Visualizing the impact of a megatrend on your company

In a previous post I already showed how to plot megatrends in order to make the conclusions for your company visible. One of the ways discussed was to plot the megatrends on a chart with, on the X-axis, a timeline (has the trend started, is it nigh, or for the unknown future?) and on the Y axis the impact on your company (high vs. low).

However, I just found a better way to plot the trends, with:

• X-axis: Context vs. Core
  Is the (mega)trend touching our core activities, our reason of existence, or is it only influencing our environment (customers, employees, providers, ...)?
• Y-axis: Manageable vs. Determined
  Is there any means for us to influence or act on the trend, or can we only stand by and watch?

By plotting trends against these elements, you obtain 4 quadrants:

• 'Aware': The trend is affecting your environment but there is no way for you to act on it... obviously you should be aware of these trends, since it influences your stakeholders, so you should track the changes it creates with your stakeholders and assess whether it can influence their behavior; 
• 'Monitor': The trend affects your core activities but there is no way you can act upon it. You have to closely monitor this trend and build 'early warning signals' to spot whenever certain thresholds are nearing.
• 'Influence': The trend is affecting your environment and there are ways for you to act on it... well that's rather a good spot, you can become a star with your customers or suppliers, if you act in their best interest; 
• 'Action': The trend affects your core activities and you can act on it. Careful planning and a thorough understanding of the trend, with all its impact, is needed here. These trends will be crucial to develop a successful future strategy.