Riding the Rollercoaster: How Scenario Planning Keeps Creative Businesses on Track
(Article reproduced courtesy of beforesandafters.com, March 12, 2025)
The creative industries – film, VFX, animation, games, advertising – are a thrilling rollercoaster. One minute you're soaring high, riding the wave of a successful project or a booming market. The next, you're plummeting into the unknown, facing unexpected client changes, budget cuts, or industry-wide disruptions.
The Fundamental Challenge: Navigating Constant Change
Creative businesses (and their projects) rarely progress according to a single linear plan. When a key client pushes their timeline, when a critical team member becomes unavailable, or when scope expands mid-project, the ripple effects cascade across your entire operation.
Unfortunately, most project planning tools do not address the key hypotheticals that drive your business decisions every day. They force you to either maintain multiple separate plans or make changes that overwrite your original assumptions, leaving you without a clear picture of alternatives or their implications. What creative businesses need isn't just project planning – it's the ability to model multiple scenarios as conditions inevitably change.
What is Scenario Planning?
Scenario planning is about creating "what-if" scenarios to explore different possible futures. It's about testing ideas, analyzing potential outcomes, and making informed decisions based on data, not guesswork.
The Old Way: Spreadsheets and Stress
For decades, creative studios have relied on spreadsheets for their planning. These trusty tools, while familiar, are often a source of stress and inaccuracy. Data entry errors, outdated information, and complex formulas that break under pressure – it's a recipe for sleepless nights and risky decisions based on hunches rather than actual data.
The New Way: Scenario Planning with Projectal
Now imagine a world where you could confidently navigate the ups and downs, predict potential pitfalls, and seize new opportunities with clarity. That's the power of scenario planning, and Projectal is a tool that makes that a reality for creative businesses.
Why is Scenario Planning Crucial for Creative Businesses?
"Change is the only constant in VFX production, making scenario planning essential for success," says Imke Fehrmann, Global Head of Production at RISE Visual Effects Studios. "Projects evolve rapidly based on client needs and creative direction, so we must be nimble and prepared with adaptable scenarios that can be implemented quickly. Projectal's new scenario planning features will be a game-changer in ensuring we efficiently manage resources and schedules in our upcoming VFX projects."
How Projectal Solves the Scenario Planning Puzzle
Projectal isn't just another project and resource management tool; it's a strategic planning platform designed specifically for the complexities of creative businesses. Here's how it empowers you:
With extensive experience at leading creative companies such as DNEG, Technicolor, and R/GA, Daniel Jurow, Founder & CEO of Sevoir Group regularly advises his clients to add scenario planning into their management workflow. "By continuously assessing multiple 'what if's' you will be more aware of the lurking risks as well as the smart opportunities that are lying beyond sight of your team's everyday reporting," he explains. "Projectal provides creative businesses with the embedded tools needed to make informed capacity, scheduling, and pricing decisions and stay ahead of the curve. It's a significant improvement over current methods."
Real-World Scenarios in Film, VFX, Animation, Games and Advertising
Paul Schumann, CEO at JanusKS, the developers of Projectal, added "Scenario planning is crucial for ensuring the smooth and resilient operation of a creative business. Projectal enables management to anticipate challenges, create contingency plans through 'what-if' modeling, and make data-driven decisions, replacing guesswork and spreadsheets. Projectal is the ideal tool for riding the rollercoaster ride at creative businesses."
About RISE | Visual Effects Studios
RISE | Visual Effects Studios was founded in 2007 by Sven Pannicke, Robert Pinnow, Markus Degen and Florian Gellinger in Berlin. The plan was to focus with a small, hand-picked team on German TV and feature film effects – but that plan failed. Today, over 260 artists call the award-winning company their creative home in Stuttgart, London, Munich, Cologne and Berlin, making it one of the biggest VFX studios in Europe. RISE has become "partner in crime" for directors like Tom Tykwer, Lisa Joy, Mike Flanagan, Matthew Vaughn, Guy Ritchie, Gore Verbinski, studios like Marvel (Eternals, Loki, WandaVision, Captain Marvel, ...), Warner Bros. (Fantastic Beasts 3, Reminiscence, ...), Netflix (Midnight Mass, Stranger Things), Sony Pictures (Uncharted), Studio Canal (Gunpowder Milkshake) and also produces more and more animated features (Richard the Stork, Dragon Rider). Its sister production company RISE PICTURES develops its own original content and co-produces films (Stowaway) and series for an international audience. RISE acts as collaborator for episodic series as well as television and feature film, from early concept to mastering, concept art and previs, every day on set, during effects production and animation, as an advisor for the Digital Intermediate process. Our supervisors are reliable, creative partners for directors, production designers and directors of photography alike – from the first to the final step of the way.
About Sevoir Group
Sevoir Group is a management consultancy built specifically for creative businesses, with deep roots in VFX, animation, advertising, design, and creative technology. The firm's mission is to help studios, agencies and technology innovators achieve operational strength and sustained profitability without compromising what makes them special. Sevoir Group has decades of combined experience leading through industry disruption, technological shifts, and growth challenges, and combines state-of-the-art insights and methods with practical implementations suited to the unique dynamics of visual storytelling businesses.
About Projectal
Projectal is the leading project management and workflow platform for creative businesses. Leveraging AI and machine learning, Projectal streamlines departments, locations, staff, and projects, eliminating the need for spreadsheets, off-the-shelf tools, and manual steps.
Projectal enhances how studios bid, budget, plan, schedule, track, and report on projects, ensuring the entire team works from the same real-time data. Scenario planning features allow in-depth 'what-if' analysis to help deliver projects on time and within budget.
Projectal is used by top creative businesses worldwide, including advertising agencies, animation companies, event and entertainment firms, game developers, sound studios, VFX studios, and virtual production teams. Projectal integrates seamlessly with tools like Shotgrid, ftrack, Kitsu, HR tools, and finance tools. Comprehensive developer APIs and documentation are available to connect and extend Projectal, fitting perfectly into any studio's workflow.