A network-based futures method for strategic business planning

Many strategic decisions in business are made in a context which the decision makers perceive as uncertain, complex and opaque. A method, based on Rhyne's field anomaly relaxation technique, is described of generating a network of states which characterise the environment or context in which strategic decisions are to be made. These states represent possible future conditions for the business, and knowledge of them allows improved strategic understanding and decision making to be achieved. This paper describes the method, using a representative real-life application to illustrate the process.