Initiatives

The roots of the Decision Institute go back to the two research projects MARA 2005 in Buenos Aires and MARA 2006 in Berlin.

• Project MARA 2005 was a consultancy project initiated by the Decision Institute in co-operation with the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. For this project 30 people were first trained in methods of decision analysis and strategic consultancy and afterwards developed solutions in five teams for the following five organisations:
  • BASF Argentina:
    Prioritisation of the activities in the field of Corporate Responsibility
  • Schering Argentina:
    Development of a strategic marketing portfolio
  • SIEMENS Argentina:
    Optimisation of the sales and distribution process
  • Volkswagen Argentina:
    Optimisation of the marketing portfolio
  • Non-governmental Organisation CIPPEC:
    Optimisation of the strategic project portfolio
• Project MARA 2006 was the follow-up project initiated by the Decision Institute during which we collaborated with five organisations in Berlin applying decision analytical methods to strategy consulting projects. Among others, the federal minister of education and research, Dr Annette Schavan, the Dean of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Sir Howard Davies and the British Ambassador in Germany, Sir Peter Torry acted as patrons. Our partners were the LSE, the management consultancy A.T. Kearney and the Foundation of German Business (Stiftung der Deutschen Wirtschaft). During the project, after a training phase, 30 decision analysts developed solutions for the following organisations:
  • Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Wirtschaft (Senate Department for Economics, Technology and Women’s Issues):
    Strategic prioritisation for the allocation of state subsidies
  • Deutsche Bahn AG (German Railways):
    Development of an HR strategy in the context of demographic change
  • Deutsche Bahn AG (German Railways):
    Optimisation of recruiting channels
  • DB Station & Service AG (German Railways):
    Strategic prioritisation of infrastructure investments
  • Ferdinand-Braun-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik (Ferdinand Braun institute for ultra high frequency technology):
    Assessment of existing and potential R&D strategies