Strategy Consultants Research Articles

Robotic process automation – research impulses from the BPM 2023 panel discussion

AbstractRobotic Process Automation is an established technology in organizations. In the last years, it has also received considerable attention in scholarly research with publications, special issues, and academic conferences dedicated to the topic. Given that Robotic Process Automation has now moved beyond the initial hype, we can ask what research should focus on in the future. To address this question, we conducted a panel discussion to discuss its current state and future development. This panel, which took place at the Robotic Process Automation forum at the Business Process Management Conference 2023, included experts from academia and industry, covering strategy consultants, implementers, and tool providers. In this report, we present insights from the panel discussions. We especially focus on three future research directions on Robotic Process Automation that emerged from the panel.

Urban redevelopment of a new town: The case of Zoetermeer in the Netherlands

The success factors contributing to the development of Zoetermeer, a former Dutch new town, into a contemporary city include dedicated public leadership, long-term commitment from social housing providers, private developers, institutional investors, timely and transparent communication with residents and the need to act and outperform the city benchmark. Zoetermeer was designed and built as a new town close to the government centre at The Hague and celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2022. It is now home to more than 125,000 residents. For decades Zoetermeer’s growth took place in the surrounding green fields. Therefore, the existing capacity-building methodology was not fit for the purpose of the ‘brownfield’ urban redevelopment challenge. The city authorities were also reluctant to engage in pro-active real estate stakeholder leadership. Since 2017, however, RITTERWALD pan-European residential strategy consultancy has supported Zoetermeer’s urban redevelopment strategy, including leading the preparation of a 10,000+ homes Urban Development Agreement (Stadsbouwakkoord) which is now being delivered to provide mixed tenure neighbourhoods. This achievement involved educating the municipal administration in the practice of urban redevelopment, including hosting regular masterclasses with high-level public and private sector actors. How a new town grew up and reinvented itself is explored in this paper.

انتقاد "قوات حفظ السلام" في مسرحية (الأحتفال) لهارولد بنتر

الاحتفال عام 1999، هي واحدة من المسرحيات السياسية المؤثرة لهارولد بنتر وفيها ينتقد الناس الذين من المفترض أن يكونوا قوات حفظ السلام، ويسميهم بنتر في المسرحية (مستشارو الاستراتيجية)، ويرعون شؤون الآخرين المهمة لأنهم يمثلون السلطة، في حين ان بنتر صورهم في هذه المسرحية كأناس يتكلمون عن أشياء تافهة ولا يهتمون بحالات القمع السياسي، والفقر، وغيرها من القضايا الهامة للناس في العالم. وعلاوة على ذلك، لم يكن لديهم أي شعور بالحب أو التفاهم المتبادل في داخل عوائلهم كأزواج وزوجات لأنهم فقدوا اهتمامهم في بعضهم البعض، وهذه هي السخرية في المسرحية كلها. ويتناول هذا البحث هارولد بنتر ككاتب مسرحي بريطاني عظيم اهتم بالكتابة عن القضايا السياسية. ومسرحيته، "الاحتفال"، تعالج المشكلة الكبيرة الموجودة حتى في مجتمعنا الآن وهي مشاعر اللاأبالية من قبل السياسيين تجاه مواطنيهم ومعاناتهم ومشاكلهم . والبحث يتكون من خلاصة، مقدمة، فصل، وخاتمة توضح ما توصل اليه البحث من نتائج.

