Consulting and Mentoring
The Neville Freeman Agency works with Australian businesses and
organisations to help them clarify issues in the strategic management
of their businesses. Frequently this work involves developing customised
scenarios, although we also use a variety of other modes of strategic
enquiry, such as critical conversations and systemic approaches
to all aspects of organisational development. Through mentoring
we help CEO's and senior executives develop the 'unwritten' and
'non-technical' skills required for successful business life.
We are well known for the creation of powerful and diverse intellectual
resources to help organisations identify their strategic goals and
then develop ways to meet them. This requires both skillful project
design and the ability to select and source the right people for
the job. For more on our immediate faculty, please refer to the
Futurists' Register and our
Lateral Poppies.
An important aim in these projects is for the organisation itself
to assimilate these adaptive learning approaches to strategy-making.
The times they are a changing
September 11 has changed us all. It has changed the way we see
the world, how we feel about each other, how we look at each other
across boardrooms, across workspaces and across the aisles of airplanes.
The things we thought to be important (lifestyle, wealth, status
and power) have paled against the things we took for granted (the
benevolence of individualistic capitalism, global security, the
'long boom' and our freedom). The world is a more dangerous place,
presenting a riskier and more complicated environment in which to
do business or manage a public sector portfolio.
Meanwhile, the Knowledge Economy bubbles away. Emergent collaborative
models are reshaping society, inciting a shift toward pluralism,
participation, rights and responsibilities, and transparency is
changing concepts and practices from governance to conflict-resolution
to sustainability. As societies change, attitudes and behaviors
change. Increasingly we are placing a higher value on conversation,
collaboration, innovation, emotional intelligence and lifelong learning
- competencies that encourage the continued pursuit and application
of new knowledge.
No organisation is immune to the forces that are transforming
our world; every organisation can and must evolve. Today, to evolve
means to devolve power to the networks; to devolve we must involve
more ideas and more people at all levels in strategy, innovation
and value creation.
Scenarios - What's the story?
The major benefit of scenario planning is to improve the quality
of thinking which leads to strategic decision. It does this by building
stories about different possible futures which, themselves, flow
from a deep understanding of the uncertainties which are shaping
our world.
Scenarios are, thus, particularly helpful in the current environment
of accelerating, rapid change brought about by revolutionary breakthroughs
in communications, biotechnology, globalisation and a host of new
environmental paradigms.
Our scenario building approach investigates major change factors,
such as emergent and breakthrough technology, policy intentions
and market forces, then develops scenario stories by identifying
the way key uncertainties interact in a systemic context.
The scenarios reveal a variety of surprise elements from outside
the organisation's usual frame of reference, unexpected interactive
dynamics of identified trends, the sequencing of anticipated events
and areas of hidden risk. Once painted, the scenario landscape can
be used to test the robustness of proposed strategies and policies,
and to design alternative approaches that would be more resilient
to future changes. Scenarios are useful for resolving conflicting
features of the strategic landscape.
In addition, scenarios involve many people in understanding the
future operating climate for the organisation, and in creating suitable
strategies and initiatives for the future. Through scenarios the
organisation can facilitate an ongoing strategic conversation that
supports effective growth and change.
The learning and scenario building exercise is helpful in that
it may:
deliver a better understanding of supply-side considerations, including
a deeper and more diverse understanding of new technologies that
may 'impact' on what we do and offer competitive advantage into
the future;
deliver a better understanding of the social, economic and environmental
parameters in which businesses and organisations have to operate
into the future;
deliver an understanding of how competitors at local, national,
regional and global levels may develop and respond into the future;
improve understanding of the value chain;
help identify areas of focus and improve the thinking on assumptions,
and their systemic links, for subsequent quantitative and qualitative
modeling;
produce a blanket understanding and a concordant set of strategies
for future directions; and, produce a common 'metaphorical' language
as the platform for on-going strategic conversation.
Scenario Examples
Alternative Futures: Scenarios for Business in Australia to the
year 2015
Summary
Document (PDF) Sydney 2000
A comprehensive series of scenarios produced by Australian business
stakeholders for Australian business. Progressed globalisation is
considered alongside global failure, through a deep analysis of
the IT revolution, social concerns, environmental considerations
and the imperatives of the knowledge age.
Navigating a Diverse Region: Scenarios for Asia
Summary
Document (PDF) Sydney 1998
The Asian Financial Crisis called for a re-examination of what
we know, what is uncertain and what is possible in the future. The
Crisis was the catalyst for this broad sweep analysis of Asia that
took the form of dissertation and discussion, considering capital
flows, the Asian diaspora, the Asian model and guided societies,
the role of institutions, multinational networks and the adoption
of technology.
Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to read PDF documents... 
An excellent introductory text to Scenarios is the 'Art of the
Long View' by Peter Schwartz. Available at Books
from Richmond.
Innovation
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