Diamond E Framework for Dr. Paul Clark, TRU:
Strategy Concepts and the Kinetic Automata Display:
Used frequently, the term “strategy” and terms such as “Organizational Strategy,” “Management Strategy” are often nebulous and used as a way to artificially embellish phrases, behaviours, or ideas.
In 1986, Dr. Joseph Fry and Dr. Peter Killing, both from the Ivey School of Business at Western University, London, ON, introduced a paradigm that revolutionized the way organizational leaders understand, and apply, the concept of “strategy.”
Dr. Joseph Fry and Dr. Peter Killing, provide a practical analytical framework that clarifies the concept of strategy though their “Diamond-E Strategic Planning Framework.” The “Diamond-E” template has since been a foundational paradigm in management education at business schools internationally.
Specifically, Fry and Killing’s “Diamond-E” framework gives decision-makers a clear, comprehensive, and practical process of understanding:
A. The ingredients of a complete organizational “strategy,”
B. The factors that influence a strategy and its success,
C. A three-step process through which organizational stakeholders can evaluate their strategy.
Here in Kamloops, this “Strategy Automata” has recently been introduced as a learning tool at Thompson Rivers University. It is used as an experiential activity in Strategy classes delivered by Dr. Paul Clark, a faculty member at the Bob Gaglardi School of Business and Economics. In particular, this Automata aims to assist students’ understanding of the Diamond-strategy framework by drawing their attention to two aspects of this display.
Firstly, this Automata helps students appreciate the importance of alignment—between the factors that influence a strategy and the strategy itself— through the use of colour. For a strategy to be appropriate, students need to appreciate that its colour choice needs to be congruent with the colours of the four factors that influence its success. An organization’s decision, therefore, to successfully adopt a “Green Strategy” is dependent on all the factors that influence the strategy (resources, management preference, organizational capabilities, and external environment) are aligned and “green.”
Secondly, the figures and their activities provide students with an engaging opportunity to analyze and describe a small business’s strategy. As a result, this activity provides students with many imaginative ways to explore the businesses in which the characters in this Automata are involved and to then prepare a strategy for this enterprise. Finally, one of the visible “unknowns” in this case are the available resources in the small box! The opportunities to consider how this enterprise’s strategy will be affected by an additional resources (such as a patent, additional staff, or an increase in investment), all serve to allow learners to explore the interactivity between one change in the factors that influence a strategy and the ingredients of this enterprise’s strategy.
Thank you, Lily, for building this Automata. Your artwork benefits the students’ understanding of Fry and Killings revolutionary “Diamond-E Strategy Framework!”
Sincerely,
Dr. F.G. Paul Clark
Faculty, Bob Gaglardi School of Business and Economics
Thompson Rivers University
Email: Pclark@tru.ca