Where Our Work Comes From

VSTRAT traces its roots to INSEAD, the business school founded in the intellectual tradition of General Georges Doriot. Doriot is remembered today as the founder of modern venture capital, but his deeper legacy is dual-use innovation: the idea that technology should strengthen society in both prosperity and crisis.

During World War II, Doriot led the U.S. Army's Research and Development branch, building systems that helped defeat fascism. After the war, he turned to rebuilding and preserving peace by repurposing those skills through entrepreneurship and innovation. INSEAD, founded by his students in Europe, carries that philosophy at its core: rigorous thinking applied to real-world problems, civilian and public alike.

Dual-Use as a Philosophy

In Doriot's world, dual-use did not mean "civilian vs. military." It meant something broader and more durable: tools that help societies make better decisions. Strategy, logistics, supply chains, organizational behavior, stakeholder analysis. These are the foundations of both economic resilience and national resilience. They preserve peace by promoting competence.

Dual-use innovation isn't about weapons. It's about clear thinking. It's about reducing uncertainty. It's about helping leaders chart a course when the environment is complex and the stakes are high.

How VSTRAT Fits Into This Lineage

VSTRAT was designed from the beginning to reduce cognitive load and improve decision quality. The platform integrates strategic frameworks, generative AI, stakeholder personas, value-chain analysis, and interactive tools that clarify choices instead of obscuring them.

These capabilities apply naturally across commercial strategy, public-sector planning, emergency logistics, and long-horizon scenario thinking. Organizations of every type face uncertainty, competing priorities, resource constraints, and the need to communicate decisions clearly. The underlying reasoning challenges are universal.

Modern Dual-Use: Civilian First, Broadly Applicable

Today's dual-use technologies are expected to be commercial-first: broadly useful, widely adopted, and grounded in real problems. VSTRAT's adoption in business schools, executive programs, and corporate teams reflects this. The same structured cognitive scaffolding that helps a Fortune-500 team plan a product launch also helps any large organization plan for uncertainty.

This is the quiet continuity between Doriot's dual mission to defend democracy and build prosperity: work we continue today. Better tools for strategy help keep the peace and ensure it remains peaceful.

A Tradition We Intend to Carry Forward

VSTRAT stands in the lineage of Doriot's belief that innovation must serve society. Whether applied to competitive strategy, organizational change, or long-range planning, the principle remains the same: when people think more clearly, organizations act more wisely.

Dual-use is not a separate mission for us. It is the natural outcome of building tools that help humans navigate complex problems — the same spirit that shaped INSEAD at its founding.

- Michael & the VSTRAT team