Scenario planning has received much top-level interest in the corporate sector as a way of realistically assessing the long-term future. Yet seldom are line managers included in initiatives, even though their exposure to customers and competitors means they often pick up subtle signals that are the first alert of changes to the operating environment. By exposing line managers to alternative scenarios, organizations can reduce the risk of ignoring the small environmental changes that are the advance warning for major discontinuities. Now completely updated in a new edition, the message of this practical, hands-on guide is that scenarios are not predictions or forecasts, but powerful weapons in managing the uncertainties of the future. Taking a conceptual rather than mathematical approach, it includes a wealth of case studies, checklists, early indicators and examples.

After research at the University of California, Berkeley and as a Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford, Gill Ringland had a career in the IT industry. After roles in software houses, process control and semiconductor companies, she joined ICL. There she was responsible for building a GBP3bn new business over five years. As Head of Strategy she used scenarios to understand the complexities of the Information & Communications industry and map ICL's future. Gill is a past Member of SRC's Computing Science Committee and of the Council of the Economic and Social Research Council. She is a Court Assistant of the Information Technologists Livery Company, an ICL Fellow Emeritus, a Fellow of the British Computer Society and Graduate of Stanford's Senior Executive Program. Since 2002 Gill has written and consulted widely as Fellow and Chief Executive of St Andrews Management Institute (SAMI). She is the author of three books - Scenario Planning, Scenarios in Business and Scenarios in Public Policy - all published by Wiley. Scenarios in Marketing, co-authored with Laurie Young, is currently in preparation.