The EPP enables an enterprise to quantitatively assess its behavioral patterns (such as leadership, innovation and risk tolerance) in operational areas (such as funding, workforce and technology) on a scale from aggressive to moderate to conservative, and then compute its overall personality score and measure the consistency of personality characteristics. The EPP methodology assumes that an enterprise has a higher chance of achieving its objectives when its personality closely matches those objectives (for example, when both personality and objectives are aggressive, or both are conservative). In the past year, there have been substantial and critical updates to the EPP methodology.
- The EPP's underlying structure has been changed to more accurately reflect enterprises' personality characteristics.
- The qualitative personality assessments have been replaced with a quantitative scale that measures any variations in personality.
- Algorithms have been added so that enterprise personality characteristics can be analyzed mathematically and presented graphically.
- The methodology has been extended so that it can be used to assess an enterprise's chances of achieving its objectives with a given personality.
The EPP methodology now has the following components: EPP is a set of six dimensions: funding, market, workforce, supply chain, technology and governance. An enterprise's personality in each of those dimensions is evaluated and defined by the following cultural characteristics (called descriptors): risk tolerance, complexity tolerance, adaptability, innovation, leadership style and use of information (see "Enterprise Personality Profile: Defining and Interpreting Dimensions and Descriptors"). For each dimension's cultural descriptors, the EPP survey offers multiple choices of sentences that depict aggressive, moderate and conservative behaviors. EPP users choose sentences that best describe their enterprise. For personality assessments, the EPP uses a scale that ranges from aggressive to moderate to conservative. The scale is numeric and, therefore, can precisely measure personality. For convenience, the EPP uses the following names and abbreviations for the scores along the scale: A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+ and C (where A stands for aggressive, B for moderate and C for conservative — see "Enterprise Personality Profile: Inside the Workforce Dimension"). EPP Essentials: Personality, Objective and Approach How the Methodology Cycle Works
- Users start with the EPP survey. They select survey statements that best reflect their enterprise's behaviors and culture.
- Based on those selections, EPP computes the overall personality score, as well as individual and average scores for dimensions and descriptors.
- EPP then provides consistency characteristics for those scores along dimensions and descriptors. Lack of consistency is a sign of problems in the respective operational area (such as funding, the workforce or technology) or along cultural lines (for example, with low-risk tolerance or adaptability).
- Once EPP has been compiled, the personality is compared with the enterprise's proposed objectives and approaches. If an objective closely matches the company's personality, then the objective has a high probability of success. If it does not, then the enterprise must readjust its personality or objectives.
Below are previously published Research Notes that introduced EPP. Keep in mind that Gartner is constantly evolving EPP, and some changes have been made to the structure of EPP throughout the years. Therefore, you will find some differences in these previously published Research Notes and the pieces referenced above. 
|
