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This case is a cautionary tale. Though “RosyOpticals.com” was one of analysts’ favorite start‐ups in the Internet boom, this San Francisco company’s prodigious plans to get big in a hurry caused it to ignore some basic tenets of strategic management. It is not that giving their offering away to grow exponentially was a totally a bad idea as an initial strategy. But they did not encourage managers to develop realistic alternative plans. This article incorporates Doug Randall’s experiences from April 2000 to June 2001 and also the insights from a number of his colleagues at similar companies.

To present the highlights of The Association for Strategic Planning's 2004 conference, “Strategy in a Turbulent World”.

S&L Contributing Editor Stan Abraham attended the conference and selected the most interesting presentations for his report.

Highlights include: Dwight Allen, “Globalization at risk,” David La Piana, “Nonprofit organizations,” Peter Bershatsky, “Managing innovation,” and Doug Randall, “Imagine the future.”

These are conference presentations with various research methodologies.

In his presentation, Dwight Allen suggests that great uncertainty exists as to how international or global trade might develop. Faced with such uncertainty, strategists should undertake scenario planning to develop flexible strategies that can be implemented in a variety of futures.

Investors the world over are jockeying for their share of the giant emerging market in China. But China's explosive political, economic, and social forces could propel it toward some unexpected future—not necessarily one of growth and prosperity. This larger concern—the fundamental risk—puts today's headlines and issues into perspective.

Two completely different views on data distribution – the lockbox versus the chatty network – pose a dilemma that strategic planners must address and resolve. How do organizations make sense of conflicting possibilities for the future of information networks?

Recently the author participated in a discussion with privacy and security professionals attending an annual privacy and security conference titled “Seeking the middle path.” They explored four scenarios for the future of privacy and security.

The experts explored a future called Aikido – a scenario where the value proposition of networking takes precedence over privacy. Some of the elements of this scenario can be discerned from examining the offerings of companies that operate on the Internet today.

Other companies need to explore these four scenarios in the light of their own security and privacy concerns as well as the possibilities of developing network business models.

The next step for CEOs struggling with issues of privacy and security: figure out the connection between sense making (expanding your view of new possibilities like networks and reperceiving what they mean to the industry and your organization) and business judgment (making concrete decisions that exploit that knowledge).

The author introduces a scenario called Aikido – a possible future where the value proposition of networking takes precedence over privacy. He shows how several existing companies are pioneering this value proposition.

The paper aims to warn executives that their strategy initiatives are at risk every time the message delivered in their speeches is not convincing or clear. The responsibility for producing a successful narrative is on leaders to transfer meaning and motivation, rather than on the audience to receive and interpret a speech.

The paper focuses on four elements when crafting effective narratives: audience, purpose, acts, and flow. Each of these elements involves a fundamental choice. The paper proposes that understanding these elements will enable to messages to be put across using the right architecture for persuasion. Detailed points on each are offered.

The paper finds that, when crafted with emotion and logic, potent stories can motivate people to adopt a challenge or change their behavior.

The authors are veteran scenario developers whose clients include prominent corporations and innovative federal agencies. Their how‐to advice is based on field experience.

The paper proposes that effective narratives – stories – that win both hearts and minds – enable leaders to achieve difficult goals.

This paper aims to argue that the reason most organizations get blindsided by market transformations is that they undertake strategic planning processes – like scenario development –without seeing them as a unique opportunity for learning about and exploring multiple futures.

The paper demonstrates the Monitor360 approach to learning from scenario development.

The paper reveals that exploring multiple possible ways the future could unfold gives decision‐makers the ability to look in the right place for game‐changing events, to rehearse the appropriate responses and to systematically track indicators of change.

The process offers five discrete steps to make scenario planning more effective. The paper explains why each step should be undertaken with a distinct mindset.

When planners follow the process described in the paper, which systematically cuts through the barriers to effective group learning and decision making, and combine it with principles that give discipline and robustness to the entire endeavor, the future, and the company's place in it, comes into a much sharper focus.