Identification of the Types of Healthcare Services Available to Individuals in Various Communities in Abia State, Nigeria

Primary health care (PHC) is the backbone of a health system. It refers to “essential healthcare” that is based on scientifically sound and appropriate technology. PHC is the initial point of contact with the health care system for most Nigerians. This study assessed the available services within the PHCs in Abia State, Nigeria. The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional and observational survey designs to achieve the objectives. A semi-structured questionnaire which was self-administered was used to collect information from 486 healthcare providers in the selected PHCs across the zones. A validated checklist was used to determine the functionality of the PHCs. Data were cleaned, coded, and entered into SPSS, version 26, which was used for the analysis and categorical variables were summarized using frequencies and proportions. Association was tested at p-value <0.05. Findings from the study showed that some healthcare facilities such as child survival strategy and sick child consultation were available and statistically significant, p-<0.05. Some healthcare facilities such as intra- uterine device (IUD) insertion kit and toilet facilities were in use and statistically significant, p<0.05. Several intervention services were available such as immunizations, dietary supplements, growth monitory, family planning services and control of communicable diseases (Malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS), p- >0.05. Facilities such as light microscope and centrifuge were available but non-functional. Obstetric facilities were available but not in all the zones. However, there were no functional ambulance services in the PHCs studied.

An analysis of the European Industrial Carbon Management Strategy consultation: Who makes the normative decisions?

An analysis of the European Industrial Carbon Management Strategy consultation: Who makes the normative decisions?

Applying SCALE 3D for evaluating transformative social innovation

Conventional evaluation and strategy approaches insufficiently address the needs of social innovation to adapt to non-linear and emergent change processes. This study addresses this shortcoming by testing a recently developed conceptual framework (3D) for the purpose of adaptive strategy and evaluation. We translated the 3D framework into a practice tool (SCALE 3D [Strategic Capacity development, Leadership and Evaluation in 3 Dimensions]) and applied it in two projects and four workshop settings through an action-research approach, involving networks of community-led sustainability initiatives. We describe practical benefits and suggest process steps for implementing SCALE 3D, as well as overall lessons learnt. We discuss how SCALE 3D can support transformation-oriented networks in alignment with adaptive strategy and evaluation approaches, to support strategic learning as well as reporting, and thereby help practitioners adapt to emerging changes and be accountable to funders. Our findings are relevant for evaluators, action researchers, strategy consultants, funders and social innovation practitioners supporting transformative networks.

John Sack: Organizing the Community of Scholarly Publishing for Over 40 Years

From the early days of the World Wide Web, John Sack led HighWire Press from a fledgling technology organization based at Stanford University, to the premier content hosting platform for scientific and academic publishers. John is a scholarly publishing pioneer, innovator, and icon. In this interview, conducted by Heather Staines, Senior Strategy Consultant for Delta Think, John talks about how he became interested in technology via the old-fashioned card catalog, how Silicon Valley luminaries influenced his career path and approach to both organization and innovation, and how HighWire helped transform the scholarly publishing industry from a journal-based economy to an article-based economy. John also touches on how listening to diverse opinions can lead to innovative ideas, what he believes are the best uses for artificial intelligence (AI), and the benefits and drawbacks of remote work. This interview took place on March 30, 2023. Science Editor: You spent a substantial part of your career connected to Stanford University, but I always wondered, how did you end up there, and what were your early days like at the university? John Sack: Well, it’s probably a 40-year story, but I’ll try to make it more compact than that. I was an undergraduate at the University of Virginia in the 70s, and I was in an interesting program that allowed me to put together a mixture of studies in all sorts of areas. The upside was that it was a lot of fun, and I had some great professors, but I didn’t look like […]

The systems approach of strategic roadmapping: Framing challenges and contributions whilst flexing to changing conditions and circumstances

AbstractFor supporting strategy development, corporate practitioners and consultants have long appropriated the roadmap metaphor for journey‐making to establish the concept of strategic roadmapping. The practice involves charting future courses of action to help realize a vision. However, despite the significant uptake and use of the method, there still lacks a discourse on its inherent flexibility. Therefore, this paper outlines roadmapping's flexible nature from a systems perspective. The key attributes of the approach being general, scalable, customizable and dynamic are characterized. The governing framework underpinning roadmapping is depicted and described. To provide guidance on deploying this framework, two critical aspects are covered: (i) framing the challenges being faced and contributions necessary to move forward and (ii) with specific regard to having to deal with the realized unfolding of time, the need to flex to evolving conditions and new situational circumstances.

