Marcus Richards
We provide courses, models and software tools to build living, quantified business models, so leaders and teams can make *much* better, joined up plans for their business or any issue it faces.
The method’s rock-solid foundations allow highly realistic models that [1] explain how the current situation came about [2] project forwards what may happen and [3] build detailed, time-based plans for improving that future.
Specifically for new ventures, we can simulate how the business *should* work before risking money and effort, then match the model to early experience of how it *actually* works, to cut the risk of failure and provide a confident platform for the future.
The models can be continually up-dated for new information and can be used for the continuous weekly or monthly management of the organisation or issue.
Tell us about yourself?
I was head of strategy for the team that transformed Whitbread PLC from a declining beer business into the UK’s leading hospitality retailer, then spent 20+years teaching strategy to executives and MBAs at London Business School.
Frustrated with the poor academic strategy methods being taught, I was introduced to the powerful “System Dynamics” method and tools that allow highly realistic simulation of all kinds of socio/economic/environmental issues. It was a simple matter to translate and apply that technology to business management. See https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimwarren/
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Focus on the big, unserved need of organisational leaders and analysts/consultants, and do not be distracted by other issues, however interesting they may be.
What problem does your business solve?
The strategy dynamics approach allows business owners and decision-makers to understand and continually improve any organisation’s overall performance. For start-ups or one-time issues, leaders can build and stress-test a holistic plan that maximises the chance of success before risking real effort and cash.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
The high rate of failure for organisational strategies, from the surprisingly tolerated death rate of new ventures to the widespread disappointment with corporate strategies and initiatives – and the total lack of useful tools to do better.
What is your magic sauce?
Strategy dynamics models show transparently how the business ‘machine’ actually works, and replicate its performance with surprising realism.
They are quick to build, and easily understood by everyone involved, so everyone can see their part in making successful outcomes.
Other “business model” approaches are, frankly, little better than guesswork, with no means of checking if the business will actually work.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Build widespread adoption of the courses that teach leaders how to use these models, and teach analysts, consultants and business students how to develop them.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
The ‘spreadsheet mindset’ of standard management education, the obsession with financial analysis disconnected from the working business system that drives financial outcomes, and the disbelief that what we do is even possible.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We want business leaders – and the consultants and analysts who advise them – to explore what our courses and tools can do for their organisations, then use them.
