Horizon Scanning: Four questions social enterprises need to answer
With so much going on in the present, it’s not always easy to look to the future – this is where horizon scanning comes in.
The identification of potential risks and opportunities is vital to the long-term health of any business, and social enterprises are no different. Horizon scanning helps in assessing whether you are adequately prepared for future changes or threats.
Four key horizon scanning questions to answer
- What would you do if grant funding you relied on stopped?
The funding landscape is always changing and reliance on a single fund could be a major risk in the future. Diversifying your income is key to long term income resilience and horizon scanning can identify where new revenue streams could be found.
- How would you cope with sudden staff shortages; have you considered succession planning?
Staffing and recruitment are major issues facing businesses with vacancies reaching record highs. The impact of staff shortages can be mitigated with proper succession planning in place.
- Do you have a robust strategy on the shelf ready to deploy in case of another economic shutdown?
Global pandemics, economic shocks and environmental events can have major impacts on business. If performed consistently and effectively, horizon scanning, when combined with other forecasting tools, can assist in helping your business be more agile and evolve/pivot quickly when required to take advantage of potential opportunities and survive potential threats.
- How would your business benefit from being first to access new ways of working, using different supply chains, selling different products?
Quickly identifying market trends and adopting more efficient ways of working are essential to a growing, thriving social enterprise. Horizon scanning can find the information most relevant to your social enterprise and be used for strategic decision making.
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Social enterprises face a unique and complex series of issues. To ensure the long-term health and survival of your social enterprise, an understanding of these issues is vital. In this article, I will summarise four key areas you need to consider: sources of funding, governance considerations, the power of people, and sustainable growth.
Horizon Scanning: Four questions social enterprises need to answer
With so much going on in the present, it’s not always easy to look to the future. However, the identification of potential risks and opportunities is vital to the long-term health of any business, and social enterprises are no different. Horizon scanning helps in assessing whether you are adequately prepared for future changes or threats.
