OST and Strategic Managemen

Uwe Weissflog uwe.weissflog at sdrc.com
Fri Mar 7 07:17:59 PST 1997


Hi all, before I dive into my specific questions, I like to share some
information about myself and the company I work for.  SDRC (Structural
Dynamics Research Corporation) is an engineering software and solutions firm
located in Milford, Ohio (close to Cincinnati).  Our products help to design,
analyze and manufacture a variety of mechanical products such as airplanes,
cars, CD players, and many others. We also provide the means to manage product
data across an enterprise. We operate on a global scale and we are currently
among the top 3 companies in these domains. I you are interested in more
details please visit our Web site at WWW.SDRC.COM.

My official role at SDRC is that of "Manager, Strategic Planning", but  it is
probably more accurate to think of me as a corporate change agent.  The task
I've been charged with over the past 2 years centers around the question :
"What could we do to define our future more clearly and then rally behind it
?". This question naturally leads to questions about processes, alignment,
participation, enrollment, and other means that impact organizational
behavior.  Part of my recent work centered around processes that enable
Strategic Management . We looked at methodologies such as Learning
Organizations (P.Senge), Scenario Planning (P.Schwarz),  "traditional"
planning (M.Porter, and other leading authors), and a bunch of large scale
organizational development methods (Futures Search Conference, Real Time
Strategic Planning, Open Space). Which finally brings me to my questions:
What experience exists in the Open Space community about the application of
OST in Strategic Management ? In particular "Who has evidence that OST works
to help an executive team (the CEO and the top management) to define the
common ground for a firm's strategic direction?"

On a more detailed level it is of interest to us to understand (a) how
executive teams responded to OST, (b) who executed it, and (c) whether it has
been used in discrete manufacturing industries such as aerospace, automotive,
industrial machinery, electronics, electro-mechanical and others.

You can reach me either be responding to the OSLIST or by sending email
directly to Uwe.Weissflog at SDRC.com.

regards Uwe




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