Celebrating 40 years of creating value through better decisions

Celebrating 40 years of creating value through better decisions

Celebrating 40 years of creating value through better decisions

Celebrating 40 years of creating value through better decisions

Celebrating 40 years of creating value through better decisions

Celebrating 40 years of creating value through better decisions

SDG is committed to providing strategic counsel to help companies across the globe make better business decisions from the top of the organization to the front lines. This commitment starts within our own walls, where we cultivate an environment of support, encouragement, and lifelong learning. Throughout the last 40 years, we have helped more than 800 organizations strengthen their businesses through insight and analytical rigor, resulting in unbiased business decisions. Explore 40 years of industry impact below.
0
Client Organizations
0
Countries Worldwide
0
Executives & Analysts Trained
0 Billion
In Value Identified

SDG's Global Footprint

SDG has worked in 57 countries on every continent except Antarctica. With staff and clients across the globe, we’ve helped facilitate change, foster economic growth, and educate client teams on better decision making. Hover over the map below to explore a few of our global stories.

[40thAnniversary2]

*Red & dark gray regions indicate countries where SDG has worked. Hover over red regions to view stories.

— SVP, Portfolio Strategy, Management and Operations, Biopharmaceutical Company

“SDG is the standard bearer for quality decision making grounded in proven decision science principles and practices. Their consultants are well-versed in theory and practice, bringing pragmatic and workable solutions to complex organizational and program issues. I have also appreciated and benefitted from the investment SDG makes in teaching others how to think about complex multivariable problems and be better decision makers. I attribute a good part of my personal success in leading complex strategic decisions to the partnership and coaching I’ve received from SDG consultants over the years.”

— President, International Oil Company

“I have been working with SDG since 1997 at three large oil companies that spanned the globe. They were instrumental in guiding my management teams through the process of complex decision making. Their guidance and assistance easily added several billion dollars of value over this time period.”

— Vice President, Transportation Industry

“SDG introduced our organization to its methodologies and, more importantly, helped us ingrain them into the fabric of what we do. It is impossible to understate the effect that SDG has had on the company. I know that I would not be the person I am today, and I am certain this organization would not be the company it is today, without the capabilities that SDG’s team helped us build.”

— Senior Director of Data Science, Technology Company

"I’ve been a fan of the decision quality approach for many years. I often try to share it with analysts and engineers with whom I work because we are often drawn towards solving analytically complex problems without enough attention to framing problems well, managing uncertainty, and engaging with organizations from start to finish."

— Head of Strategy and Business Development, International Energy Major

“Our long-term plan and budgets still reflect the ‘redevelop and expand’ strategy we implemented with SDG more than five years ago. It continues to demonstrate maximum value, prove robustness in a fast changing environment, and provide backup alternatives to stay on track. SDG brought us the culture, principles, and value of rooted decision quality.”

— CEO, Joint Venture

"I feel confident about our ability to implement our future on the heel of the strategy project we completed with SDG. Five years from now, it will be clear that this was a real pivotal moment in this company. Without SDG's support, we would have not gotten there as effectively or as efficiently."

— President & CEO, US Manufacturing Company

“We adopted SDG’s framework because it encourages our collaborative culture, helps us create value, and helps us avoid mistakes.”

— Vice President and Director, Pharmaceutical Company

“In the end, we estimated that our portfolio was worth $2.6 billion more than it was when we started.  This was powerful confirmation that our efforts were worthwhile.”

— Senior Vice President, Upstream Oil Company

“SDG contributed integrated leadership, project management and decision quality capability to some of our most complex company challenges. Their partnership enabled us to systematically understand critical business risks and build optimal strategic resolutions.”

— Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Technology Company for Personalized Medicine

"This was a new and intense process for us, but SDG did a superb job of shepherding us through it and got the entire team engaged. The decision quality approach brought clarity about our strategic options and helped us to navigate a complex decision."

— Chief Strategy Officer, Electric Utility

“SDG has consistently led and delivered the best strategy work I have seen in our business.”

— Chief Executive Officer, Natural Resources Company

“We turned to SDG because beyond the tremendous value they bring to big, strategic questions, we’ve also seen the benefit throughout the organization from learning that there are frameworks, and processes, and methodologies – and yes, math – that can lead to better decisions and better outcomes. It’s been a game changer.”

