SDG employs a growing team of professionals in eight offices worldwide. Because “we build the house we want to live in,” our firm has created a supportive and stimulating work environment shaped by carefully chosen values imbedded in a Value Wheel. We are a learning organization that encourages employees to realize their full potential with ongoing professional development and training. Employees of SDG are empowered to pursue their career passions and support their families and communities.

SDG’s consulting enables our clients to make high-quality decisions that produce economic value measured cumulatively in billions of dollars. We help clients to allocate resources wisely, quantify and manage business opportunities and risks, and develop programs that produce growth and job creation. Three examples:

• For a city of nearly 3 million people, SDG helped develop an analytic process for prioritizing which public sector projects should be funded. The city’s administration had to choose from 300+ proposed projects, ranging from traffic and transport to parks and gardens and safety and security. SDG created a decision support system to optimize capital allocation, thereby maximizing the value for city residents and balancing benefits across the city’s districts.
• SDG assisted a government in the Middle East to tackle high national unemployment by creating a market-based labor policy program that experts have deemed one of the most innovative ever introduced in the region. Using DQ principles and large data set analysis, SDG’s consultation has contributed to creation of hundreds of thousands of private-sector jobs in the past 3 years, including a 250 percent increase in female employment.
• A large electric utility providing power to 287,000 people in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado sought SDG’s assistance to determine if and how they should add large-scale solar to their energy mix. SDG introduced a structured decision making process, helped quantify regulatory market risks and customer satisfaction metrics, and aided the organization to determine the timing, size, location and ownership of new solar capacity.

SDG’s global health and life sciences teams help foundations, international agencies, companies, and product development partnerships (PDPs) make sound decisions that lead to improved health around the world.  To illustrate:

• Typhoid fever is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. SDG’s global health practice analyzed the potential health impacts and cost effectiveness of several new typhoid fever vaccines. SDG confirmed the cost-effectiveness of the vaccine and identified an implementation strategy that could double the health impact of the NGO’s immunization program.
• Pneumonia is the leading cause of death of children worldwide. SDG helped provide analytical insight that informed decisions on how best to develop and deliver a low-cost diagnostic device (pulse oximeters) to 5 high disease burden countries.
• SDG assisted a large biotech company to devise an asset portfolio strategy for its pipeline of drugs in Phases I, II and III of development. SDG’s analysis led the company to accelerate development and launch of a therapeutic drug that treats a serious side effect of chemotherapy. This treatment has dramatically improved the quality of life for thousands of cancer patients.

Strong decision-making capability is vital for success in business and personal life. SDG’s educational programs offer a variety of paths to skill building.

• SDG’s Executive Education team has equipped 15,000+ business leaders with sophisticated decision-making skills. The SDG Stanford certificate program has reached 6,400 individuals, from 125 countries and 2,400 organizations, and more than 1,100 have graduated with the certificate. SDG’s public courses offer a rich variety of curriculum from introductory DQ to innovation, collaboration and risk management. SDG has delivered 202 public courses and 624 on-site courses in 14 countries and online.
• SDG has reached more than 25,000 online learners with its free MOOC, DQ 101. Students have registered from 116 countries, including areas of conflict and emerging economies from A to Z, from Afghanistan to Mexico to Zambia. The course attracts people of all ages and professions.
• Members of SDG established the Decision Education Foundation (DEF) and continue to serve on the board and volunteer. DEF has educated hundreds of high school students and teachers in classrooms and via a MOOC, “It’s Your Choice.” SDG provides leadership in the Society of Decision Professionals (SDP).

We join the conversation on global issues with intellectual rigor and authenticity and push for innovative perspectives.

• For a large US public power agency with aging infrastructure and limited resources, SDG offered a groundbreaking analytical approach, enhancing the agency’s ability to ensure reliable and affordable power delivery to customers and minimize “total economic cost.” SDG provided a view of the probability of power outages and fully monetized potential consequences including additional societal losses to all stakeholders. SDG’s consultation has guided the agency’s investments in equipment replacement and process improvements.
• A member of SDG’s energy and environment practice published an acclaimed white paper on “Climate Engineering and Climate Tipping-Point Scenarios” that analyzes the benefits and risks of solar radiation management climate engineering. The work underlying this paper was ranked as best approach to climate change by a panel of five eminent economists, including three Nobel Laureates.
• India’s leaders face major decisions at the nexus of energy, economics and environment. One-fifth of India’s 1.3 billion people lack access to energy. Coal will continue to dominate India’s energy mix, despite substantial investments in renewables. SDG’s team identified necessary policy changes to promote adoption of “coal washing at the pithead,” a techniques with potential to reduce India’s carbon emissions by 5-8 percent and generate up to $2 billion in savings.

Just as we build the house we want to live in, we aim to support the surrounding community through pro bono consulting and volunteer action.

• SDG helped improve the quality of medical decisions for hundreds of cancer patients though pro bono consulting for Community Breast Health Project in California. The project produced a new concept now used in SDG’s consulting practice: “Decision Ready or Decision Fit,” and one SDG volunteer forged a new career helping women make critical medical decisions.
• SDG’s team gets moving for causes we support! Our Lebanon office participated in the 2015 Beirut marathon “Run for a Cause/Run for Peace,” with staff members logging between 10k and 42k. The SDG group in Hong Kong has participated in various runs for charity, and one member recently logged 100 kilometers over 28 hours to raise funds for Oxfam.
• A member of SDG’s office in India founded an NGO for women and children victims of human trafficking in New Delhi’s red light district. The organization’s 4-part program offers an alternate path through “RISE”: Rights awareness-raising, Integration with society, Skills training, and Education.

Staff in the San Mateo and Palo Alto offices are conducting comprehensive environmental audits of office operations, including waste management, recycling, wise use of resources (energy, water, materials) and eco-friendly purchasing protocols. Newly formed Green Teams have introduced composting and increased recycling, and are identifying further actions for greater operational efficiency and green improvement. Other SDG offices are exploring opportunities for enhanced environmental impacts.