Taking the guesswork out of strategyStrategic optimisation, a methodology that works for big or for small; whether you want to sort out a particular problem or make strategically significant decisions about your organisation.
It’s a matter of perspective
The reason Incorvus adopted Huginn & Muninn as its corporate analogy is, that like modern satellites, this pair of ravens enabled Odin, known for his wisdom, to elevate his perception beyond the terrestrial: to gain intelligence by incorporating temporal & spatial dimensions.
Multi-dimensional perspective enables optimisation of strategic decisions & direction, through comparative historical analysis & future scenario assessment.
In the era of space technology, 2D thinking of the kind that made the spreadsheet so popular, is inadequate in the face of complexity so reconfigure for dimensionality. Our team’s BI achievements were based on this understanding: re-defining business intelligence thinking & design. AI is the natural successor to that multi-dimensional BI heritage.
What we offer is a methodology which will enable you to make the best decision, choose the best territory or trajectory in your pursuit of your goals. It is, like calculus, the closest approximation, not an absolute. That is the nature of the journey from data to knowledge.
The status quo ante
There’s some tired looking business ‘strategies’ out there evidenced by a 90% failure rate! Words like ‘innovation’, ‘acceleration’ or ‘transformation’ abound yet the same common challenges still beset the corporate world. Fine words aren’t cutting it.
Companies bossing the DOW are those who aligned their technology & information to their business vision. They built their own technology because what they needed was not available on the open market, (subsequently hiving this technology off into highly-successful divisions, players in their own right).
What they’d tapped into was a need for purpose-built information architecture (not piecemeal transformation or tactical make-do’s) that didn’t blindly follow the status quo ante.
The status quo ante is simply an expensive way of pinning a tail on a donkey! The reason there is a 90% failure rate in business strategies is that this is an undeliverable proposition.
There is NO certainty in life apart from change itself. Therefore anyone offering certainty of outcome is misleading you. The deliverable should be a process, not an outcome. (This will require adjustments to the absolutism preferred by procurement where projects have become ‘agile’ but procurement has not.)
Risk & reward
The task is to assess risk & opportunity, against a backdrop of increasing complexity, to gain a clear view of what is critical & make ‘best guess’ decisions accordingly.
This is in keeping with agile: you play the cards in front of you and take small but sure steps, adjusting as the landscape in front of you changes.
Dimensionality & complexity
The addition of temporal & spatial dimensionality is vital in moving forward optimally.
This means that organisations theorising over strategic objectives & targets can optimise direction against territorial advantage; their ‘best guess’ decisions against performance over time; and adjust their future trajectory accordingly.
Our strategic optimisation method allows theoretical objectives themselves to be validated against how the land lies instead of being accepted sine qua non. This is the essence of successful scenario planning as posited by Pierre Wack, the man who saw the future.
If you know where you’ve been you know where you’re going!
Winners & losers
The bad news is that traditional corporate behemoths may be unable to turn ‘the tanker in the swimming-pool’, holed below the water line as new business models rapidly overtake stale thinking, even if they haven’t quite realised it yet. Announcing new ‘AI’ projects may fool some of the shareholders some of the time, but it will be a money sink unless there is boardroom grasp of what ‘AI’ truly is. So far, definitions of ‘AI’ may vary!
The good news is that mid market companies have a chance to really innovate, have genuine architecture, get their technology house in order and prosper if they have the chutzpah to look beyond the status quo. Change & transformation require more than a change of technology – they begin in the mind. Mid market companies have their eye on the prize and are less risk-averse, therefore more amenable to aggressive or offensive strategies.
Even smaller companies & startups are by their very nature, genuinely innovatory – technology has afforded them opportunities to compete against manpower and might. They have a mindset we can work with. Their problems are more typically about how to grow, how to grow safely & afford the same level of expertise as the big guys.
Well, we have a solution for that too. Just talk to us, to find out how we can help you. What have you got to lose?