Combat Analytics - Anyone seen/heard/used it?

[Cavguy]

All,

I've been tasked to evaluate a program being marketed to the Army called "Combat Analytics" presented by Mr. Chad Storlie. From reading the promotional materials, the system (which is copyrighted, the army pays for seminars) uses a "balanced scorecard" approach plan, assess, adjust, and execute COIN operations. I gathered from an earlier thread that the process may be a translation of a civilian business practice to military use.

The promotional materials don't go into a lot of depth, and I've sought some RFI's from the marketer. In the meantime - has anyone heard of or used this program? How would you rate it?

They don't have a website, so I can't direct you to any more info. Any input appreciated.

[Ken White]

LINK.

LINK.

Not much help...

Whoops, lost two links and now I can't find the other one.

here's the third: LINK.

The one I can't find is one about his role in Bosnia, what he learned there and later applied on his OIF tour. I'll keep looking.

[slapout9]

Cavguy, the US Army medical command uses (or used to) balanced scorecards, some used to be on the internet but I haven't seen them in awhile. We use it (Balanced Score card) where I work...... until we can it very shortly.

PS: You and RTK could read the book and come up with something just as good.

[wm]

Can't speak to the product, but here's some info on the apparent source,
Chad Storlie, gleaned from a Harvard B-School marketing brochure for a conference in June 2007:

Chad Storlie
Chad Storlie holds the position of Business Director, Lane Management in the Union Pacific Railroad Intermodal Marketing and Sales Group. Chad supervises the Union Pacific Intermodal Gate Reservation system, an airline style reservation process that requires customers to book freight reservations with the Railroad. Chad began his career with the Union Pacific railroad designing and implementing a statistical forecast process for the Intermodal business line compromising approximately 3.3 million annual shipments (2005). Prior to joining Union Pacific, Chad worked for General Electric in Marketing roles in the Transportation Systems (GETS) and Aircraft Engine (GEAE) divisions. Prior to joining General Electric, Chad served as a U.S. Army officer in a variety of roles. Chad holds an MBA from Georgetown University and a BA from Northwestern University. Chad is also an Adjunct Professor of Marketing at the Creighton University College of Business Administration.

You might also find this link interesting. Apparently he is a USAR Major in SF. And this link connects him to an organization called the Magis Group (Link)

[J Wolfsberger]

We learned the balanced score card in B-school. It's a tool. Which means it's only as effective as the user. I'm not familiar with either the guy or the product. If he's selling it as a tool, with training, and not promising it's a cure all, then it may be useful.

[selil]

Sounds like Total Quality (Data) Management re-purposed within the framework of "balanced scorecard(s)" system (LINK)

[Ken White]

Hopefully, they got more than that.

Bidness is bidness; wars don't lend themselves to that...

[Cavguy]

Sounds like Total Quality (Data) Management re-purposed within the framework of "balanced scorecard(s)" system (LINK)

Wow,

Great link. I see now that in his literature he has the exact same powerpoint graphic, but the four points of the star are plan, assess, execute, and adjust instead.

I don't dispute the possible usefulness of the tool for some measure of process analysis. My main RFI back was how he suggests determining the relevant metrics - that's one of the hardest things. We measure everything from attacks to hours of electricity, but finding the metrics that matter in COIN is really the hard part. I doesn't matter if I measure well if I'm not measuring the most relevant data.

Thanks for all the help above. Keep it coming. I was hoping someone had seen his class.

[Rank amateur]

Based on how I've used the data in marketing, I was going to say exactly what you just said. Scoreboarding is great for data that stays relatively stable over time. (For example a software company can scoreboard Web traffic, the percentage of Web traffic that downloads a free trial version and percentage of free users who eventually pay for the software. If any of the numbers drop the scoreboard turns yellow and they can fix the problem before revenue drops.) What metrics are going to warn of counterinsurgency problems while there's still time to fix the problem?

Data mining, however, could be useful. (My favorite example of a data mining "nugget" comes from 7-11 who discovered that men who are sent out to pick up diapers are 87% more likely than other male shoppers to buy beer.) Assuming that you can't make an IED in the dark, comparing IED attacks to the availability of electricity in certain areas could be interesting and might provide actionable intelligence.

[slapout9]

here is a link to the guys that are said to have invented it.http://www.balancedscorecard.org/

[wm]

I seem to remember that Army Materiel Cmd went through a major Balanced Scorecard nutroll a few years back--don't know whether it is still a front burner project for the current CG. In some areas it made sense because of the logistics business they did. In others the metrics were pretty inane, IMHO. I also seem to remember that it was being used across the upper echelons of DA as something like an OER support form to measure how well senior leadership and their commands were performing. The AF, along with their AF Smart Ops for the 21st Century (AFSO21), is using BSC too. My experience has been that folks spend (waste?) agonizingly long hours trying to hone the BSC metrics to make sure they don't slit their own throats when it comes evaluation time.

Selil is right about its similarity to TQM. It also has a lot of similarities to something that ought to make Ken and others who can harken back to the immediate post Viet Nam era quake in their boots with terror --MBO or Management by Objectives.

[Ken White]

the world programs bought from civilian industry ranging from McNamara's supply system adapted from FoMoCo parts operations (which failed the combat test miserably and with which we still live in part) through Zero Defects to Organizational Development and on to Organizational Excellence -- I kept waiting for OF, organizational failure.

We can say my experience with all these buy ins has not been good and color me very skeptical. As MarcT and I agreed once upon a time, the Army developed a lot of this stuff in WW II and is now buying it back from the civilian side. Makes no sense...

That's my understatement for the week -- and it's only Monday.

[Surferbeetle]

All,

A vodka & cranberry and a metrics discussion at the end of long day, things are definitely looking up.

Can't speak to this guy other than that I was one of the lucky recipients of one of his emails...made me think about how he was able to assemble his targeted email list.

MBA school hits metrics pretty hard (tvm, risk & return, valuation, cost of capital, balanced scorecard, vrine, swot, etc) and it has pushed me to cast around at the IMF and World Bank websites for particulars on which water and wastewater metrics to apply to the CMO fight:

http://www.imf.org/external/data.htm

http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXT...469372,00.html

In a 'macro' way of looking at things it's pretty strong stuff, however as Ken often reminds us, when things get decided on the ground the metrics that apply may not be the same as these...

Cheers,

Steve