Solvable

Arnaud Chevallier helps executives solve complex problems and make better decisions under uncertainty. His research, teaching and consulting draw on empirical findings from diverse disciplines to provide concrete tools that prepare executives to manage the strategic challenges they face in today’s dynamic global marketplace.

Effective problem solvers are T-shaped – they are both generalists and specialists, combining depth and breadth of knowledge. Although traditional education and training cultivate specialist skills, they pay much less attention to the acquisition of generalist skills, including strategic thinking. Executives can use Chevallier’s tools to improve on the breadth dimension.

His initial 2016 book Strategic Thinking in Complex Problem Solving, published by Oxford University Press, is now followed by his latest title, Solvable: A Simple Solution to Complex Problems, co-authored with Albrecht Enders. This book synthesizes the strategic thinking needed for complex problem solving into a simple three-step process: frame, explore, decide. It also shows practitioners how to follow these steps using highly applicable, concrete tools.

He has helped numerous organizations to identify breakthrough solutions to complex problems, including Shell, SAP, Lenovo, Cisco, Novo Nordisk, Statkraft and the United Nations. He recently helped the International Committee of the Red Cross identify innovative funding sources and assisted Gavi the Vaccine Alliance in its drive to have greater impact. He also helped Swiss company Agathon to make decisions under high uncertainty during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and supported Tetra Pak in improving its decision-making processes through the optimal engagement of stakeholders.

At IMD he is Director of the Global Management Foundations (GMF) program and the Master of Science in Sustainable Management and Technology (SMT) program offered jointly by IMD, the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and the University of Lausanne. He is also Co-Director of IMD’s Complex Problem Solving (CPS) program.

Before joining IMD in 2018, Chevallier served as Associate Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Rice University in Houston, Texas, where he taught strategic thinking in the engineering school. He was previously graduate dean of the University of Monterrey in Mexico, teaching engineering and business. He trained in mechanical engineering and his PhD from Rice focused on nonlinear stochastic mechanics. He then worked in Accenture’s strategy and business architecture division before joining academia.

Selected publications

Don’t let the AI hype undermine good decision making (Management and Business Review, 2022 forthcoming)

Solvable: A Simple Solution to Complex Problems (Pearson, 2022 forthcoming)

Strategic Thinking in Complex Problem Solving (Oxford University Press, 2016)

Oil and gas well drilling: A vibrations perspective (The Shock and Vibration Digest, 2003)

Nonlinear stochastic drill-string vibrations (The Journal of Vibration and Acoustics, 2002)

Education

BS (Mechanical Engineering)

Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines

MS (Mechanical Engineering)

Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines

MS (Mechanical Engineering)

Rice University

PhD (Mechanical Engineering)

Rice University

Albrecht Enders’ work focuses on strategic decision making. Through his teaching, consulting and writing, he helps companies make important strategic choices, and provides guidance on how to ensure that decision making is effective, and pitfalls are avoided.

He says leaders often fall into the trap of separating decision making from engaging with their stakeholders, only communicating, and seeking to bring stakeholders on board once they have made key strategic choices. Instead, they need to involve key stakeholders throughout the decision-making process, as this can often lead to better choices and create a sense of fair process for the people they lead.

Enders is the co-author with Arnaud Chevallier of Solvable: A Simple Solution to Complex Problems, which proposes a simple three-step process for the strategic thinking needed for complex problem solving: frame, explore, decide. They argue that it is important to avoid jumping to solutions and to work through each step of this process instead.

Framing consists of clearly specifying what the problem is and what it is not. Exploring involves an analysis of the full breadth of potential solutions, including innovative responses beyond those that are immediately obvious. And deciding then entails choosing the best available solution after weighing up all of the trade-offs involved.

In addition, Enders has been actively involved in Pathbuilder programs in which a diverse group of employees act as a sort of “shadow cabinet” and present top teams with new ideas for organizational transformation. This approach has been deployed at companies like Stora Enso and has led to impactful solutions, such as Stora Enso’s Eco School concept.

Enders has worked with a range of clients from different industries, including ABB, Agathon, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, EHL, Siemens, Douglas Holding, Honda, ICBC, Novartis, MTR HongKong, Roland Berger, Safran, Skanska, Telenor, Thyssen Krupp, TUI, Vodafone and VTT.

He is also Co-Director of IMD’s Transition to Business Leadership (TBL) open program, served as IMD Dean of Programs and Innovation until 2020 and previously directed the Advanced Strategic Management program, precursor to the current Advanced Management Program (AMP).

His research has appeared in leading academic journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review and Research Policy and practitioner-oriented outlets including Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review and the Financial Times.

He has also authored numerous case studies on companies such as Nestlé, Tesco, Nordea, XING and SonyBMG, and his research and case writing have been recognized by awards from the Business Policy and Strategy division of the Academy of Management, the Society for Information Management, European Foundation for Management Development and European Case Clearing House.

He is a board member of Swiss precision tool company Agathon and a founding member of the executive committee of the Enterprise for Society (E4S) sustainability initiative launched by IMD,

the University of Lausanne, HEC Lausanne and EPFL.

Before joining IMD in 2009, Enders spent three years as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group where he worked on projects relating to strategy development, reorganization and efficiency improvement in the financial services, energy and industrial goods sectors.

Selected publications

Solvable: A Simple Solution to Complex Problems (Pearson, 2022)

Silver bullet or ricochet? CEOs’ use of metaphorical communication and infomediaries’ evaluations (Academy of Management Journal, 2018)

How the world’s oldest company reinvented itself (Harvard Business Review, 2018)

Stop jumping to solutions! (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2016)

CEO narcissism, audience engagement, and organizational adoption of technological discontinuities (Administrative Science Quarterly, 2013)

The family innovator’s dilemma: How family influence affects the adoption of discontinuous technologies by incumbent firms (Academy of Management Review, 2013)

Strategies for E-business: Creating Value Through Electronic and Mobile Commerce (Pearson, 2005)

Recognition

EFMD Excellence in Practice Gold Award (2014)

Academy of Management Business Policy and Strategy Division Glueck Best Paper Award (2011 and 2013)

Academy of Management Business Policy and Strategy Division Distinguished Paper Award (2012)

Society for Information Management International Paper Competition First Prize (2005 and 2008)

Education

BA (Economics)

Dartmouth College, USA

Master’s degree

Leipzig Graduate School of Management

PhD (Strategic Management)

Leipzig Graduate School of Management

Habilitation (Strategic Management)

University of Nuremberg