Potential for Economic Transition and Key Directions of Cross-Border Cooperation between Primorsky Krai (Russia) and Jilin (China)

The potential of cross-border regional cooperation development is important for evaluating the present and future capacity for regional development. Primorsky Krai (Russia) and Jilin (China) share borders and complementary advantages. China and Russia have growing intention to strengthen cooperation, with geopolitical considerations. This study constructs a regional development potential assessment index system from the perspective of cross-border cooperation, and it establishes a multilayer cross-border regional development potential assessment (RDPA) model with three layers: target, factor, and indicator. By coupling four modules (economic, social, transportation, and resource environment), this study builds a development potential value system. The results illustrate that Primorsky Krai and Jilin have potential for cross-border cooperative development. The results reveal that Primorsky Krai has comparative advantages in port logistics, agriculture, fishery, and mining, which are all complementary to Jilin. These are important directions for cross-border international cooperation. Additionally, this study provides suggestions on decision-making and strategy consultation for the international cooperation between Jilin and Primorsky Krai and creates references for the study of cross-border cooperation opportunities and challenges for other neighboring regions around the world.

I, strategist

An autoethnography is offered of a head of an academic department and middle manager writing a strategic plan he did not believe was necessary or would have any beneficial effects on colleagues within the department. The notion of the reluctant strategist is offered. What strategy work do such actors undertake? Reluctant strategists write strategic plans as defensive texts. Defensive texts, I explain, are authored and structured to repel deeper engagement and questioning; to ensure that they are successful, they act through presenting their content as authoritatively assured. Strategy work in organizations is advanced as an affective accomplishment. In writing strategic plans, strategists are sensorially affected by their relational encounters, moving them to act. This personal account of strategy work shows that strategists are not just senior managers, middle managers or strategy consultants; they are affected actors who can be confused, sceptical, full of doubt and who can resist.

Shear ignorance? Think again: breaking the perception of shear within viral vector manufacturing

Charlotte Barker,  Editor, BioInsights, speaks to MilliporeSigma’s Ratish Krishnan, Senior Strategy Consultant, Bioprocessing Strategy Operationalization (pictured left) and Akshat Gupta, Associate Director, Global Biopharma Center of Excellence (pictured right).The tangential flow filtration (TFF) unit operation in viral vector manufacturing is a critical step on the path to commercialization. In this episode, Ratish Krishnan and Akshat Gupta discuss best practices – and common misconceptions – when establishing process conditions and utilizing different TFF device formats.

Towards REDD+ implementation: Deforestation and forest degradation drivers, REDD+ financing, and readiness activities in participant countries

This study provides an assessment of dominant drivers of deforestation and forest degradation across 29 REDD+ participant countries and total funds disbursed from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility to 15 participant countries since they signed their respective Readiness Preparation Proposals (R-PPs), as well as what they spent the grants on. This study aims to provide information for policymakers and donors on the need to invest in REDD+, as well as the need for participant countries to channel funds to key activities for effectively and efficiently implementing REDD+. The assessment is based on participant countries’ R-PPs and FCPF readiness fund progress reports, using a content analysis approach. The expansion of agriculture, which includes both commercial and subsistence agriculture, was the predominant driver of deforestation, while logging, such as industrial and small-scale exploitation, was the main driver of forest degradation in most participating countries. In addition, we observed that the 15 participant countries received a total of USD 702.36 million for REDD+ readiness preparation. However, most countries have received less than USD 10 million for their readiness-related activities. We observed a huge disparity regarding the funds received between countries from sub-Saharan Africa and their Asian and Latin American counterparts, particularly Indonesia and Peru, respectively. Furthermore, almost all countries have spent their funds on policy and strategy development, stakeholder and consultation events, and public awareness creation. Relatively small amounts have been spent on capacity building and training. Thus, international donors need to focus on strengthening institutional capacities and building effective forest governance structures in countries participating in REDD+, and they should also provide platforms to engage with participant countries to tackle the main deforestation and forest degradation drivers. We suggest further studies to identify high-performing countries that have received lower-than-average funding, consider their deforestation pressures, the size of forests, and the emission reduction potential.

