About Us

About Provisdom

Mark Erickson Biography

Dave Dixon Biography

Dick Frankel Biography

Corporate Decision Making

Philosophy

Corporate Grandmaster - Compares decision making by top executives to that of chess grandmasters.

Value Creation Cycle - Discusses how information creates value through decisions.

Climbing the Decision Ladder - Reaching the top rung of the decision ladder means achieving wisdom through data and knowledge.

Transparency in Corporate Decision Making - The need for transparency to stakeholders in information and decisions.

Shareholder Value

True Shareholder Value - Discusses the definition of True Shareholder Value and how it is calculated.

Testing Corporate Decision-Making Systems - How to know if your decision support tools and methods actually maximize shareholder value.

Discount Rates - Why single-rate discounting almost never maximizes shareholder value.

Sustainability Factors - The connection between sustainability factors and shareholder value.

Maximum Transparency Modeling - Issues surrounding the trade-offs between transparency and practicality.

The Market - Describes the concept of the market and its relationship to shareholder value.

Need

Elements of Corporate Decision Making - Market research on corporate decision making.

Speed and Information - Decision makers are often forced to choose between using relevant information or speed and agility.

Corporate Myopia - Corporations and fund managers often ignore long-term information that has significant impact on value.

Enterprise Value Creation Landscape - An overview of tools and services used to create value in the enterprise.

Decision Platform

Overview

Foundation of IP - Provisdom’s intellectual property foundation.

Benefits - A summary of the benefits of using the Provisdom Decision Platform to improve corporate decision making.

Advantages - A summary of how the Provisdom Decision Platform compares with other decision modeling methods and technologies.

Features and Functions - Aspects of the Provisdom Decision Platform that make your corporate decision making problems simple and fast to develop, with results which will be transparent to your colleagues.

Application

Corporate Applications - The Provisdom Decision Platform may be used over the entire range of corporate decisions.

The Process - Outlines a six-step process of using the Provisdom Decision Platform to create a customized solution and shows sample inputs and outputs.

Enterprise Role of the Provisdom Decision Platform - The role of the Provisdom Decision Platform in the corporate structure.

Provisdom Decision Platform Software Ecosystem - The major software components that support the Provisdom Decision Platform.

Relationships

Corporate Scenario Planning and the Provisdom Decision Platform - Relationship of Corporate Scenario Planning with the Provisdom Decision Platform.

Knowledge Crunching With Scenario Planning - Likens Scenario Planning to “knowledge crunching” as opposed to the familiar “number crunching”.

Balanced Scorecard and the Provisdom Decision Platform - Relationship of Balanced Scorecard with the Provisdom Decision Platform.

Case Studies

Test Cases

Data Center Managment

Data Center Management Executive Summary

Data Center Management Test Case

Technology Acquisition and Project Management

Technology Acquisition and Project Management Executive Summary

Technology Acquisition and Project Management Test Case

Internet Acquisition

Internet Acquisition Executive Summary

Internet Acquisition Test Case

DRAM Supply Chain

DRAM Supply Chain Executive Summary

DRAM Supply Chain Test Case

Simple Case Studies

Simple Bass Diffusion - Optimal pricing strategy for VAX machines, where sales are believed to follow a modified Bass Diffusion process with uncertainty.

Simple Boiler - Choice between an industrial boiler which burns gas, oil, or both.  For the boiler which burns both fuels, illustrates the use of market-traded assets (oil and gas) and the effects of switching costs in choosing the optimal fuel strategy over the boiler lifetime.

Simple Dynamic Pricing - Optimal pricing strategy for a pizza chain. The optimal price changes as a function of costs, product desirability, and advertising costs.

Simple Stock Trading - Optimal stock trading through knowledge gathering.

Simple Trading - Complex derivatives trading based on market mispricing.

Test Studies

Deep Water Oil Sequential Exploration

Deep Water Oil Sequential Exploration Executive Summary

Deep Water Oil Sequential Exploration Test Study

Oil Production

Oil Production Executive Summary

Oil Production Test Study

Resources

Definitions

Qualitative - Definition of Qualitative