How to Engage in Really Long-Term Strategic Digital Planning

It may seem crazy to do strategic planning on such a long horizon. Few people can adequately predict what digital trends will dominate in the coming years, let alone the coming decades. After all, who could have predicted the current state of mobile, social, and analytics tools in the mid-1990s, before the dot-com boom even got started? Yet the trends started then have played out according to a generally predictable path. While a smaller number of companies profited directly from those trends than expected, many more have been disrupted because of them. Conducting a thought exercise can help highlight the benefits of long-term strategic planning about digital trends. Let’s consider the potential strategic impact of self-driving cars and other automated transportation services on business and society. It may be difficult to predict accurately exactly when or how self-driving cars will become mainstream. It’s safe to say, however, that this future will eventually become reality.