In the perspective of increasingly tighter sustainability requirements, it is essential not to lose orientation and to identify new opportunities in good time. Particularly today, owners and CEOs need a substantiated and unadorned picture about their company’s strategic position and the most pressing need for action. From this baseline, they can refine their strategies so that their increasingly transparent and disclosed sustainability performance will be compelling to stakeholders today and in the future. The necessity of strategy adaption varies from industry to industry. How fast and to what extend have strategies to be adapted to be successful in the future?

A “strategy baselining” reveals the viability of current strategies and business portfolios, business models, core products (full life cycle) as well as the degree of maturity of your current sustainability management. Besides your own strategic ambitions, SDGs, various ESG criteria and sustainability principles, you also have to consider the latest developments like the EU Taxonomy, upcoming disclosure requirements in the annual report as well as the German Supply Chain Act. Moreover, an analysis of your internal transformation readiness is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of management and control systems as part of a sustainable governance.

Based on the ESG fields of action that have been identified by the “quick check”, to increase your planning reliability, but also because of personal liability issues, more in-depth analyses may be necessary in the next stage. With machine learning tools, digital twins, system dynamics or Monte-Carlo-simulations current technology offers numerous ways to perform reliable scenario analyses, simulations and quantitative assessments of opportunities and risks. In addition, an evaluation of key technologies or the analysis of patent portfolios by using artificial intelligence may provide valuable insights.