• Do you have a particular vision for the development of your part of the business (or the area you are interested in) in the next three to five years?
• What are the key differences from today?
• What breakthroughs are needed to achieve that vision?
• Can you describe intermediate states on the road to your vision?
• What current boundaries are likely to have disappeared in the next few years?
• What paradigms are up for renewal?
• What will be the growth areas in your industry in the next three to five years?
• What changes in customer needs and preferences do you see emerging?
• What are the drivers of these changes?
• Do you see new types of customers emerge? Do you see old types disappear? How do new types differ from existing ones? American Management Association / www.amanet.org
• What kinds of new developments will most benefit customers? Can the developments be assigned to specific segments of the market?
• What will successful companies be doing right in three to five years? What will the unsuccessful ones be doing wrong?
• What geographically related changes do you anticipate?
• How do you expect the U.S., European, and Asian marketplace to evolve?
• What will be the driving economies, and which ones will lag behind?
• What global regulations/policies/practices do you expect to see changing?
• What role do you foresee for emerging economies?
• How will competitive factors affect the pace of change or level of innovation?
• What entirely new kinds of competitors do you envision?
• Which types of companies will lead the markets in three to five years’ time?
• What (and who) is likely to be your biggest competitive threat in five years?
• What innovative new products, services, and business concepts do you expect to see in the coming years? Will they replace or complement existing concepts?
• Who will be the early market adopters for these concepts?
• How will the new products, services, and business concepts be brought to the market?
• Will any new business models be required or take hold?
• What role will technology play in your business area?
• What are the relevant, fundamental, new technologies that are likely to reach commercial viability in the next three to five years?
• In your wildest dreams, what would be the most fundamental change that would redefine your business or market (it need not be realistic!).
• What are the greatest opportunities if this change would take place?
• What do you think is not an issue that is getting too much attention today?