STRATEGY FOR WHAT’S NEXT.An independent strategy and design studio
for owners, boards and teams responsible for business growth.
We help you see new possibilities, decide where to place your bets and build a way to act on that choice - from a futures perspective.
PERSPECTIVEYour business still performs well. But what has driven it for years may no longer be enough.
Where will our next growth come from?
What should we commit to? What should we stop doing?
We help identify and choose new growth directions, categories, products and business models.
There are plenty of ideas. The challenge is choosing.
What is worth developing? What is missing?
What should our portfolio look like in a few years?
We help shape your future portfolio and create a framework for product decisions.
You see changes that could reshape your category, but turning them into decisions is difficult.
How can we work meaningfully with a five- or ten-year horizon?
We help use a longer horizon to make decisions today.
You have a strategy and plenty of ideas. Yet the pieces are starting to drift apart.
What are we really committing to? What does that mean for each part of the business?
We help define a direction and translate it into priorities, actions and accountability.
What you commit to, and what you deliberately choose not to do.
What needs to be launched, tested or changed.
Who makes the next decisions, using which criteria, and when to revisit earlier assumptions.
You know what you’re committing to.
And how to put it into action.
Selected projects that turned possibilities into choices, and choices into action.
Arvato wanted to identify new growth opportunities for the years ahead. The key question was which new roles the company could take on, using its capabilities to respond to changing customer needs and market conditions.
Together with a team of experienced Arvato managers, we explored a broad range of possibilities. Futures thinking workshops, research and 14 expert interviews helped test the initial ideas against knowledge of the market and the changes that could shape its future.
We developed four potential growth directions. For each, we described how it would create value, the capabilities required and the key assumptions to validate.
The work created a basis for comparing the four directions and deciding where to start. We recommended validating two first because of their implementation potential.
We prepared a 12-month plan covering conversations with customers and partners, pilots, and tests of demand and commercial viability. The results would inform decisions to develop the solutions further, change the assumptions or stop the work.
YES wanted to put its strategic goal into practice: develop its product and service portfolio around core customer needs. It needed to translate that goal into everyday team decisions: what to design, what to buy and how to choose ideas for further development.
We shifted attention to the start of the process: understanding customer needs, defining the roles of products in the portfolio and preparing briefs. These findings would guide design and purchasing while respecting the character of each brand.
We designed a process combining regular customer research, shared trend reviews, sales analysis and rapid testing of concepts and prototypes.
Two decision gates would structure the work. The first would produce product briefs and a roadmap covering launches in the coming year and directions for the next three to five years. The second would evaluate collection concepts against agreed criteria. Product, marketing, sales and designers would take part in the decisions together.
Zyguła needed a coherent strategy for adapting its offer to changing customer needs and preparing the leadership team for implementation.
The company chose to grow in its home region of western Poland through two formats: category A Delikatesy stores and the new Deli 2.0 model. It defined the pace of expansion and priorities for the offer, shopping experience and organisational development.
We developed an assortment framework based on customer needs and defined the roles of the main brand, private labels and local brands. Deli 2.0 combined traditional service with faster shopping and self-service.
The implementation programme covered in-store tests, redesigned displays, new brands and hot-food offers, and communication and service standards. Each project had an expected outcome, an owner and a deadline.
How can an educational offer evolve as the needs of young people, adults and the labour market change? TEB Edukacja needed to define how to meet current expectations while preparing for future changes.
We organised development opportunities and identified priorities, combining improvements to the current offer with the search for new educational solutions.
We created a shared framework for decisions about developing the offer, together with a plan for testing selected directions in practice. This gave TEB Edukacja a basis for introducing changes gradually and assessing their potential before making larger investments.
The future of the biathlon centre involved many groups: Tatra National Park, local government, athletes, clubs, residents, tourists and event organisers. Each could have a different view of the place’s future.
We took the work into 2035. Three independent groups developed their own visions for the centre. Their differences turned out to be mainly about details, rather than direction.
The shared vision was a centre combining world-class sport, training, recreation, education and nature, rooted in regional life and managed on an economically sound basis.
The shared vision began to generate concrete criteria for the next decisions: which functions the centre should offer, what should be underground, how to reconcile sport with recreation and landscape protection, and which management model was needed.
2035 became a tool for deciding what to design today.
HOW WE WORK
We use the future to make decisions today, so you know what to do next Monday.
From possibilities to action.
Look beyond what seems obvious today.
Decide what deserves your time, money and attention.
Test them with customers, experts or a market experiment.
Revisit your decisions when new knowledge emerges.
GREENHAT
STRATEGY / FUTURES / RESEARCH / DESIGN
We are a small, senior team. We help owners and boards choose a direction and turn it into action.
We combine strategy, futures, research, cognitive and behavioural science with design. For specific challenges, we select external experts - from researchers and sociologists to specialists in design, finance and healthcare. This means every project combines our strategic experience with the knowledge of people who understand the field inside out.
We work with our clients through workshops and expert input in an interdisciplinary team, from exploring possibilities to testing assumptions and making the first moves.
projects in 10 years
returning clients
FutureS Thinking Summer School editions / futures practitioners
THINKING
We write, teach and develop our own tools for working with the future.
A book about acting in uncertainty - coming soon.
Ask about the bookFuture scenarios for Western civilisation in 2040.
futuresthinking.plA school for putting futures thinking into practice.
futuresthinking.schoolLET’S TALK ABOUT WHAT’S NEXT
You don’t need a brief.
Just an important decision to make.
WRITE TO US