— SVP, Portfolio Strategy, Management & Operations, Biopharmaceutical Company

“SDG is the standard bearer for quality decision making grounded in proven decision science principles and practices. Their consultants are well-versed in theory and practice, bringing pragmatic and workable solutions to complex organizational and program issues. I have also appreciated and benefitted from the investment SDG makes in teaching others how to think about complex multivariable problems and be better decision makers. I attribute a good part of my personal success in leading complex strategic decisions to the partnership and coaching I’ve received from SDG consultants over the years.”

— President, International Oil Company

“I have been working with SDG since 1997 at three large oil companies that spanned the globe. They were instrumental in guiding my management teams through the process of complex decision making. Their guidance and assistance easily added several billion dollars of value over this time period.”

— Vice President, Transportation Industry

“SDG introduced our organization to its methodologies and, more importantly, helped us ingrain them into the fabric of what we do. It is impossible to understate the effect that SDG has had on the company. I know that I would not be the person I am today, and I am certain this organization would not be the company it is today, without the capabilities that SDG’s team helped us build.”

— Senior Director of Data Science, Technology Company

"I’ve been a fan of the decision quality approach for many years. I often try to share it with analysts and engineers with whom I work because we are often drawn towards solving analytically complex problems without enough attention to framing problems well, managing uncertainty, and engaging with organizations from start to finish."

— Head of Strategy and Business Development, International Energy Major

“Our long-term plan and budgets still reflect the ‘redevelop and expand’ strategy we implemented with SDG more than five years ago. It continues to demonstrate maximum value, prove robustness in a fast changing environment, and provide backup alternatives to stay on track. SDG brought us the culture, principles, and value of rooted decision quality.”

— CEO, Joint Venture

"I feel confident about our ability to implement our future on the heel of the strategy project we completed with SDG. Five years from now, it will be clear that this was a real pivotal moment in this company. Without SDG's support, we would have not gotten there as effectively or as efficiently."

— President & CEO, US Manufacturing Company

“We adopted SDG’s framework because it encourages our collaborative culture, helps us create value, and helps us avoid mistakes.”

— Vice President and Director, Pharmaceutical Company

“In the end, we estimated that our portfolio was worth $2.6 billion more than it was when we started.  This was powerful confirmation that our efforts were worthwhile.”

— Senior Vice President, Upstream Oil Company

"SDG contributed integrated leadership, project management and decision quality capability to some of our most complex company challenges. Their partnership enabled us to systematically understand critical business risks and build optimal strategic resolutions."

— Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Technology Company for Personalized Medicine

"This was a new and intense process for us, but SDG did a superb job of shepherding us through it and got the entire team engaged. The decision quality approach brought clarity about our strategic options and helped us to navigate a complex decision."

— Chief Strategy Officer, Electric Utility

"SDG has consistently led and delivered the best strategy work I have seen in our business."

— Chief Executive Officer, Natural Resources Company

"We turned to SDG because beyond the tremendous value they bring to big, strategic questions, we’ve also seen the benefit throughout the organization from learning that there are frameworks, and processes, and methodologies – and yes, math – that can lead to better decisions and better outcomes. It’s been a game changer."

Innovation: The Evolution of SDG

When we work with clients, we aren’t just solving a problem – we are helping organizations develop strategies and make changes to the way they address challenges so that every project has a lasting impact.
1964

In 1964, after helping a bunch of nuclear engineers at General Electric figure out whether they should add a superheater to a new reactor, engineering professor Ronald Howard sat down to analyze what he’d just done. “Decision analysis,” he called it, and described it as “a logical procedure for the balancing of the factors that influence a decision” that factored in “uncertainties, values, and preferences.”

More
1981

August 12, 1981
SDG founders Ron Howard, Carl Spetzler, Jim Matheson, having worked together at Stanford and in the decision analysis group at the Stanford Research Institute, join with a fourth co-founder, Jeff Foran, to form Strategic Decisions Group. The founders set out to create a new kind of management consulting firm—one that would harness the power of normative and behavioral decision analysis to help organizations choose the best course of action in the face of uncertainty, complexity, competing preferences, and organizational complexity.

