you have to build scenarios and contingency plans. That's a requirement in this highly ambiguous environment. Some of the scenarios you need to lay out will lay out multiple likely possibilities. This includes competitor reactions. How are they going to react when you make a change in the market? You need to consider scenarios of market changes, like a recession and how that could impact the decision. Also look at some regulatory changes that could occur. One simple piece of legislation can make something go from a great decision to a horrible one. Lay out these contingencies and describe very clearly early warning indicators. So, think through if this scenario is going to happen. How can you predict it before that change comes to fruition? Think through the actions you'll take based upon those…