You're up against the future and it’s your move.
When Hasbro approached The Futures Company on the future of face-to-face gaming, Hasbro had already accepted that such a future might not exist.
For a decade, Hasbro’s games division, home of Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit, had seen growth slowing. Perhaps it was the rise of electronic games, perhaps vanishing traditions and leisure time.
Looking at forces shaping the world of games, from the near future to ten plus years away, The Futures Company called on proprietary data resources (their Monitor quantitative research services), global observers, and experts in everything from cultural anthropology to emergent technology.
A picture emerged of a world moving far “beyond cardboard”. New frameworks and vocabulary evolved that are now core to Hasbro’s strategising. The four Future Scenarios drawn up by The Futures Company – each a plausible gaming-infused future – have permeated Hasbro, from game-designer to boardroom level.
Far from facing a world where their games portfolio dramatically loses value, Hasbro says the project has been transformative at enterprise level, prompting a new template of organisation and operation, and a thought-through strategy to position itself for a “cardboard-free” future. With optimism.