Navigating and exploiting complex challenges

1. Exploiting Complexity with
SenseMaker®
narrativeinsights.com

2. Managing complexity is the key strategic challenge executives face
2
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?

3. ‘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’
3
‘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

4. “Developing effective strategies to deal with complexity requires
integrating diverse insights, experience and expertise”
4
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
CONSUMER
BUSINESS GOVERNMENT
Cost
17%
7%
6%
3%
37%
21%
Title quote: Peter Ho, Senior Adviser for the Centre for Strategic Futures in Singapore

5. “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”
The main issue I face in my work is …
Workload Workload
Each blue dot
contains a shared,
explorable experience
Management Rewards Management Rewards
Department A Department B
5
Title quote: Richard Rumelt ‘Good Strategy/Bad Strategy; The Difference and why it Matters’
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

6. SenseMaker® is enabling organisations globally exploit complexity
better than their competitors
Pfizer
Driving Sales
Addressing issues with sales performance - !
using insights to drive new sales strategies
Govt. of Singapore
Risk Assessment & !
Horizon Scanning
Early warnings on potential security threats !
and scanning for other indicators of change
Anglo American
Mining Safety: !
A Business Imperative
Engaging multiple stakeholders to create genuine
breakthroughs to the complex issue of mine safety
UN Development
Programme
Multiple Projects
UNDP staff efficiency; Discrimination against residents of
Chernobyl; Integration of Roma
Major Utility (UK)
Service Delivery Issues & Future
Investment
Uncovering trends and issues in satisfaction surveys;
shaping proposals for future investment
RSPP & KPMG
Taking the !
Investor Perspective
Discovering what foreign investors really think of the
business climates in Russia’s regions
IFC/World Bank
Impact 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