Future scenarios for communities - summary of the project and the project results

In preliminary discussions with municipalities (municipal presidents and councillors), the St.Gallen Office for Municipalities and various consulting firms, the project team was able to gain a good impression of the mindset and needs of this target group with regard to strategy development. Central to the success of the project will therefore be to develop a simple, practical solution that is widely supported in the participating municipalities. The economic toolbox will be applied to municipalities and adapted for the militia system, e.g. strategy development, strategy implementation, key figures (Kaplan/Norton 1997, Kaplan/Norton 2004, Lux 2010). In addition, a tool is to be developed with the help of which scenarios can be developed and simulated in order to increase the probability of success in this way. In order for the project to be successful, simple and comprehensible solutions will be deliberately sought that also involve militia politicians who are only sporadically involved in the political process. The benefits are likely to be greatest for very small and non-financially strong municipalities. Therefore, the focus of the project should be on these municipalities.