More
1988

During the savings & loan crisis, SDG played a pivotal role in analyzing and structuring distressed asset portfolios. Mellon Bank was the first to use the so-called “good bank/bad bank” strategy, transferring lower quality, distressed real estate-backed assets into a newly created liquidating bank (the “bad bank”). SDG went on to analyze other large portfolios of distressed assets, provide fairness opinions, and conduct risk analyses during this period.

1988

SDG defines “Decision Quality” as the integration of decision analysis, behavioral science and the shareholder value movement. Ron Howard, at this point still at Stanford and SDG’s chairman, publishes a journal article that contains the first reference to “decision quality” in this context, "Decision Analysis: Practice and Promise." “Spreadsheet, decision tree, and influence diagram programs speed evaluation. Intelligent decision systems realized in computers offer promise of providing the benefits of decision analysis on a broader scale than ever before,” the author writes. “Decision analysis is now poised for a breakthrough in its usefulness to human beings.”

More
1998

“How SmithKline Beecham Makes Better Resource Allocation Decisions” was published in Harvard Business Review. This publication became the blueprint for how pharma companies managed their portfolios for the next 20 years.

More
1998

SDG publishes The Smart Organization: Creating Value through Strategic R&D. SDG co-founder Jim Matheson and SDG partner David Matheson identify the key practices that enable successful organizations to deliver a stream of winning products and services, drawing on the experiences of R&D-intensive organizations around the world.

More
2000

SDG publishes Business Portfolio Management: Valuation, Risk Assessment, and EVA® Strategies by SDG partner Michael S. Allen. Published in response to two important business trends: increasing corporate acquisitions and managing business units as individual companies with a synergistic relationship to the parent company. Illustrated with detailed examples drawn from SDG’s extensive corporate portfolio engagements. This book triggered a series of value-creating portfolio engagements at SDG.  

More
2001

A small team of SDG partners form the Decision Education Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to improving the decision skills of young people. For several years, SDG incubated the foundation with office space and support, and many SDG staff members have volunteered in support of the foundation’s mission.

More
2005

SDG introduces decision quality into governance processes and the board room in response to the governance failures that led to Sarbanes-Oxley.

More
2016

SDG partners Carl Spetzler, Hannah Winter, and Jennifer Meyer publish Decision Quality: Value Creation from Better Business DecisionsThis bestselling book describes not only how to ensure quality in every decision, but also illustrates how organizations build quality into their decision processes. 

More
2019

As decision makers seek to navigate multiple, sometimes conflicting value measures among parties with vastly different perspectives, SDG incorporates multi-attribute utility theory into client engagements. The ability to see in real time how preferences translate to decision choices is a game-changing perspective.

2021 and Beyond

SDG continues to evolve with our clients by anticipating and addressing challenges and opportunities that will come from ever changing markets. Today, SDG increasingly supports clients as they incorporate ESG (environmental, social, and governance) factors into their decision making. More and more, investors, and consequently, corporate decision makers, are applying these non-financial factors into their analyses and decision processes as they explore strategic opportunities.

Watch Video
1964

In 1964, after helping a bunch of nuclear engineers at General Electric figure out whether they should add a superheater to a new reactor, engineering professor Ronald Howard sat down to analyze what he’d just done. “Decision analysis,” he called it, and described it as “a logical procedure for the balancing of the factors that influence a decision” that factored in “uncertainties, values, and preferences.”

More
1981

August 12, 1981 SDG founders Ron Howard, Carl Spetzler, Jim Matheson, having worked together at Stanford and in the decision analysis group at the Stanford Research Institute, join with a fourth co-founder, Jeff Foran, to form Strategic Decisions Group. The founders set out to create a new kind of management consulting firm—one that would harness the power of normative and behavioral decision analysis to help organizations choose the best course of action in the face of uncertainty, complexity, competing preferences, and organizational complexity. 

More
1988

During the savings & loan crisis, SDG played a pivotal role in analyzing and structuring distressed asset portfolios. Mellon Bank was the first to use the so-called “good bank/bad bank” strategy, transferring lower quality, distressed real estate-backed assets into a newly created liquidating bank (the “bad bank”). SDG went on to analyze other large portfolios of distressed assets, provide fairness opinions, and conduct risk analyses during this period.

