The Strategic Visioning System is outlined below and graphically described in Figure 3 as a series of divergent and convergent creative procedures.
Environmental Scanning
The environmental scanning procedure involves researching and identifying prevailing trends from each of the four categories in a nominal (individual), anonymous, and asynchronous (independent) environment. In a group brainstorming session using a synchronous, gallery writing (all group members simultaneously see inputs) environment these prevailing trends would be presented, discussed, and clustered/classified to eliminate irrelevance and duplication. Each participant votes on each major (and/or minor) classification of prevailing trends regarding the probability of occurrence and the relative impact on the industry or firm. A cumulative, weighted, or average score from all participating stakeholders voting on other participants’ input would establish relative priority ranking.
Interactive Analysis: Bisociation of Trends using Cross Impact Matrix
In the brainstorming procedure participants and group would focus on the highest-ranking trends and develop original ideas using the Bisociation Brainstorming technique, which focuses on the interaction of these prevailing trends taken two (or more) at a time. A Cross Impact Matrix graphically presents the outputs from this bisociation process as anticipated opportunities and threats (or challenges) in the firm’s industry environment. The resulting opportunities and threats are further prioritized based on the product scores of the interacting trends.
Emergent Idea Creation
The Cross Impact Matrix output of opportunities and threats from the brainstorming session facilitate the generation of new ideas, solutions, and strategies. These innovations capitalize on new opportunities or minimize related threats and challenges. Innovations can be articulated as potential new markets, applications, processes, products, supply sources, services, strategies, problem solutions, organizational structures, distribution systems, public policy, or new combinations of transaction architecture and exchange mechanisms, such as electronic commerce.
The ideas are evaluated based on their value potential, success feasibility, and paradigm relatedness.
Evaluation and Implementation (Secondary Phase)
In the Evaluation phase, the organization’s relevant internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) are used to assess the feasibility of the innovation as part of the overall strategy formulation and implementation process. From this evaluation, feasible radical and incremental innovations and supportive infrastructure and systems, are endorsed that are relevant to the organization’s distinctive competences.
The Implementation phase of this brainstorming process can produce radical innovations of new value-added products or services that can be commercialized and new markets that can be developed. Organizations can re-engineer their core competences and reinvent their business models. Incremental innovations of new processes, supply sources, and exchange mechanisms can result in new support infrastructure, new organizational structures and information systems, as well as the development new knowledge resources. Novel ideas could take the form of new strategies, strategic alliances, outsourcing arrangements, cost cutting and efficiency enhancing initiatives, problem solutions, and corporate policy.
