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.weissf...@sdrc.com. regards Uwe