About

Effective problem solving requires combining creative and critical thinking, and effective problem solvers are T-shaped, having both depth and breadth of knowledge.

Although formal training focuses on the depth dimension, there is little material available to help us become better at the transferrable skills and knowledge. This website aims at correcting that.

Management consulting first exposed me to issue trees / logic trees and Minto’s pyramid principles. Although I liked the tools, I also felt that consultants weren’t using them fully. So for the past fifteen years I’ve been investigating problem-solving epistemology, both on the theoretical and practical sides. Because problem solving is so prevalent in our lives, many disciplines deal with it: management, engineering, psychology, medicine, philosophy, architecture, … They all approach it from a different perspective; my interest is to break these silos and make the material available to all and distill it away so that it’s understandable and practical.

As a result, my approach is highly practical.

For instance, in my course at Rice each student brought a problem. I introduced them to theoretical concepts that we then applied to these problems and we used those as case studies. Students came from all departments, and we leveraged this diversity to enrich the group’s problem-solving capabilities.

Through my research and the hundreds of cases that I’ve seen with my students, we’ve adapted the strategy consultancies’ tools: we’ve made them more evidence based, more creative, more logical still, and easier to use. This website gives a glimpse of what we do, and I hope it is useful to you.

About Arnaud Chevallier

I am a professor of strategy at IMD Business School, where I focus on developing and teaching highly practical tools to help executives solve strategic problems.

Prior to IMD, I was an associate vice provost at Rice University, where I taught strategic thinking in the engineering school and managed a varied and changing portfolio of responsibilities for the university.

I trained as a mechanical engineer, first in France, then at Rice. Then I went into strategy consulting with Accenture before returning to academia at the University of Monterrey—to teach engineering and business and serve as their graduate dean.

If I’m not solving problems, I’m usually training for one tri (HITS Ocala 2016) or another (IMTX 2016) or another (IMTX 2017) or another (IMFL 17) or another (IMTX 2018) or another (Lausanne Marathon 2019) or playing in Kirby-sur-Seine.

I am a professor of strategy at IMD Business School, where I focus on developing and teaching highly practical tools to help executives solve strategic problems.

Prior to IMD, I was an associate vice provost at Rice University, where I taught strategic thinking in the engineering school and managed a varied and changing portfolio of responsibilities for the university.

I trained as a mechanical engineer, first in France, then at Rice. Then I went into strategy consulting with Accenture before returning to academia at the University of Monterrey—to teach engineering and business and serve as their graduate dean.

If I’m not solving problems, I’m usually training for a triathlon or playing in Kirby-sur-Seine.