The Covid-19 crisis is an unprecedented event, the exact impact of which is impossible to foresee. However, those organisations that have dealt with the crisis best are those that had robust strategies in place for dealing with the unpredictable.

There are a multitude of different tools available to help organisations consider and prepare for potential futures that should form part of business and strategy planning. These are vital for building resilience, as Econsultancy’s Developing Future Strategy: Long-Term Thinking for Marketers report notes: “Long-term future thinking can make the difference between whether an organisation thrives and survives or is swept away.”

Although planning for the long term is vital for resilience, there are additional tools that organisations can use to quickly understand the immediate environment and what measures they can take in response to a crisis.

This briefing will explain how to use analysis models such as PEST and SWOT, and how to undertake scenario planning in a crisis.

This is an edited extract from Econsultancy's Learning from a Crisis Best Practice Guide.