Defuzzification in scenario management : a theoretical and practical guide

It is virtually a truism that companies should respond to situations of high complexity, dynamics and contingency with strategic management measures. Not least in turbulent VUCA-type environments, the company is well advised to use alternative scenarios for environmental forecasting. The so-called scenario technique is used for this purpose. Human modes of thought, judgment and action are often ambiguous and rarely univocal. Here, so-called expert (control) systems based on fuzzy control offer valuable help. Their core is rule inference resulting in fuzzy rule output. In many cases, however, managers are interested in receiving concrete recommendations for action that are as unambiguous as possible. To do so, they need to defuzzify the fuzzy output set. In this paper, we consider selected defuzzification procedures in the area of scenario management.