All strategic planning should be forward based, and thus built on trends.  Scenario planning requires understanding trends, including their direction, speed of adoption and impacts.  Yet, many planners struggle to know the difference between a trend and a fad.  And many more don’t know how to measure trends – or track them.

This podcast describes very clearly what a trend is, and how to distinguish from a fad.  It also makes clear how you would track a trend so you can use it in your strategic planning. Using examples from steel manufacturing to auto electrification and others this podcast reveals how you can observe behaviors, quantify them, and then measure them to build good scenarios that guide strategic planning and resource allocation.

Thinking points:

• Do you know the difference between a trend and a fad?

• Do you embed trends into your strategic planning?

• Do you measure the speed with which trends affect your customers’ behaviors?

• Do you know the difference between measuring trend effects and sales?

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