|
|
|
The Company was formed in 1990 by John Friend, who for 15 years led the planning processes group in the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, and has a background in operational research. His previous career, after graduating in mathematics at the University of Cambridge, included ten years in management science roles in manufacturing industry and the airline business.
The Company was originally set up under the name Stradsoft, as a vehicle for developing and publishing computer software based on the Strategic Choice Approach to participatory planning under uncertainty. The subsequent change of name, introduced in 1993, reflects a shift to a more extensive range of activities including not only the provision of software but also an integrated range of consulting, facilitation, training and research services relating to strategic decision processes, with or without computer support.
The Company's Directors are John Friend (Managing Director) and Mari Friend (Company Secretary). Their son Dave has been responsible for the programming work from the start. While the Company at present remains family-based, John Friend maintains a wide range of working relationships with associates in universities, consultancies and other organizations throughout the world, as indicated under worldwide links.
The registered office of Stradspan is currently located at 9 Croft Drive, Millhouse Green, SHEFFIELD S36 9NE, UK; for more details, see under contact points.
John Friend has held Visiting Professorships at three UK unviersities. In 1998, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Amsterdam, in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the practice and theory of planning under uncertainty.
The activities of Stradspan range from the supply of single copies of the STRAD (Strategic Adviser) software package to individual users, to participation in extensive action research projects alongside staff from other consulting, academic, governmental and commercial organizations.
Whatever the assignment, the company's distinctive competence lies in its flexible and participatory approach to the making of difficult yet often urgent decisions under conditions of uncertainty, complexity and conflicting interests. This is described more fully under our approach.
Many of our contracts, whether short-term or more extensive, combine elements of two or more of these activities.
For example, Stradspan can offer an intensive on-site familiarization package, designed to introduce a small group of policy support staff within a particular organization to the potential of the strategic choice approach. Such a package normally extends over two or three days, but can be tailored to the circumstances of a particular client organization. It can include tuition in the use of the STRAD software; guidance in the facilitation of strategic choice workshops; and hands-on experience in applying the approach to live issues on the organization's current strategic agenda. Software licences for those involved in the tuition are normally included as part of the package.
On a longer-term project, investigative research into planning processes in any specific context - whether organizational or, as in many cases, inter-organizational - can be combined with occasional group workshops to explore strategies for change. In such a project, software support can be introduced as and when it is agreed to be helpful.
What is distinctive about the approach of Stradspan is the creative way in which it combines the following five emphases:
These five emphases can all be linked together through the idea of a focus on DEVELOPMENTAL DECISION MAKING. Together they describe the most distinctive features of what has become known as the Strategic Choice Approach - sometimes now shortened to SCA - making it different and indeed complementary to those more formal and resource-intensive procedures of organizational planning typically employed in larger corporate organizations. The approach was developed by John Friend and his former colleagues in the Tavistock Institute through many years of research into the challenges faced by groups engaged in strategic decision processes. It has since matured through a range of further projects - many of them involving the facilitation of intensive "strategic choice workshops" in both organizational and inter-organizational settings.
While Stradspan is based in the United Kingdom, its managing director John Friend has become associated with an evolving network of people and institutions throughout the world who share an active involvement in the application of the strategic choice approach and other participatory planning methods.
Over half of the sales of STRAD 2 for Windows so far have been outside the United Kingdom. STRAD now has a user base covering 35 countries: the UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Turkey, USA, Canada, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Iran, Pakistan, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Fiji.
In addition to his consulting and training activities in Britain, John Friend has conducted short courses in the strategic choice approach in Canada, Australia, Malta and Pakistan; and has co-facilitated workshops with associates in Botswana, Russia, Thailand, Canada, Japan, Brazil and Venezuela. Under published applications, references will be found to published accounts of applications of the methods in the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Belize, Thailand, Brazil and South Africa.
The book Planning under Pressure was published in a Japanese translation in 1991. In 2002, the Venezuelan Planning Institute published a Spanish translation under the title Planificando bajo Presión. El Enfoque de Escognencia Estratégica. Shorter handbooks written by associates - in several cases including Allen Hickling - have been published in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish and Indonesian; see other languages.
The postal address of Stradspan is:
Stradspan Limited,
9 Croft Drive,
Millhouse Green,
Sheffield
S36 9NE
United Kingdom
Telephone: 01226-761685 (from inside UK) or +44-1226-761685 (from other countries)
Fax number as above
The internet address for John Friend is: jfriend@btinternet.com