Frances A. O'Brien

Strategic development : methods and models

Strategic Development (R. Dyson & F. Oa Brien). OBJECTIVES, PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND STRATEGY CREATION. Creating Policy Alternatives Using Stakeholder Values (R. Gregory & R. Keeney). Future Visioning: A Case Study of a Scenario--based Approach (F. Oa Brien & M. Meadows). The Balanced Scorcard----Measures that Drive Performance (R. Kaplan & D. Norton). STRATEGY FORMULATION. Daimler--Benza s Move Towards the Next Century with the TOWS Matrix (H. Weihrich). Towards a Dynamic Theory of Strategy (M. Porter). Strategic Resources: Traits, Configurations and Paths to Sustainable Competitive Advantage (J. Black & K. Boal). Designing a Competency--based Human Resource Organization (J. Kochanski & D. Ruse). Forging a Link Between Business Strategy and Business Reengineering (C. Edwards & J. Peppard). Putting Soft OR Methods to Work: Information Systems Strategy Development at Sainsburya s (R. Ormerod). MODELLING UNCERTAINTY. Scenario Planning: A Tool for Strategic Thinking (P. Schoemaker). Exploring Competitive Futures Using Cognitive Mapping (K. Warren). CORPORATE MODELLING. Cognitive Mapping and Problem Structuring for System Dynamics Model Building (C. Eden). Simulating the Controllability of Feebates (A. Ford). EVALUATION AND SELECTION. The Financial Evaluation of Strategic Investments (R. Dyson & R. Berry). Real Options and Interactions with Financial Flexibility (L. Trigeorgis). Index.

Corporate visioning: a survey of UK practice

A survey of strategic planning managers was considered to identify the current practice of developing corporate visions, with a particular focus on how the vision was developed. The paper begins with a brief review of the literature concerning organisational visions and their development. The issues addressed by the survey and the research methodology are then described, and the results of the research presented. The paper ends with a discussion of the findings of the survey, and suggests ways of progressing research in this area.

Creating student groups with similar characteristics: A heuristic approach

This paper describes an algorithm for classifying elements with binary valued attributes so that the classes are similar. The problem chosen for discussing is that of allocating students to groups within an educational setting. Individual students are described by a set of binary-valued attributes. The objective of the algorithm is to create working groups which are similar to each other in terms of their mix of student attributes. The algorithm uses an information theory measure. The paper also compares the performance of the algorithm to a goal programming formulation of the problem.

Developing a visioning methodology: Visioning Choices for the future of operational research

This paper describes the development of a participative visioning methodology, Visioning Choices, which is placed within the family of problem structuring methods, due to a range of characteristics and attributes that are discussed. The Visioning Choices methodology was developed in an action research paradigm, and consists of a number of stages. The case study presented describes an application of the methodology to the issue of the future of operational research (OR). More than 200 individuals participated in workshops to outline a desirable future for OR. Earlier work has shown that while the majority of organizations claim to have visions, and that visions are perceived to have an important role in contributing to organizational success, visions are usually developed using informal small group processes, rather than existing formal visioning methodologies. The paper uses coherence and correspondence arguments to reflect on the methodology described, and possible future developments to address issues such facilitation style and participant numbers.

Supporting the Strategy Process: A Survey of UK Or/Ms Practitioners

This paper reports the results of an online survey conducted with practitioner members of the UK Operational Research (OR) Society. The purpose of the survey was to explore the current practice of supporting the strategy process in terms of activities supported and tools used. The results of the survey are compared to those of previous surveys to explore developments in, inter alia, the use of management/strategy tools and ‘soft’ Operational Research/Management Science (OR/MS) tools. The survey results demonstrate that OR practitioners actively support the strategy process within their organisations. While a wide variety of tools, drawn from the OR/MS and management/strategy fields, are used to support the strategy process within organisations, the findings suggest that soft OR/MS tools are not regularly used. The findings also demonstrate that tools are combined to support the strategy process from both within and across the OR/MS and management/strategy fields. The paper ends by identifying a number of areas for further research.

How To Develop Visions: A Literature Review, and a Revised CHOICES Approach for an Uncertain World

This paper reviews the visioning literature along five key dimensions: analysis of an organizations current situation, assessment of the external environment, identification of desired future vision, connection of the future to the present state, and testing the vision. It then describes one particular participative visioning methodology, which has largely been used in the public sector, the CHOICES approach. The paper then analyzes the CHOICES approach along the five key dimensions identified earlier. Gaps in the approach are identified and a revised methodology is outlined. The paper ends with a summary of results from a pilot study which tested the revised methodology.

Teaching OR/MS to MBAs at Warwick business school: a turnaround story

OR/MS is under pressure in MBA programs in the United Kingdom as it is in the United States. To ensure its continuance, members of the operational research group at Warwick Business School redesigned the core OR/MS module. The first attempt at a redesign was a failure. As a result, the module was redesigned again. The second version was a success. Through this process, we have learned many lessons about teaching OR/MS to MBA students, among them the need to have a guiding philosophy, adopt a critical-consumer approach, stress managerial relevance, discuss the context and process of modeling as well as content, and use spreadsheets for analytical work.

Supporting strategy using system dynamics

This paper presents a protocol for supporting strategy development via system dynamics (SD) modeling in consultation with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of small organizations; it also reports on the effectiveness of this protocol one year after an initial study was conducted. The protocol was applied in five small organizations; it involves the development of a SD model that is used to generate scenarios of alternative strategic situations an organization may face. We found that when the CEOs identified more feedback loops and causal relationships among key resources through their modeling analyses, they increased their capacities to generate new strategic ideas through more developed mental models. However, those CEOs who were not able to generate alternative strategic ideas to overcome the challenges of scenarios presented during the simulation sessions found it difficult to make strategic decisions when the scenarios occurred one year after our intervention. This finding suggests that SD modeling can affect firm performance when the facilitation process helps CEOs reflect on potential strategic actions that can be taken in the future. When CEOs cannot change their strategic plans by imagining what should be done in a challenging scenario, they are not able to address challenging situations when they arise.

A heuristic algorithm for the equitable partitioning problem

This paper describes a heuristic for the equitable partitioning problem, which involves classifying individual elements, so that classes are similar. The paper presents three extensions to a heuristic algorithm, developed in earlier work, which dealt with binary-valued attributes only. The first extension illustrates how changing the coding of the data without changing the problem improves the quality of solutions obtained. The second extension allows the algorithm to deal with different scales of measurement; data sets consisting of binary valued, multi-valued nominal and interval attributes are tested and the results presented. The third extension allows the algorithm to deal with problems involving classes of different sizes. The revised heuristic is applied to the real life problem of allocating university student accommodation.

On the roles of OR/MS practitioners in supporting strategy

This paper presents an exploratory account of how Operational Research/Management Science (OR/MS) practitioners understand their role in supporting an organisational strategy process. The role of strategy support is characterised by five dimensions: the activities supported within the strategy process; the nature of support provided; the orientation of the support provided; the tools used in providing support; and the nature of the relationship between consultant and client. The research draws on case studies of four OR/MS practitioners working as internal and as external consultants. The work of the practitioners is mapped onto the framework and gaps are identified. The research proposes a further dimension, namely, ‘the purpose of the support provided’, and suggests four purposeful support roles adopted by practitioners in supporting strategy within organisations: sensemaking/sensegiving; decision support tool development; problem solving/solution exploration; and process facilitation. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research.