Rafael Ramirez
Professor of Practice
- rafael.ramirez@sbs.ox.ac.uk
Saïd Business School
University of Oxford
Park End Street
Oxford
OX1 1HP
Profile
Rafael is the first Professor of Practice at the University of Oxford.
Rafael is the Director of both the Oxford-Hyundai Motor Group Foresight Centre and the award-winning Oxford Scenarios Programme.
He is one of the world’s leading experts on scenario planning. As a researcher and advisor, Rafael has worked extensively with non-governmental organisations, corporations, inter-governmental organisations, governments and think tanks.
Rafael holds a PhD from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and masters' degrees from York University in Toronto and Oxford.
Prior to coming to Oxford, Rafael was part of Shell’s scenarios team and Professor of Management in HEC Paris. Rafael is fluent in French, Spanish and English, and he has worked on all continents.
Expertise:
- scenario planning, foresight and strategy
- value creation systems
- aesthetics and business
Rafael talks about the Oxford Scenarios Programme
Designing the Oxford Scenarios Programme
Research
Rafael researches scenario planning and, together with colleagues, he has developed the practice so rigorously that it has now become a research methodology.
Together with colleagues, Rafael has developed the Oxford Scenario Planning Approach, which informs strategy and public policy in turbulent environments.
Rafael’s groundbreaking research on interactive value and networked strategy has led to widely cited papers in the Harvard Business Review, the Strategic Management Journal and to the development of the Oxford Collaborative Strategy Lab.
Rafael has authored, co-authored and co-edited nine books and dozens of articles. He has also presented in many academic conferences and practitioner events.
Publications
How ghost scenarios haunt strategy execution(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- MIT Sloan Management Review
Medical and social scientists as strategic advisors: the case of GloPID-R in 2021 (opens in new window)
- Journal article
- California Management Review
Space conservation: a plea for urgency(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- Astronomy and Geophysics
The value produced in lending strategic problems as live cases in futures education(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- Futures
Strategizing across organizations(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- MIT Sloan Management Review
Engagement
Rafael has designed, prepared and run many scenario planning and interactive strategy engagements on all continents.
Rafael has been involved in several hundred scenario planning and interactive strategy engagements on all continents.
He has worked with a very wide range of world-leading organisations, such as Anglo-American, EDF, the International Monetary Fund, Kearney and Rolls-Royce.
Rafael has served as Visiting Professor of Scenarios and Corporate Strategy at Shell International and was Chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Strategic Foresight. Since 2016, Rafael has been an advisor to Strategy 50.
Teaching
Rafael is a top-rated teacher and the programme he directs (the Oxford Scenarios Programme) has won an award for excellence.
Rafael is a top-rated lecturer and has taught in many degree and diploma programmes, and in:
- Oxford Scenarios Programme
- Consulting and Coaching for Change
- Custom executive education programmes with organisations such as BMW, Equinor, the European Patent Office, NATO, O2, Rolls-Royce, Scottish Water and Standard Chartered.
