Here's an overview of some of our accomplishments using a new approach to strategy.

1. A fast, flexible way to design
and manage productive collaborations
Strategic Doing accelerates productive collaborations across organizational and
political boundaries. In a world that relies on networks and collaboration to get work
done, Strategic Doing represents a new operating framework for organizations,
communities, and regions that is simple, low-cost and sustainable.
We designed Strategic Doing for managing the complexities of open, loosely joined
networks. In these situations, no one can tell anyone else what to do. Unlike strategic
planning, Strategic Doing moves ideas into action quickly. It focuses heavily on
measurable outcomes and experiments (Pathfinder Projects) to create a pathway to
success and impact. Participants design these experiments and then expand quickly
on what is working. In short, they learn by doing.
Success stories: Confronting complex “wicked” challenges
With a set of simple rules, participants link and leverage their assets to create both
shared value and collective impact. We have used this agile strategy discipline to:
• Guide the business-led transformation of Oklahoma City’s economy, an approach
that The Atlantic magazine called “a national model” of economic transformation;
• Design and guide the development of a fast-growing information technology
cluster in Charleston, South Carolina;
• Begin rebuilding the devastated neighborhoods of Flint, Michigan and tackling the
challenge of reducing teenage homicide rates;
• Launch a new clean energy cluster on Florida’s Space Coast in the wake of the
NASA Shuttle shutdown;
• Build multi-disciplinary teams among research faculty at Purdue University and
Indiana University to take on Grand Challenges in food, energy, water, and health;
• Develop a new innovation ecosystem in the Muscle Shoals region of North
Alabama;
• Launch the transformation of undergraduate engineering curriculum in 50
universities, funded by the National Science Foundation;
• Build a rural regional food cluster in British Columbia, Canada;

2. • Accelerate the formation of a primary health network in Queensland, Australia;
• Develop new technology and innovation management tools in collaboration with
Farunhofer IAO in Stuttgart, Germany;
• Create new collaborations across Indiana to fill the manufacturing skills gap;
• Launch a new manufacturing skills initiative across North Carolina;
• Transform business practices within the Department of Employment Services in
the District of Columbia;
• Accelerate the development of a global water cluster based in Milwaukee;
• Create new talent pipelines for an aerospace cluster based in Rockford, Illinois;
• Created the first “green collar” certification to provide skills in sustainability to
manufacturing workers;
• Design an interactive mapping platform to visualize the transportation and
logistics networks across Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana;
• Convert the small, rural community of Medora, Indiana into the hub for the
National Maple Syrup Festival;
• Launch the National STEM Guitar Project, funded by the National Science
Foundation to introduce manufacturing skills to high school students;
People rely on Strategic Doing in order to do more with the assets they have at hand.
There is no waiting around, no asking for permission to start, no “analysis paralysis”.
While simple, Strategic Doing takes practice to master. It is a collective discipline, a
shared approach or protocol for designing and guiding complex collaborations by
following simple rules.
What professionals tell us
Paul Collits is an experienced economic developer and President of the Australia New
Zealand Regional Science Association. He called Strategic Doing “the best
methodology I have seen in 20 years.”
Ilya Avdeev is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is leading the transformation of the undergraduate
engineering curriculum:
“The Strategic Doing (SD) approach might be one of the most effective ways of
implementing change on campus. It effectively replaces strategic planning, a
traditional pathway.

3. “At UW-Milwaukee, we have been able to move forward ten projects related to
innovation and entrepreneurship transformations of curricula and institutional
culture using SD. It is outcome driven, but more importantly, it is adaptive. Our
diverse team of faculty and administrators have pivoted many times because of
the continuous feedback that we analyze and plug back in into the decision
making process.”
Tim Burton, founder of Maplewood Farm and the National Maple Syrup Festival:
“Following the principles of Strategic Doing you can grow both communities and
businesses. A small group of folks established Medora, Indiana (population 631)
as the birthplace of the National Maple Syrup Festival and no amount of strategic
planning could have helped my business, Burton’s Maplewood Farm, launch a
collection of artisan syrups, favorites of America’s top chefs and sold at exclusive
farmers markets and other discriminating outlets across the U.S. It took Strategic
Doing.”
Bob Brown, Associate Director, Center for Community and Economic Development,
Michigan State:
“Strategic Doing gives us the power to change our lives, our neighborhoods and
our communities.”
Janyce Fadden, Executive-in-residence, School of Business, University of North
Alabama, and former VP Portescap/Danaher:
“In today's collaborative management culture Strategic Doing offers a tool that
allows team members to advance ideas to implementation quickly.”
Todd Tangert, Former Combat Systems Architect, Lockheed Corporation:
“Strategic Doing allows a business to quickly identify an interested ecosystem of
local businesses.”
Mark Scotland, CEO, 4.0 Analytics:
“I have worked with large companies trying to do open innovation, but the
Strategic Doing process is unique. This is the most clear and concise open
innovation process I’ve seen.”

4. The global reach of Strategic Doing
This map shows Strategic Doing workshops across the globe. Strategic Doing is
spreading for a simple reason: We are all facing complex challenges, and our
traditional approaches just don’t work. We need new collaborations that can harness
our shared, collective intelligence. Many people are telling us what to do, but too few
are telling us how to do it. Strategic Doing teaches “the how”.
Learn more
To learn more about Strategic Doing, please contact the Purdue Agile Strategy Lab: Ed
Morrison (edmorrison@purdue.edu); Scott Hutcheson (hutcheson@purdue.edu) or Liz
Nilsen (enilsen@purdu.edu)