REPLY Separate Professional Conference (SD6305)

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Posted by  Richard Stevenson <rstevenson at valculus.com>

Jean-Jacques Laublé asks "why should I bother?" and then invites me  
to join the business SIG.  I thank him for that.

But I am not at all sure (not least because of all the recent  
correspondence on this forum) that the SIG is the most appropriate  
forum, nor a sufficiently high leverage approach for what I want to  
do - which is to inform and develop a wide community of business  
managers to apply SD to make better informed decisions in the  
interests of all stakeholders - based on resource-based thinking,  
value-based thinking and transparency.

At the risk of repetition,  I believe that the "bottom up" approach  
that we have adopted in business for 50 years has run its course.   
Even Jay himself appears to agree, "SD is on a plateau".  Business  
people just do not want to learn this stuff from loops, nor stocks  
and flows.  They don't have time. They just want better decision tools.

I think that toolset integration via the web is the key - not stock  
and flow, stand-alone models, nor business games, nor organisational  
learning.  We need to integrate SD with other major strategy  
contributions - especially corporate finance (valuation) and balanced  
performance planning (scorecards/strategy maps).

SD cannot make it alone in business strategy.  It's time for a  
significant reappraisal.  I am perfectly prepared, as Jean-Jaques  
suggests, to contribute.  But I now believe we need a new, broader  f
orum for new thinking that will specifically engage other  
disciplines to attract business people - not the SD business SIG.

On a different note, there has now been a full month's worth of  
discussion on these topics.  Somebody should summarise the broad  
conclusions.  I could have a go but I have not the time and my own  
stance is too polarised.  Anyone know a competent student who could  
have a bash?

Richard Stevenson
Valculus Ltd
UK 
Posted by  Richard Stevenson <rstevenson at valculus.com>
posting date  Mon, 26 Feb 2007 16:09:44 +0000