Even if they are never laid out in a formal document, every company is going to have strategic goals. After all, no executive is going to say that they don’t want their company to grow or otherwise improve. To do so would be devastating to not only the business and company morale but their personal career and reputation as well.Executive SummaryScenario analysis doesn’t have to involve wading through a list of a thousand what-ifs about what can go wrong. Here, consultant Carol Williams suggests a simple formula to help carriers achieve strategic goals by considering three scenarios to understand the possible consequences of plans and conditions that need to happen for successful outcomes.
Some example goals for companies in the property/casualty insurance industry include reducing the loss ratio, entering a new market (either geographic or product) or growing market share. But what happens too often is these goals are developed hastily.
Many executives unfortunately only consider the short term (six to 12 months) and make many (sometimes erroneous) assumptions that events will go a certain way. Both upstream dependencies (i.e., what must happen to accomplish the goal) and downstream consequences of this goal are not considered, much less any contingency plans developed.