Bernadette BoasExecutive Leadership Coach, Trainer and Speaker, Ball of Fire Coaching · Become the Leader Everyone Wants to Follow and No One Can Overlook.

Boost Revenue & Cut Costs - The Power of Scenario Planning!

29 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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1:29

In this concise presentation, the speaker cites a 2023 Harvard Business Review study showing that companies that actively employ scenario planning achieve 60% higher revenue growth and 45% lower disruption costs during market shocks. The talk emphasizes that relying on a single forecast is risky; instead, leaders should develop three to four plausible future scenarios, each grounded in distinct assumptions. By asking “what if” questions and crafting contingency strategies for each scenario, organizations can break the assumption that their primary forecast is correct and become better prepared for unexpected changes or disruptions. The core message is that scenario planning enables leaders to anticipate multiple possible futures, reducing risk and driving growth.

Chapters

According to Harvard Business Review in 2023, companies that actively practice scenario planning report 60% higher revenue growth and 45% lower disruption cost during market shocks. It's all about not just forecasting one outcome. Leaders have to build 3 or 4 plausible futures, each based on different assumptions. Scenario planning. It speaks for itself. It's looking at multiple scenarios that could be going on that you might even create of your own and looking at contingency strategies. So what if this were to happen? What if that were to happen? What could we look like if we did this instead of this? And this is where leaders really stop betting on one future. And really start being well aware that there could be multiple degrees of the future or multiple views of the future coming down the road. And so scenario planning is deliberately breaking the assumption of what if we're wrong and moving more into what if this particular scenario happens of the multiple scenarios we're painting in order to really be able to anticipate any change or disruption that might be coming.