Strategic Foresight and Scenario Planning

Purpose and Impact

Strategic Foresight and Scenario Planning is an intensive, workshop-driven program that helps you actively build, test, and refine strategies for real-world conditions. Through peer discussion, live exercises, and case studies, you will practice applying strategic frameworks to complex situations, stress-test your thinking against different scenarios, and refine your ability to lead strategic conversations within your organization.

This program is not about studying theory — it’s about doing the work in real time. You’ll bring live strategic challenges into the room, refine your ideas with peers and Ivey faculty, and develop a customized strategic framework that fits your organization’s goals and realities. Along the way, you’ll build skills in sensemaking, foresight, prioritization, and decision-making under complexity.

Participant Profile

This program is built for decision-makers who are shaping strategy in environments of growth, disruption, or change. Participants typically lead teams, business units, or organizations where setting direction, prioritizing resources, and navigating complexity are daily responsibilities.

Common roles include:

• General Managers and Business Unit Leaders
• Directors and VPs across Strategy, Operations, Marketing, and Innovation
• Founders and Entrepreneurs leading growth or repositioning efforts

You’ll get the most from this program if you're actively working on strategic challenges and want to sharpen how you build, stress-test, and apply strategy across your organization.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of Strategic Foresight and Scenario Planning, you will be ready to lead strategic planning with greater clarity, resilience, and impact. Here’s what you can expect:

• Build Strategic Agility: Develop flexible strategies that adapt to shifting market conditions, emerging risks, and new opportunities without losing focus or momentum.
• Sharpen Strategic Choices: Frame decisions more clearly, prioritize actions more efficiently, and balance short-term execution with long-term objectives.
• Strengthen Foresight and Resilience: Apply scenario planning and sense-making tools to anticipate change, uncover risks, and build strategies that withstand pressure.
• Lead Focused Strategic Conversations: Align teams around key priorities through sharper dialogue, clearer organizing principles, and practical frameworks for decision-making.
• Create Your Personal Strategy Playbook: Leave with a customized working plan ready to guide action in your organization.

Return on Investment

FAQs

What funding resources are available?

Organizations and participants in Canada may benefit from the Canada Job Grant or the Canada Training Credit to offset a portion of program fees. Visit our Funding Resources page to learn more.

How should I prepare before attending the program?

Our program managers will contact all registered participants prior to the program start date with instructions to join our online Learning Management System. Once logged in, you will be able to create a class profile, view other participants' profiles, and access a list of assigned pre-reading, cases, and activities. Plan to review and complete preparation work in advance of each class session.

Will the sessions be lecture-based?

At Ivey, we embrace learning as an interactive experience. Rather than lecturing, your faculty facilitators will guide the group through hands-on activities, discussions, cases, simulations, and more. To get the most value from your learning experience, you should expect to be present and engaged in class sessions. To learn more, click here to visit our Learning Experience page.