Interview with Manfred Muell, President of Stracienta, on the Scientrix™ story:

1. How did it all begin?
2. Tell me about the first project?
3. Was it not a bold step to invest in your own software?
4. Aren’t you afraid that your innovation will be copied?
5. What did you find challenging in the first few years?
6. What do you contribute your success to?
7. Where do you plan to go from here?

1. How did it all begin?

Our story starts in Argentina. I was just appointed as CEO of Mercedes-Benz in Buenos Aires on an expat assignment. Rentia had to take some time out from her own career at Mercedes-Benz to support me in my new career move.

Not content with spending her time next to the swimming pool, she was trying to resolve a problem she encountered in an assignment before going to Argentina. The task was to design a blueprint for the sales organization of Mercedes-Benz in Asia. This had to be done taking into account all the multi-dimensional facets of the organization such as strategies, objectives, KPIs, processes, structures, Sarbanes Oxley and more.

It was a hot summer's eve in 2004, tossing and turning Rentia tried to find a solution for this complex problem; it was not easy. However, in the early morning hours one simple, pure thought came to her: What about a matrix? The more she read about the matrix the more she realised that the matrix had intrigued mankind since ancient times. The Roman calendar was invented using a matrix. Chess is played on a matrix board. Da Vinci used a matrix grid to ensure perspective. Could such a simple concept be the answer?

Rentia began to explore the properties of a matrix and became increasingly fascinated; its embedded mathematical foundation and coordinate system helped her to unpack the complex problem in a way that allowed her to view the problem holistically at a glance, as well as all of the sub-components and their intricate interrelationships. The matrix provides immense clarity of thought; finally she had finally found a way to clarify and align objectives to create one plan with one outcome.

The discovery, thought and exploration did not end there. She tried to look at the business world like an artist would, taking into account depth and perspective, design, and dimensions. Until eventually one night, Rentia woke up – perhaps we can call this the “aha” moment - she had realised there is a matrix within a matrix. The next morning, I took the time to sit with her, planning and documenting this incredible idea. Rentia then decided to start STRACIENTA™, the company; and to apply for a patent in the USA.

After carefully strategising and planning, we came to the conclusion that this is not just about a matrix, but it’s also about a matrix-in-a-matrix and the unique way in which the idea organizes solutions or knowledge in this framework. We first called this concept SPIRAL METHODOLOGY but later changed its name to Scientrix™ meaning MATRICES OF KNOWLEDGE™.

2. Tell me about the first project?

With excitement and enthusiasm, Rentia began to show the concept to Mercedes-Benz headquarter staff. Their interest was amazing and her real breakthrough came after 4 months when Dr. Rolf Bartke (Head of the Mercedes-Benz Van Division) and Herbert Kauffmann (Vice President Group Controlling and Accounting) gave her the first great opportunity; a project within the Van Division in an extremely challenging timeframe.

The pressure to make a project of such scale a success in a challenging timeframe, with a very small team, was an experience never to be repeated again. The stress level was so extreme that Rentia was suffering from permanent flu throughout the duration of the project. Finally the outcome was delivered at the VAN Management Forum in Stuttgart and was extremely well received. Dr. Bartke said at the conference: "This is a very good way of understanding how each employee contributes to the success of the organization" and Mr. Kauffmann said that: "The Scientrix™ approach is an ideal way to drive value-based management into an organization"

For the next three years, this unit in Mercedes-Benz achieved historical results in both profitability and market share.

One of the fortunate outcomes of the project was that it attracted the attention of Deloitte Consulting in Argentina. They introduced Stracienta to Deloitte Consulting in Germany, and in February the following year Deloitte Germany obtained approval on an international level to pursue a partnership. This nicely coincided with the end of my Mercedes-Benz expat contract and I decided to join Stracienta.

3. Was it not a bold step to invest in the development of your own software?

Yes, it was both a bold and an expensive decision.

The first project was done using Excel sheets for documentation, but due to the limited functionalities - such as the inability to drill into a point in the matrix, and the incapability of linking a scorecard and documents to a point in the matrix - the use of Excel for our concept became increasingly cumbersome and impractical.

