Framework
A summary of the General Principles of Pragmatica can be viewed here.
Illustrations of our logical method can be found in the Design section.
For examples of instantiations of Pragmatica principles in our technologies, please see the Technologies page.
Key themes of our approach are briefly reviewed here.
Building First-Order Value In Complex Environments
Business progress involves transitions from existing to projected states of affairs. These aspirational spheres are imagined and sought-for because their realization will have enabling effects. First-Order Value is manifested as firms consistently realize projected states of affairs in which their ability to act in furtherance of their core purpose is enlarged.
Explanation, Projection and Measurement are the interwoven capabilities by which these transitions occur. Their fluid interplay generates exceptional business judgment. There are, however, conditions under which these capabilities are strained. It is difficult to have strong and orienting clarity, for example, when episodes of experience are crowded by too many elements or moving too fast. Similarly, it is more difficult to act with sustained efficacy when exogenous disruptions more frequently threaten stability.
Business life in contemporary commerce can be viewed in these terms. There are an increasing number and diversity of competitors; an increasing number of products, product categories, and discrete markets; a proliferation of data, information, and opinion; and so on. These and other factors increase the density and the extent of relations in commerce, as well as the rates and incidence of change. We describe these phenomena as affecting the ‘complexity’ of contemporary states of affairs because the variables and relations among variables that constitute any firm’s experience are multiplying.
Those dynamics are not inherently problematic, but the cognitive effort required to manage them increases as the interrelated elements of states of affairs enlarge. Moreover, when the frames within which clarity and efficacy operate become too crowded or change too quickly, more than 'working harder' is required. Explanation, Projection and Measurement must be exercised more robustly. Among other things, this means they need to function within a conceptual framework adequately mapped to the deep structure of commercial reality - that is, to the ontology of commerce.
Legacy forms of business thinking have not had that concern because it hasn't been necessary. Today this is no longer true. Explanatory Power has become the driving energy of competitive excellence and maximal Explanatory Power is impossible without more rigorous attention to the environment's causal fabric - its ontological rudiments. Pragmatica facilitates and augments this capability. In complex environments, understanding and acting in harmony with the environment's core causalities affords firms the strongest prospect for achieving business progress.