What is it about?
Uses the widely available Robin Hood strategic management case study to illustrate a procedure for modeling problems. The Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is easy to learn and supports a formal modeling process for strategic problem formulation. The process brings out the otherwise hidden systemic nature of the problem. While the Robin Hood case text is simple, the implied challenge is not, and the resulting model is surprisingly rich and enlightening.
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Why is it important?
The current paradigm of formulating a problem by identifying its root causes exacerbates the lack of professional rigor in commonly used strategy-making methods. The search for a root cause can hinder problem solving, as it downplays the interconnected feedback loops among symptoms and their various causes. A model-based approach to problem formulation sidesteps causal analysis altogether. Rigorous, formal modeling is important to accurately describe effective organizational transformation.
Perspectives
Anyone used to much simpler methods for strategy making may be easily baffled by an apparently complicated problem model. Simplicity is elusive though, and dangerous. Rigorous modeling takes time, which however offsets the hidden agendas, groupthink, and power plays so common in strategy meetings. In the end, convincing my co-authors that the process was rewarding was not difficult at all.
Dr. Pedro Mendes
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Formulating strategic problems with Systems Modeling Language, Journal of Enterprise Transformation, January 2016, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/19488289.2016.1210705.
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