Examination Thesis from the year 2003 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 78, University of Leeds (Trinity and All Saints College), course: Adnaced Marketing, language: English, abstract: At the heart of the traditional approach to business strategy lies the assumption that by applying a set of analytical tools, executives can predict the future of any business accurately enough to allow them to choose a clear strategic direction. However, what happens when the environment is so uncertain as is more and more the case today in our fast-paced society that no amount of backward-oriented amount of data and analysis will allow business leaders to predict the future.

One approach that has been applied successfully more frequently over the last couple of years is future scenario planning, where different business environment scenarios are imagined, developed and possible business stratgies planned out by internal and external experts.

In this paper firstly a thourough competitive analysis of the German beer market as well as the company under study - Karlsberg Brauerei, a local South-West German brewery - is performed. Then, two distinct future scenarios are being developed from the data and analysis. These future business scenarios are followed by detailed strategic plans that recommend different ways the company can move to take advantage of future developments in its market.