On Big Hairy Strategic Decisions

Over the years Catalyze has gained an enviable reputation for helping organisations tackle 'big hairy strategic decisions'; those decisions that are fundamentally important to the organisation and its future.

Due to the importance of these decisions it is not surprising that tensions and emotions can run high and a significant amount of time and resources can be expended in reaching a decision. They also tend to be characterized by differences in perspective, uncertainty, multiple objectives - more simply put they are difficult.

Catalyze’s robust, transparent, academically sound decision making process has proven to significantly reduce the time it takes to reach a decision, while ensuring the stakeholders are given the confidence that the right conclusion has been reached.

Clients value our capability to firstly structure the problem and secondly facilitate a group discussion that captures the collective thoughts and wisdom of the stakeholders.

In capturing these we use the academically sound approach of MCDA (Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis) to help effectively assess the risk-adjusted benefits of one option against another. This approach has been developed over 30 years by the London School of Economics (LSE) and has been successfully applied to hundreds of projects.

Our transparent, inclusive decision making process, Decision Conferencing, allows all aspects of the decision and different viewpoints to be considered. As an outcome this leads to a shared understanding, a sense of common purpose, and a renewed commitment to the way forward.

This is why we are helping many organisations such as UK MOD, the Nuclear Industry, Utility Companies and many commercial clients with their big strategic decisions.