Managing long-term issues urgently

How can long-term issues be handled when all those involved are anxious to get it done urgently ? This was the challenge facing Pascal Jellimann in 1995 when writing his thesis at the École polytechnique. He had to prepare senior management of a French mutual insurance company for the issues and threats posed by the arrival of the Internet. The strategy he adopted consisted of artificially creating urgent situations to which the players involved had to react and for which they had to prepare. This led him to develop in his thesis an analysis of the elements of the “dramatisation” of management which can be seen in a number of companies.