Strategy development in times of multiple crises

The world is going crazy. Multiple crises or the polycrisis make it difficult for large and small companies, organizations and politicians - regional, national and worldwide - to look to the future with confidence.

Being able to act in the face of these crises is the great challenge for decision-makers both at the top of companies and in every department. Success depends on developments in technologies, politics, customer behavior and competition, and then on one's own strategic decisions. The stable business model is unlikely to exist anymore - whether pizzeria, automotive supplier, nursing home or software house. The pressure on managers to have everything under control here is immense.

Technological developments - above all that of artificial intelligence - geopolitical tensions with an impact on supply chains and sales markets, climate catastrophes, social division, demographic change, loss of purchasing power, inadequate infrastructures, shortage of skilled workers, competition from abroad, .... all of this is partly mutually dependent and plays a more or less important role for every company, if only because of the resulting unpredictable reluctance of customers to buy.

The major developments do not always take place globally - social upheavals, climate catastrophes, a shortage of skilled workers, future AI, etc. are also national or regional influences.

Systemic approaches promise solutions - but few achieve this or are systemic at all. Consideo can do more here - even beyond the use of the iMODELER as a decision support system.

Systemic strategies

Many consulting approaches convey best practice and thus do not do justice to the individual challenges of companies. If best practice alone were the right thing, everyone would be equally successful.

Like hardly any other consulting firm, Consideo can both classify the multiple crises and grasp the complex framework conditions of its clients. Together with them, we can then identify the systemic levers for success and assess the effects and developments.

The information situation seems diffuse. A number of well-known think tanks, futurologists and business consulting firms, together with quality media, provide a wealth of background information on developments in the world. To make sense of these is an almost impossible task. Consideo scans over 50 such information channels and locates the information in different systemic cause-and-effect models.

Of course, there is not just one predictable future, but several possible futures. And the picture also includes crucial information from the company - hard and soft factors - which is why our consulting approach is above all a dialogue. We listen, ask the decisive questions, give impulses, and together we recognize the connections and approaches for successful action.

Our approach

In strategy consulting, we act as consultants and give concrete recommendations for action. But we are also moderators and coaches in the approach.

We start with the preliminary talk, usually by telephone, about the goals and the possible time frame.

1. This is followed by a free workshop of about three hours, in which the basic influences on possible business models are already roughly collected. In this workshop, we make the procedure clear, and the customers can decide whether we take further steps.

2. For the next workshop, we will bring scenarios (corporate foresight) on possible developments of the decisive boundary conditions. In a second step, we record the strengths and weaknesses (SWOT) of the company with the customers. This already roughly deals with the dimensions (Dynamic Strategy Map/BSC) product, customer, employee, finances. It's about hard and soft factors.

3. The third workshop will then focus on the business model. Efficiency means doing things right, but effectiveness means doing the right things in the first place. For this workshop, we offer the method of idealized system design in order to develop completely new business ideas.

4. In the fourth step, we bring things together and look at how the goals depend on the framework conditions, the concrete steps and the resources. We are developing a systemic business model.

5. The fifth step is operational planning and the offer to accompany the implementation with key figures (in a simulation model, a digital twin of the company) and a coaching approach.

Quality management

In advance of our services, we discuss either the scope of the model or the time to be invested. We take minutes of meetings, store sources in the models that we make available to customers, and we reflect on the course of the project together with our customers at the end - also recorded.

Our promise

We promise to work out the interdependencies around the complex challenges of our customers and then derive recommendations for action. If we are unable to create a model for a topic, we would be more annoyed about it than about the circumstance of not charging a fee in such a case.