Exploiting Complexity with SenseMaker®

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Managing complexity is the key strategic challenge executives face

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Source: KPMG, Confronting complexity. Global report 2011

1,400 executives across seven industries in 22 countries

How to improve sales performance?

What do employees really want?

How to manage Gen Y better?

What’s the next big thing?

How to distinguish signals from noise?

How do we trigger real innovation?

‘It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you think you know for sure that just ain’t so’

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‘The minute we believe we’re successful and in control we become complacent. Past success limits our willingness and ability to recognise and adapt quickly enough to new paradigms.

Previous success breeds inevitable future failure - unless you do something different.’

‣ Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Chairman in evidence to Congress (Oct 2008)

‣ Expressed “shocked disbelief” as global crisis was “much broader than anything I imagined”

‣ For “40 years” there had been “considerable evidence things were going exceptionally well.”

‣ Elite consulting firm founded by Michael Porter - the father of modern strategic analysis

‣ Applied rigorous analysis of market forces to explain excess profits in companies

‣ Collapse in 2012 demonstrated analysis explains success in retrospect, but doesn’t predict it.

Title quote attributed to: Mark Twain

“Developing effective strategies to deal with complexity requires integrating diverse insights, experience and expertise”

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Real experiences shared en masse (online, apps)

as anonymous micro-stories

Speed

Layers of meaning added at source by respondents

(not ‘experts’ or algorithms)

Reliability

Visualisation tools provide whole network perspectives for exploration and discovery

Cost

CONSUMER

GOVERNMENTBUSINESS

17%

7%

6%

3%

37%

21%

Title quote: Peter Ho, Senior Adviser for the Centre for Strategic Futures in Singapore

“Leaders who stay above the details may do well in stable times, but riding a wave of change requires an intimate feel for its origins & dynamics”

5Title quote: Richard Rumelt ‘Good Strategy/Bad Strategy; The Difference and why it Matters’

The main issue I face in my work is …

Workload Workload

RewardsManagement RewardsManagement

Department A Department B

Each blue dot contains a shared,

explorable experience

Discover evidence-based insights to

trigger genuine breakthroughs in how to respond effectively

Explore weak signals about emerging opportunities or threats - before it’s too costly or late to respond

SenseMaker® is enabling organisations globally exploit complexity better than their competitors

Govt. of SingaporeRisk Assessment & !Horizon Scanning

Early warnings on potential security threats !and scanning for other indicators of change

PfizerDriving Sales

Addressing issues with sales performance - !using insights to drive new sales strategies

Anglo AmericanMining Safety: !

A Business Imperative

Engaging multiple stakeholders to create genuine breakthroughs to the complex issue of mine safety

Major Utility (UK)Service Delivery Issues & Future

Investment

Uncovering trends and issues in satisfaction surveys; shaping proposals for future investment

UN Development ProgrammeMultiple Projects

UNDP staff efficiency; Discrimination against residents of Chernobyl; Integration of Roma

RSPP & KPMGTaking the !

Investor Perspective

Discovering what foreign investors really think of the business climates in Russia’s regions

IFC/World BankImpact Assessment

Developing benchmarks and piloting approaches for effective roll out of business harmonisation laws

Melbourne Business School

Evaluating Learning Programmes

Evaluating the impact of executive education interventions on careers

Major Auto Firm (US)Customer Perspectives

Generating insights from customer perspectives to improve interaction and increase retention

Projects conducted by member firms of the Cognitive Edge global network