We then decided to develop our own web-based software with the help of young and very sharp software developers. This journey proved to be challenging, but worthwhile process. One of the key challenges we faced was that customers, after seeing the software, put us in the same category as scorecard / dashboard systems. This took emphasis away from our key strength, which is the design of the solution and not only execution monitoring. Furthermore, customers in the corporate space initially have been reluctant to accept software if it was not part of their enterprise-wide software suites, regardless of new innovation or integration capabilities. We also found the ongoing funding to keep the technology and development up-to-date quite challenging, especially during the recession.

Today, we are proud to have a stable product, boasting 5 years of development history, that’s running successfully at a number of clients worldwide.

We’ve learned that over time our matrix-based approach has very broad applicability and can be used for the design of solutions beyond strategy and execution. We therefore took the next bold step to start the design and development of new, and very futuristic, software that we’ll release into the market within the next 3 years.

4. Aren’t you afraid that your innovation will be copied?

We’ve invested years of our time and substantial funds to clarify, crystallise and further develop the concept into an easy-to-understand, yet powerful, method and supporting technology. We’ve protected our intellectual property as far as is legally possible, but there’s always a big temptation for people to copy or utilise this unique matrix approach without giving due recognition and reward to its originators.

In the past, we experienced cases where this has happened and we’ve been taking legal action when our concept has been applied without our consent for financial gain. These people argue that the matrix is barely unique and has been used in management for several decades. Whilst this is true, our specific application of the matrix using the XYZ coordinates of the matrix , the way we organize information in the input– output matrix and the matrix-in-a-matrix (nested recursive matrices combining two-tree structures) have never been applied in management science before. As a consequence there have been no software tools supporting this.

We believe that the majority of clients value integrity in business dealings and will ultimately not continue to do business with vendors or people who unlawfully use other people's IP.

5. What were the lessons learned in the first few years?

We sometimes found it difficult to work as a couple on this business venture due to our different strengths and personalities, although the intensive collaborative efforts have often lead to superior results.

Whilst providing experience, our corporate background did not prepare us for some of the challenges of this entrepreneurial venture. Strangely enough, although rated as good managers in the corporate world, it seemed to us that we made many mistakes when it came to relationships with people. We selected some promising candidates that would have thrived and been very successful in the corporate environment, but who could not deal with the instability and risks associated with a young company.

Being a start-up we also had great challenges to get access to corporate clients on C-level to market our services. Once we did get through the door, we found that more than 80% of our target customers loved the Scientrix™ approach. Initially, we thought partnerships would be the answer to growth and relied far too much on consulting partners to introduce our services to their customers. With diligent effort we eventually learned how to open doors ourselves.

6. What did you contribute your success to?

We can contribute much of our success to the people that supported us during these years. It will not be possible to mention all the names, but here are a few that we have to highlight: Diego Urrutibehety, Mariano Iglesias, Claudia Mansilla, Damian Martinelli, Diego Hoter, Maria Zoratti, Jose Marinelli, Hans Anand, Fernando Rearte, Shani Cronje, Coral Featherstone, Richard van der Walt, Andries Malan, Warren Hero, Rolf Epstein and Fabian Marckstadt.

A further contributing factor was that we are introspective, continuously questioning ourselves, spending intensive time with our team to find strategic solutions. "There is always a better way!" We came to the conclusion that the core value proposition of Scientrix™ lies in the fact that it strengthens the ability of the human mind to deal with complex problems and to master cause-effect relationships. We envisage that combining Scientrix™ with social networking will fundamentally change the way solutions are designed and the means by which knowledge is created in the future.

We decided to focus our efforts on three key strategies:

1. to partner directly with selected blue-chip customers
2. to develop exclusive partnerships with reputable consulting and technology companies
3. to leverage the full strength of the world-wide web

To date, we’ve implemented the solution in several blue-chip companies with success, we’ve established a successful partnership with Deloitte Consulting in Germany, as well as other notable partners, and we are now offering our services to a broader forum via the web.

7. Where do you plan to go from here?

We have the vision that the world will adopt this approach extremely quickly in order to accelerate learning, contextualise information more efficiently and streamline the creation of more integrated and superior solutions.

In line with our strategic intent, we’re planning to support more people in building solutions for complex problems, no matter where they are in the world, leveraging the capabilities of today's technology. We will also further expand our partner and customer network, launch a book called Scientrix™ later this year and co-operate with universities and learning institutions to further spread knowledge and skill.