Faced with a constantly changing business environment, our leaders in international education should be ready for any possible scenarios in the short and long term future and prepare strategic plans to reduce the element of surprise to a minimum. We invited Richard Jaimes and Konstantinos Manginis Founders of TurningPoint Management Consultancy to show us how other industries like Aviation, Education and the Hotel industry are tackling these challenges, and to draw up possible maneuvering options.

We started with an explanation of Strategic Foresight, its main characteristic to think in networks, and also the importance of such an approach when thinking about the future and trying to understand and prepare for changes during unknown circumstances. Then, we presented an overview of the impact of Covid-19 on the travel industry, based on concreted data from the past months. The purpose there was to give an overview of where do we stand today and what are the expectations for the imminent future (next 3 months).

Moving into the next step, a collection of trends and influences were presented for the industries of: Aviation, Education, Hospitality & Tourism; with the purpose to inspire and inform about possible strategic solutions. In addition, we also presented a collection of impacts and implications for the respective industries, in order to highlight the main areas/topics for consideration.

“Plan for the worst and hope for the best”

Following the trends and impacts, 4 scenarios were derived that map the different possibilities of a post-pandemic situation. According to “Plan for the worst and hope for the best”, the scenarios were describing diverse situations ranging from an optimistic to a drastic and conservative oncome situation. In addition, it was given a regional perspective, and a mapping of what would be the most likely scenarios to be followed in different countries around the world, based on facts and metrics that are available today. The aim of the scenario investigation was to start already clustering the different characteristic and start introducing the concept of the need for different solutions depending the targeted regions or markets.

Last, but most importantly participants were given a set of high-level strategic areas as a recommendation to explore possible solutions and help to derive strategies to overcome the uncertainties and the current blocking points.

  • Assure public safety
  • Alternate Business Models
  • Simplified processes, transparency & agility
  • Step into Retail and new Services
  • Looking beyond the immediate future
  • Focus on Local
  • Hybrid Solutions

We took the first step and set the basis to extend the scope and to explore ALTO’s members organisations’ futures and possibilities and start deriving more detailed solutions for implementation.

“Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future” – Walt Disney

Richard and Konstantinos closed the session with an inspirational quote that has never been more relevant in our lifetimes and encouraged ALTO members to contact them through TurningPoint Consulting if they have any questions or comments about the session or the post-pandemic business landscape.

The presentation slides and the full recording of the webinar is available to members, please check your e-mail for more details or contact Reka, thank you.