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Friday, October 06, 2006

The 2 x 2 matrix

The 2 x 2 matrix is the most favorite tool of every MBA type. In my MBA studies, I must have come across a score or more of 2 x 2 matrices, designed to solve every problem in strategy, market entry, segmentation, game theory, decision making, and what have you. I think I'm sick of the 2 x 2 matrix. Here's what I got from one website:

"The 2x2 matrix is a ubiquitous representational tool that has been used
by countless individuals and groups in countless disciplines and
endeavors. However, Lowy and Hood draw on models from the works of
leading consultants, business-school professors, social scientists, and
organizational theorists (including, Michael Porter, Stephen Covey,
Igor Ansoff, Gary Hamel, C.K. Prahalad, Geoffrey Moore, and other
illustrious thinkers) to raise its status from mere representational
tool and to showcase 2x2 modeling as one of the most flexible and
powerful weapons “in the knowledge worker’s intellectual arsenal.” The
authors demonstrate that the 2x2 matrix is much more than a grid for
displaying a finished and closed set of ideas, but the beginning of a
“dialogue” that “brings richness, depth, and a uniquely dynamic
transformational power to the form.” They demonstrate that there is a
right way and a wrong way to construct a 2x2 model, that the key to
this right way lies in how the primary variables are selected and
applied, and that selection and application depend on “a particular
cognitive and emotional bias in approach”—2x2 Thinking."
BTW, I got the above shit from a book review of a book about... yeah, you guessed it, 2 x 2 matrices, called The Power of the 2 x 2 Matrix. 2 by 2 thinking, my ass. Ugh. I think I'm gonna be ill.

2 comments:

claytonia vices said...

Another tool for incompetent people to hide behind!

Anonymous said...

Calm down will you. Tools like this can be pretty beneficial to help visualize strategic direction. Much better to have them in your arsenal of tools as a helpful addition than discount them just because you're sick of the sight of them.