The making of an IT strategy consultant

editorial Free AccessThe making of an IT strategy consultant Author: Kristian Sørensen View Profile Authors Info & Claims Communications of the ACMVolume 65Issue 9September 2022 pp 7https://doi.org/10.1145/3546937Published:19 August 2022Publication History 0citation5,602DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations0Total Downloads5,602Last 12 Months5,602Last 6 weeks144 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteView all FormatsPDF

Why are there so Few Cases of Professional Service Firms?

Why is it that there are so few cases about professional service firms (PSFs) given their increasing dominance in the knowledge-based era? The attempt to answer this question presupposes a willingness to differentiate between what strategy professors mean by strategy and what strategy consultants mean by strategy. This perspective essay argues that the development of strategy in the business academy and in strategy consultancies has happened on parallel tracks. There has not been as much interaction between these strategists as would be desirable, albeit with some exceptions. These exceptions happen when consultancies have been spun-off from the theoretical work of top academic strategists. However, since these theoretical exchanges are few and far between, academics have focused mainly on developing general frameworks while the consultants have concentrated on building specific forms of knowledge through intense tracking of industrial segments known as 'verticals', and in presenting their findings as granular insights. The role models of strategic cognition and the outlets where results of such studies are reported using these approaches also vary considerably. The revitalization of the case method in management education however demands not only the willingness to write more cases about professional service firms on the part of academics in business schools, but also the availability and the deployment of interdisciplinary approaches to the case method analogous to those that have 'defamiliarized'the case method in the U.S. law school system.

Using Hypothesis-Driven Thinking in Strategy Consulting (French)

Using Hypothesis-Driven Thinking in Strategy Consulting (French)

A Piece of Myself: Start-up Use of Equity in Payments for Critical Services

Start-ups are often in need of external help to grow but do not have the cash to pay for critical services. A solution to this problem is to hire technology or strategy consultants and use equity as payment. With equity payments, the service provider also becomes an investor and a partner in the start-up. By interviewing consultants, investors, and start-up entrepreneurs, this study explores the challenges associated with equity payments, and it identifies situations when equity payments can be a viable solution. We propose that consultancies require a risk-seeking mindset and a business model that supports long-term investments in clients. Further, we propose that consultancies’ inclination to accept equity payments increases when the entrepreneur has industry specific experience. The start-up entrepreneur’s inclination to accept equity payments increases when they lack experience of running a start-up, and when the start-up has not yet shown a proof of concept. Even though the long-term viability of equity payments for critical services remains to be determined, it is an option worth taking into account by start-ups in need of assistance.

An intersectional feminist response to the UK government’s Violence Against Women and Girls 2021–2024 Strategy consultation

This article summarises our review of and response to the UK government’s public consultation process on the 2021–2024 Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy. From an intersectional feminist perspective, we identify methodological, ethical and conceptual limitations to the consultation process, highlighting that a heavy focus on criminalisation risks compounding barriers for those seeking support or justice as it does not engage with the lived experiences of those who experience violence. Examples of violence in the public survey released for consultation were underpinned by racist and Islamophobic discourse, constructing Othered groups of people as violent by drawing on sensationalised and racialised forms of violence. In response, we provide recommendations and considerations for strategy reform, and for those working and researching in the VAWG sector.

Empirical Support for the Tenets of Sport Participation and Physical Activity-Based Models: A Scoping Review.

