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Using scenarios to focus R&D

Gill Ringland (Gill Ringland, a Fellow of St Andrew’s Management Institute (SAMI), focuses on using future studies and scenarios to improve decision making in the present (gill.ringland@btinternet.com). She first worked with scenarios while Group Executive, Strategy, for ICL, now part of the Fujitsu Group. She is the author of three recent books – Scenarios in Business, Scenario Planning: Managing for the Future, and Scenarios in Public Policy.)

Strategy & Leadership

ISSN: 1087-8572

Article publication date: 1 February 2003

1384

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of scenarios in planning research and development (R&D). R&D programs often focus on the technology, which is relatively forecastable. But the products that are the ultimate output of R&D programs will have to succeed a world in which lifestyles and society are changing. By using scenarios to explore alternative views of the future, R&D programs can be designed to anticipate change, to watch for signs of the changes, and to be more robust. The paper describes in some detail an example of using scenarios for an information and communication technology R&D program. The implications for corporate planners are detailed.

Keywords

Citation

Ringland, G. (2003), "Using scenarios to focus R&D", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 45-55. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878570310455042

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited

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