1988

SDG defines “Decision Quality” as the integration of decision analysis, behavioral science and the shareholder value movement. Ron Howard, at this point still at Stanford and SDG’s chairman, publishes a journal article that contains the first reference to “decision quality” in this context, "Decision Analysis: Practice and Promise." “Spreadsheet, decision tree, and influence diagram programs speed evaluation. Intelligent decision systems realized in computers offer promise of providing the benefits of decision analysis on a broader scale than ever before,” the author writes. “Decision analysis is now poised for a breakthrough in its usefulness to human beings.”

More
1998

“How SmithKline Beecham Makes Better Resource Allocation Decisions” was published in Harvard Business Review. This publication became the blueprint for how pharma companies managed their portfolios for the next 20 years.

More
1998

SDG publishes The Smart Organization: Creating Value through Strategic R&D. SDG co-founder Jim Matheson and SDG partner David Matheson identify the key practices that enable successful organizations to deliver a stream of winning products and services, drawing on the experiences of R&D-intensive organizations around the world.

More
2000

SDG publishes Business Portfolio Management: Valuation, Risk Assessment, and EVA® Strategies by SDG partner Michael S. Allen. Published in response to two important business trends: increasing corporate acquisitions and managing business units as individual companies with a synergistic relationship to the parent company. Illustrated with detailed examples drawn from SDG’s extensive corporate portfolio engagements. This book triggered a series of value-creating portfolio engagements at SDG.  

More
2001

A small team of SDG partners form the Decision Education Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to improving the decision skills of young people. For several years, SDG incubated the foundation with office space and support, and many SDG staff members have volunteered in support of the foundation’s mission.

More
2005

SDG introduces decision quality into governance processes and the board room in response to the governance failures that led to Sarbanes-Oxley.

More
2016

SDG partners Carl Spetzler, Hannah Winter, and Jennifer Meyer publish Decision Quality: Value Creation from Better Business DecisionsThis bestselling book describes not only how to ensure quality in every decision, but also illustrates how organizations build quality into their decision processes. 

More
2019

As decision makers seek to navigate multiple, sometimes conflicting value measures among parties with vastly different perspectives, SDG incorporates multi-attribute utility theory into client engagements. The ability to see in real time how preferences translate to decision choices is a game-changing perspective.

2021 and Beyond

SDG continues to evolve with our clients by anticipating and addressing challenges and opportunities that will come from ever changing markets. Today, SDG increasingly supports clients as they incorporate ESG (environmental, social, and governance) factors into their decision making. More and more, investors, and consequently, corporate decision makers, are applying these non-financial factors into their analyses and decision processes as they explore strategic opportunities.

Insight: Educating the World

Many consulting organizations are talking about decision making now. But SDG has been pioneering this field for 40 years. We developed and adapted the process to make sure decision makers and organizations get the most of what they value – as defined by customers, employees, shareholders, and society – and learn the best practices for making value-creating decisions in the future.

energy transition

Charting the Road to Energy Transition

Investors, consumers, and regulators now expect energy companies to fully embrace energy transition. A practical approach balances the efficiency and economics of fossil fuels against the environmental and financial impact.

A New Approach to Early-Stage Portfolio Decision Making

Comparing investments with long lead-times is difficult, conventional methodology is limited. Worse, it can lead to selecting “safe” investments rather than stimulating innovation. In this webinar, SDG demonstrates the benefits of a more effective approach.

Judging the Quality of an ‘Agile’ Decision

“Agile” decision-making is a way to use rapid iteration to communicate, integrate, and learn to achieve desired project results. In such a fast-paced decision process, is there room to ensure decision quality?

three_things_about_risk

Three Things Every Executive Should Know About Risk

Executives make decisions every day not knowing how they will turn out. Here's three factors to keep in mind as they deal with that uncertainty.

How to Establish a Healthy Decision Culture

At the heart of any healthy corporate culture is a healthy decision culture. Beyond the obvious, there are dozens of dysfunctional behaviors that can undermine an organization’s decision culture. This webinar discusses how you can establish a healthy decision culture within your organization.

SDG Resource Hub

See more of SDGs Thought Leadership content in the Resource Hub. Access high-quality webinars, publications, and insights. Aimed at helping individuals and organizations make quality decision.

Impact: Projects That Matter

When we work with clients, we aren’t just solving a problem – we are helping organizations develop strategies and make changes to the way they address challenges so that every project has a lasting impact.