Guest Lecturer: Michinari Nishimura (Managing Director of Deloitte Tohmatsu LLC)

On 27 January, during the 'International Management Seminar I' lecture (instructor: Professor Kenichiro Kuroiwa), Mr. Michinari Nishimura, Managing Director of Deloitte Tohmatsu LLC, delivered a scenario planning workshop.

First, there was a lecture on scenario planning, covering its fundamentals, origins and applications. This was followed by a detailed explanation of the scenario planning process.
Next, the students split into groups and conducted scenario planning on the theme 'What will Japan's entertainment market look like in 2040?'. This enabled them to apply what they had learnt in the lecture and deepen their understanding. Due to time constraints, we were unable to complete the entire process, but experiencing the core elements enabled us to gain an overall understanding.
Finally, we reflected individually on the future of our current organization or ourselves around 2040, sharing our insights.

Scenario planning is a method of gaining future insights and formulating present strategies through backcasting. I felt that the implementation process itself fosters an attitude of preparedness for changes in the business environment. Even if the future doesn't unfold exactly as the scenario, it enhances the ability to make agile decisions. It also helps us identify which companies to partner with — that is, what kind of ecosystem to build — to acquire the knowledge and know-how that we will need in the future but don't have yet. This workshop was a fitting end to the International Management Exercise, deepening our understanding of scenario planning and connecting to the overall learning.