SDG employs a team of strategy and decision professionals in offices in North America and Europe. 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. Recent examples:

• A large electric utility providing power across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado sought SDG’s assistance to determine 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.
• 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’s life sciences team helps companies, product development partnerships, and global health foundations make sound decisions that lead to improved health around the world. To illustrate:

• 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.
• 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 five high-disease-burden countries.

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 Strategic Decision and Risk Management certificate program, first offered at Stanford and now at the University of Texas, has reached thousands of individuals from 125 countries and 2,400 organizations. SDG’s public and on-site courses offer a rich variety of curriculum from introductory decision quality to innovation, collaboration, and risk management.
• 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), an organization established to advance the profession and the field.

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

• 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.
• 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.

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 offices participate in team-building activities for causes we support. Two recent examples included preparing and serving meals for the homeless and clearing a local park of invasive plant species.
• A member of SDG 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 our California offices conducted 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.