ABSTRACT
Most firms operate in uncertain and dynamic environments. To remain competitive they need to anticipate changes in their external marketing environment and be prepared to adapt business activities accordingly. Managers need to be prepared and have some outline plans for dealing with different eventualities so that they are less likely to be exposed to loosing business. This commentary focuses on how managers learn to “know” what is happening and what may happen in the marketplace, and discusses the use and value of scenario planning in the context of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Every firm has to anticipate how its external environment might change over the short-, medium- and long-term. Such anticipated changes will have a direct impact upon marketing and managerial decision making, and firms will try to anticipate the effect of decisions against desired objectives. The process of strategy formulation allows firms to take decisions regarding actions and activities with the purpose of matching its internal competencies and the external environment it anticipates in the future.
Michael Johnston, Audrey Gilmore and David Carson
European Journal of Marketing (2008), Vol. 42 No. 11/12, pp. 1170-1178
