Strategic planning continues to evolve, with new frameworks emerging every year. But one profound aspiration of C-level stakeholders remains: to create future-proof, resilient strategies that will ensure not only the survival of their companies today, but also continuous success in the future.
This desire is nothing new—we can find historical precedents in the Han Dynasty, where emperors, guided by Confucian philosophy, addressed operational challenges while thoughtfully planning for the prosperity of future generations.
Today’s VUCA-defined world makes leaders revisit the topic of resilient strategy once again.
Two Factors of Future-Proof Strategy
After working in the domain of strategic planning for more than two decades, I see future readiness from two perspectives:
- Perspective 1 – Strategic choices. Strategy as a set of ideas and hypotheses that we validate; strategic choices that the organization makes.
- Perspective 2 – Strategy architecture. How the strategy is implemented, and how its parts are aligned.
The first is widely discussed in the literature. The second — more technical — is now gaining momentum due to the overall complexity of the strategic planning domain, shaped by the increasing diversity of stakeholders, evolving regulations, the growing number of strategy tools, and the need to connect all these elements into a coherent strategy.
The Perspective of Future-Proof Strategy (Strategy as Choices)
Let’s start with a brief overview of the factors of future-proof strategy as seen by recognized experts in the field (we are talking about strategy as an idea—the strategic choices management makes):
- Tracking external change signals 1
- Understanding and addressing stakeholder needs 2
- Continuous learning 3
- Ability to absorb shocks 4
- Embedding innovation into strategy 5
- Ability to quickly pivot 6
- Building adaptive capacity while sustaining current performance 7
Future-readiness involves different perspectives, and all authors agree that being adaptable and innovative are among the key factors.
When discussing the Ansoff Matrix, we touched on the idea of diversification as well (as a derivative of innovation and competition). The empirical research cited in the article formulated a criterion for long-term survival as a required but not sufficient condition:
“There is no reason to believe that those now at the top will stay there except as they keep abreast in the race of innovation and competition.”
The Only Constant is Change
Still, adaptability is a rather vague concept that needs to be translated into specific practices—as some authors attempt to do. The challenge is that these practices, by definition, are based on past experience. And, as with any analytical method, we must understand the limitations of such analysis. All specific recommendations about future-proof strategy rest on the assumption that the driving forces of the future will be similar in nature to those of the past.
The factors we see today as leading indicators of future success will most likely remain, but the operating environment will continue to evolve, eventually introducing new and more powerful driving forces.
As Heraclitus famously said:
“The only constant in life is change.”
We can observe how the domain of strategic planning itself is in constant flux. The pace and complexity of change will force us to adapt, combine, and retire many strategy tools, frameworks, and methods.
This brings us to the second perspective of future-proof strategy: strategy implementation—or, in a broader sense, strategy architecture.
Strategy Architecture for Future-Proof, Resilient Strategy
How should we organize our strategy work today to ensure that our organization remains adaptable to future challenges?
With the rationale of constant change, complexity, and ambiguity in mind, we can outline general principles for effective strategy architecture:
- Strategy should be modular, not monolithic — a modular structure is easier to maintain and allows parallel work across different parts of the strategy.
- Strategy should be quantified—with the primary goal of making vague ideas more specific and measurable.
In practice, such a strategy architecture can be represented by a set of cascaded scorecards. The role of each scorecard is to store a specific part of the strategic information and to ensure data consistency, performance reporting, accountability, traceability, and connections with other scorecards—either through data or contextual links.
A future-proof strategy architecture is built on two pillars:
We discussed the practical aspects of this architecture in two articles featured on our website. My general recommendation—regardless of your organization’s size—is to begin thinking about the strategy architecture you need in the context of your operational environment and the challenges you are facing.
Session: 'Future-Proof Strategy' is available as part of BSC Designer's ongoing learning program, offered both as an online and on-site workshop. Learn more....
Is Your Strategy Architecture Ready for AI?
When talking about future readiness, it makes sense to look at the trends unfolding right before our eyes. How will AI affect the two perspectives of future-proof strategy—the strategy itself and the strategy architecture?
The cornerstone of AI’s future effectiveness lies in the availability of relevant contextual information. Organizations today should begin collecting their strategic data—goals, metrics and their data, decision rationales, and change history—to build a richer context for future AI use. We’ve already started discussing steps in this direction. Providing AI with detailed contextual information will become a significant competitive advantage.
What about strategy implementation?
AI will eventually automate more business functions. As a result, some modules of strategy will be maintained primarily by AI, while others—such as leadership or high-level decision-making that require a human touch—will remain in the hands of strategists.
This trend reinforces the importance of strategy modularity and formal performance measurement, as discussed above.
Conclusions
A future-proof strategy is an adaptable strategy.
Depending on the business domain, adaptability may involve taking into account diverse stakeholder viewpoints, experimenting with new technologies, or improving internal systems.
At the implementation level, adaptability is supported by an appropriate strategy architecture—one that is modular and capable of adjusting to a changing business environment.
- Mintzberg, H., The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, Free Press, 1994 ↩
- Freeman, R.E., Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, Pitman Publishing, 1984 ↩
- Edmondson, A., The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth, Wiley, 2018 ↩
- Hamel, G., & Välikangas, L., The Quest for Resilience, Harvard Business Review, Sept 2003 ↩
- Christensen, C.M., The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, Harvard Business Review Press, 1997 ↩
- Doz, Y., & Kosonen, M., Fast Strategy: How Strategic Agility Will Help You Stay Ahead of the Game, Pearson Education, 2008 ↩
- Yu, Howard, Future Readiness Indicator, IMD Center for Future Readiness, 2021–2024 ↩
Alexis is a Senior Strategy Consultant and CEO at BSC Designer, with over 20 years of experience in strategic planning. With a background in applied mathematics and information technology, he brings a strong analytical and systems-oriented perspective to strategy and performance management. Alexis developed the “5 Step Strategy Implementation System” that helps companies with the practical implementation of their strategies. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences and has written more than 100 articles on strategy and performance management, as well as the book “10 Step KPI System”. His work is frequently cited in academic research.