or would take them a billion years to solve. Remember IBM’s Deep Blue defeated chess champion, Garry Kasparov in 1997? It had an advantage because it examined 200 million possible moves each second. A quantum machine would be able to calculate 1 trillion moves per second! For math nerds like me, here is a link to another article that dives deeper, but is still accessible. Anyway, the point is, one of the clearest applications is for solving complex optimization tasks and performing fast searches of unsorted data. For those of you in transportation, solutions like “Traffic Signal Optimization on a Square Lattice using the D-Wave Quantum Annealer” research being done at Cornell University. The takeaway then, is that leaders in our space need to develop strategy tools for a shifting landscape. It is time to reinvent the way companies develop strategy due to the defining characteristic of turbulence in today’s business environment. Demographic shifts, technology, regulatory restructuring, environmental pressures, and more have forced us to continually reexamine the competitive landscape. With the increasing rapidity with which this is occurring, the old cadences that firm leaders followed of quarterly or even yearly planning sessions should be dead in favor of a much more fluid and frequent process. Moreover, the traditional strategy tools are static categories and representations (Porter’s five forces, maps, blue ocean thinking) that can only tell us about the past environment in a two-dimensional field. They also assume that an industry is well defined, has a fixed set of competitors, and a fixed set of clients. The variables that are increasingly dynamic are the very ones that these models hold constant. Even some of the more sophisticated tools like game theory deliver mixed results. We must, then, be able to describe and understand the underlying logic and return to the true power of well crafted, purpose driven, mission and vision statements to help guide us. This will be the topic of my next Zweig Letter article. One of the most powerful things that Zweig Group recently did to elevate the industry and address this problem is to form a strategic partnership with OnStrategy to exclusively provide the AEC industry with a proprietary strategy development and management software application as well as process management best practices. This enables companies to more easily coordinate and manage implementation, reporting, and updating of strategic planning. Partnering with OnStrategy provides our clients with a better, more effective way to ensure strategy becomes a living and thriving part of the organization. It gives users tremendous capabilities in managing strategy, sharing performance, and creating alignment and accountability. Never before has the strategic plan had the brawn as it does through this app. It not only solves a challenge for our clients but provides a necessary tool to quickly adapt to market shifts and drive a culture of performance. We will be presenting together during Zweig Group’s Annual ElevateAEC
Conference on the topic of “Emerging Shifts Leaders are Making to Adapt Strategy During Market Uncertainty.” My final question to you is simply a restatement of where we began. How are you doing to reimagine what you do for the new era of AI powered competition? There will be uncertainty with new companies and technologies vying for dominant design in the next 10-30 years. It isn’t as important as it once was to be the one creating the software innovation for a competitive advantage, but to be the one that can effectively choose, implement, and use the emerging technology that has been developed. Define some criteria to intelligently embrace and implement these systems into your enterprise. Below are a few questions to assist you in determining which technology to integrate into your strategic plan. 1. How does the solution fit into your existing environment? 2. How does the business benefit (even if I cannot show ROI yet)? 3. Who in my organization will use it? 4. Does my staff have the expertise to manage the change? 5. How will the technology affect my clients? 6. What are the risks? 7. Can I test the solution as a pilot program without significant business disruption or cost? 8. Will the solution scale to the entire enterprise? Now that the questions have been asked, it is sometimes necessary to make revolutionary shifts to your firm which will inevitably cause disruption. Change is hard for any organization but must be embraced. Think deeply about why your firm exists and what value you truly provide. In the end, for your firm to continue, all of this must be part of the plan.
PHIL KEIL is director of Strategy Consulting, Zweig Group. Contact him at pkeil@ zweiggroup.com.
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csengineermag.com
october 2020
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