The German Railway used decision analysis in order to develop a new HR strategy. A lot impact factors were considered, e.g. demographic development (which is very dramatic in Germany), health care issues and law issues.

The firm is supported by two PhD students from the London School of Economics. They take care for a project called Mara, which has the objective to connect decision experts globally. On the project website you can find this statement: “MARA enables its partner organisations to develop coherent strategies in a transparent and participative process. The result: an efficient allocation of resources prioritised projects and optimised portfolios.” I will check their website periodically for two reasons: You can not organise creativity and synthesis for strategy development. But you can probably start with a strategic objective; and then you can start a structured process in order to define the ways to achieve this. I hope that I can get some ideas for my own PhD-research.