The early stages of the decision making process are particularly exposed to inflexions from a variety of internal and external drivers which are not always immediately visible.
In addition, difficult to quantify issues such as technology development, regulatory directives, organisational structure, operational constraints and stakeholder expectations need to be taken into account.
Sectors such as defence, healthcare and engineering share three things in common - heavy capital development, product realisation years into the future and uncertainties around policy formulation.
Defence
The world continues to face novel and emergent security challenges. The pressure on reducing defence expenditure is mismatched by global threats on multiple fronts. Click here to learn how we are partnering with NATO to develop scenarios and associated resource and capability requirements
Healthcare
Healthcare is facing a plethora of challenges from the implications of an aging population and the affordability and access to basic standards of short and long term healthcare. These issues are set against a background of expectation that technology can solve rising expectations of healthcare which in turn puts pressure on the industry. Click here to read some of our latest thoughts on key issues facing the sector.
Engineering
Engineering is similarly faced with long lead times for major highly complex projects (e.g. infrastructure) and where good foresight practices can help mitigate risks as the engineering programme moves forward. Our processes and methods are particularly suited to address those early stage issues, notably at the design phase, which are so important to identify in many engineering projects – so as to avoid unintended consequences later on.
Click here to look at a number of applications.
Policy Formation
Early stage policy formulation is characterised by high levels of uncertainty and complexity. To mitigate this risk, decision makers need to rigorously explore all the potential number of outcomes and thereby reduce unintended consequences.