What do we mean by “strategic problem solving” and why does the World Economic Forum place this first in its list of the top ten skills needed for ‘a future in which artificial intelligence and the ever-increasing availability of data are making many, if not most, routine jobs redundant’?
During the two-day short course Strategic Problem-Solving at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM), you learn the basic problem-solving techniques and get the opportunity to apply them to a specific problem that you face in your work. This ensures that your learning is directly relevant and gives you the basis for becoming a more effective strategic problem-solver in the future. The course is led by two former consultants from McKinsey & Company (McKinsey) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Dr Marc Baaij and James Parker, who have been teaching these skills to a range of learners for more than ten years.
We are all confronted with daily problems. Solving them is part of our ability to operate as adults in a complex and unpredictable world. But some problems fall outside the normal course of our daily life, and the effectiveness with which we address these problems can have a large impact on our lives. For example, should we accept a job offer that means uprooting our family and moving to a new city or country? What risk profile should we choose for investing our hard-earned savings? How can we best reduce our personal carbon footprint without upending our lives?
In our professional lives we are also confronted with a range of problems. Similarly, some of these problems disproportionately impact us as well as the success of the enterprise, because our reputations and our careers are largely built on how effective we are in solving strategic problems. For example, in business, we may have to search for answers to issues such as: how we identify growth opportunities for our core product and service offering; whether we should launch a new product; or how we can win against an aggressive competitor. In not-for-profit organisations, we are similarly confronted with strategic problems such as: how to achieve maximum positive impact with limited resources; how to win support for our cause; and how to attract talented people to come and work with us.
Top strategy consultants have built their practices around helping their clients solve these types of problems. In doing so, they have developed remarkably similar approaches. Leaders such as McKinsey and BCG train their consultants in specific problem-solving techniques, which focus on defining the problem, structuring an approach, gathering and analysing data, reaching a conclusion and communicating with key stakeholders. Certainly, artificial intelligence (AI) can help us sort out some of these processes, but only if there is a clear definition of the problem and a well-developed structure. Research by Harvard Business School and BCG has demonstrated that AI is most effective in the hands of the most skilled consultants.
The distinguishing feature of these strategic problems is that finding a solution requires fact-based analysis. But what data do we analyse? How do we structure an analytical project to come to the solution faster? How can we reach a conclusion and communicate it? Dr Baaij and Mr Parker tackle these and more in their short course at RSM.
Dr Marc Baaij is an associate professor of strategic management at RSM. He previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group as manager of research and strategy consultant, and at IBM in sales and marketing positions. He specialises in methods and techniques for strategy development and execution, with a focus on stakeholder management and foresight development under high levels of uncertainty.
James Parker is a partner at Parma Consulting Group and has more than 30 years of experience in consulting and managing professional organisations. He worked for McKinsey & Company in North America, the UK and the Netherlands, was a founding partner of Mitchell Madison Group, and managing partner of Boer & Croon Corporate Strategy.