Notwithstanding their wide-spread use, it is unclear what level of empirical evidence exists to support sport participation and physical activity-based models. Sport participation and physical activity-based models characterize different stages of sport involvement based on sport activities (organized and unorganized) individuals take part in throughout their lifespan. The objectives of this scoping review was to explore the nature of empirical support for tenets of sport participation and physical activity-based models describing the evolution of an individuals' sport participation. Seventeen different sport participation models were identified through an iterative literature review, using a snowball search strategy and expert (n = 8) consultation. Of the identified models, three described the evolution of an individual's sport participation based on their participation in different activities at various stages of sport involvement and were retained for the review. A second literature review identified peer-reviewed publications supporting at least one tenet of these three models. Many tenets of retained models received some empirical support from some of the 38 publications identified, but some tenets were not tested. Most of the evidence supporting tenets originated from studies among elite-level athletes. Whereas some evidence exists to support current sport participation and physical activity models, more research is warranted, particularly among the general population of non-elite athletes, for the models to be used in full confidence to guide sport policies, programs, and practices.

On the emotional dynamics of guided strategizing: An affective view on strategy-making directed by strategy consultants

While work on affect in strategy-making has been increasingly developing, relatively little research has been conducted on the emotional dynamics of strategy processes directed by strategy consultants. Drawing on a variety of qualitative data gathered during a 1-year consulting case, this article looks into the way emotions unfold when managers solicit external strategic advice. Specifically, this article reveals the mechanisms underpinning managers’ emotions in guided strategy-making from pre- to post-strategizing, highlighting processes as they develop over time. In doing so, three fundamental emotional drivers are laid bare: interaction—or how practitioners engage with each other; temporality—or how practitioners engage with time; and impression—or how practitioners engage with mental representations of strategy-making and strategy consultancy. By revealing how emotions evolve when managers find themselves strategically directed, this article offers insight into how a guided strategy-making trajectory can be affectively managed—to make sense of emotions when they unfold, and to address them appropriately as they do.

Corporate political activity in the context of unhealthy food advertising restrictions across Transport for London: A qualitative case study.

BackgroundDiets with high proportions of foods high in fat, sugar, and/or salt (HFSS) contribute to malnutrition and rising rates of childhood obesity, with effects throughout the life course. Given compelling evidence on the detrimental impact HFSS advertising has on children’s diets, the World Health Organization unequivocally supports the adoption of restrictions on HFSS marketing and advertising. In February 2019, the Greater London Authority introduced novel restrictions on HFSS advertising across Transport for London (TfL), one of the most valuable out-of-home advertising estates. In this study, we examined whether and how commercial actors attempted to influence the development of these advertising restrictions.Methods and findingsUsing requests under the Freedom of Information Act, we obtained industry responses to the London Food Strategy consultation, correspondence between officials and key industry actors, and information on meetings. We used an existing model of corporate political activity, the Policy Dystopia Model, to systematically analyse arguments and activities used to counter the policy. The majority of food and advertising industry consultation respondents opposed the proposed advertising restrictions, many promoting voluntary approaches instead. Industry actors who supported the policy were predominantly smaller businesses. To oppose the policy, industry respondents deployed a range of strategies. They exaggerated potential costs and underplayed potential benefits of the policy, for instance, warning of negative economic consequences and questioning the evidence underlying the proposal. Despite challenging the evidence for the policy, they offered little evidence in support of their own claims. Commercial actors had significant access to the policy process and officials through the consultation and numerous meetings, yet attempted to increase access, for example, in applying to join the London Child Obesity Taskforce and inviting its members to events. They also employed coalition management, engaging directly and through business associations to amplify their arguments. Some advertising industry actors also raised the potential of legal challenges. The key limitation of this study is that our data focused on industry–policymaker interactions; thus, our findings are unable to present a comprehensive picture of political activity.ConclusionsIn this study, we identified substantial opposition from food and advertising industry actors to the TfL advertising restrictions. We mapped arguments and activities used to oppose the policy, which might help other public authorities anticipate industry efforts to prevent similar restrictions in HFSS advertising. Given the potential consequences of commercial influence in these kinds of policy spaces, public bodies should consider how they engage with industry actors.