Better Decisions. Stronger Alignment.
Faster Execution. Higher Return. Reduced Waste.

VCW accelerates critical decisions through a scalable system that aligns stakeholders, makes trade-offs explicit, and commits resources with conviction to the right decisions, driving higher returns with reduced waste.

→ See VCW impact

Vision

To redefine how decisions are made - ensuring resources are committed only where value is clear, aligned, and impactful.

Mission

VCW enables individuals, organizations, and ecosystems to make better decisions faster by aligning stakeholders, making trade-offs explicit, and committing resources with conviction to the right choices.

Guided by the 3Rs - Realistic, Responsible, Relational - VCW supports sustainable value creation across the 5Ps: People, Planet, Purpose, Peace, and Prosperity.

How do you turn complexity into board-level clarity?

A CEO used the VCW to turn a complex strategic challenge into clarity, alignment, and team‑owned solutions that delivered measurable results.

In 2 minutes, see VCW impact at the highest level.

Paula Hortinha, Former CEO of Jerónimo Martins Distribuição, explains the impact of the VCW Methodology

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VCW delivers outstanding results when applied rigorously, with engaged decision makers and proper supervision.

Professor Luis Filipe Lages with Former President of Portugal, Professor Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, holding the VCW - Value Creation Wheel book.

🌐 The VCW - Value Creation Wheel: A new decision logic for creating value before committing resources 🌐

Welcome (back) to the VCW - Value Creation Wheel! Whether you’re here for the first time or returning to explore new insights, you’re in great company. Thousands of leaders, innovators, and decision-makers —from Fortune 500 giants and agile SMEs to visionary NGOs and forward-thinking governments— have already engaged with the VCW to drive impactful solutions.

Begin or Continue Your Journey Today! Join the growing community that’s transforming challenges into sustainable change and real impact, one solution at a time.

👇 Discover More about the power of the VCW and elevate your decision-making and innovation strategies!

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How VCW drives impact across the 5Ps: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Purpose

What is the Value Creation Wheel (VCW)?

The Value Creation Wheel (VCW) helps leaders make better decisions early, align stakeholders, and commit resources only when value is clear.

The VCW structures the decision-making process to find an excellent solution for a challenge.
Decision-makers must be motivated to address the challenge, considering a wide range of ideas and applying multiple filters to evaluate them. By using these filters in a sequential and iterative process, they can narrow down the options and ultimately select the most effective solution(s).
During a meal, a person might consider various drinks to satisfy their thirst (e.g., water, tea, coffee, juices, sodas, soft drinks, and alcoholic beverages), and use different criteria to select the final option (e.g., cost, health considerations, nutritional content, purpose or occasion, time of day, and cultural or social norms).
The person making the final decision should narrow down the choices by analyzing the options and applying their selected filters (e.g., caffeine sensitivity or low nutritional content). If the initial option (e.g., herbal tea) doesn’t meet specific criteria (e.g., budget constraints), they continue applying new filters until they find the best solution (e.g., tap water). This process of refining ideas with filters is both sequential and cyclical.
The Value Creation Wheel (VCW) is a framework for co-creation, innovation, decision-making, and problem-solving.
The VCW is designed to identify solutions to problems involving Key Decision Makers in different phases and stakeholders to generate solutions and filters to select the best ideas.
It addresses open-ended questions starting with 'What', 'Which', 'How', 'Who', 'Why', and 'When'.
The VCW defines value creation as the benefits received by Key Decision Makers (KDMs) and their stakeholders resulting from VCW solutions, minus the required resources (e.g., 5Ms – Manpower, Minutes, Money, Motivation, Metaintelligence) to develop those solutions. Hence, the value created by the VCW implies allocating resources to receive something of higher worth.

VCW Sprint

Learn more about the VCW

The Five Stages of the VCW

1. Define Challenge

Key Decision Makers (KDMs) present a diagnostic and define the available resources (5Ms: Manpower, Minute, Money, Motivation & MetaIntelligence). They present the challenge/problem and establish the expected Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

2. Increase Ideas & Criteria

Many people (e.g., VCW team, stakeholders, and KDMs) generate numerous ideas and criteria to solve the challenge. In this phase, ideas and criteria should not be evaluated.
There are no good/bad ideas and criteria.

3. Assess

The KDMs select the best ideas and best criteria to solve the challenge. They establish a ranking for the criteria that are compulsory. Weights are then given to the optional criteria. Stakeholders might be invited for the discussion.

4. Narrow Down to Create Value

The selected ideas go through the ranked filters and through the weighted optional filters until the final solutions are found.
They will then be conceptualized and/or prototyped. Stakeholders and KDMs might be involved in this analysis and discussion.

5. Act & Control

The final solutions need to be operationalized by KDMs and stakeholders. KDMs validate the available resources (5Ms) and implement and monitor the execution of the final solutions. Stakeholders might be engaged in this phase.

One Decision Logic. Built for Every Context.
From individual decisions to enterprise‑wide, multi‑stakeholder ecosystems.

VCW FUNNEL

It is the fastest, simplest VCW format to solve basic challenges with minimal resources and acts as an entry point to VCW Certification.
Watch a video of the VCW Funnel in use here.
VCW SPRINT

It is the Foundation-level VCW format designed to solve simple challenges quickly, using a fast, structured, and resource-efficient process.
Watch a video of the VCW Sprint in use here.
VCW JOURNEY

It is the intermediate VCW level, suited for moderately complex challenges that require more depth and stakeholder input than a VCW Sprint.
Watch a video of the VCW Journey in use here.
VCW METHOD

It is an advanced level of the VCW, designed for complex, multi-stakeholder challenges that require deep analysis, extensive co-creation, and a structured decision process carried out over an extended period.
Watch a video of the VCW Method in use here.
VCW META FRAMEWORK

It is the expert level VCW used for highly complex, long-term, multi-stakeholder co-creation challenges requiring an ecosystem-wide approach.
Watch a video of the VCW Meta Framework in use here.

Download the PDF version here.

VCW Creator

Luís Filipe Lages

Luis Filipe Lages is Full Professor and Director of the VCW Lab at Nova School of Business and Economics, and the creator of the Value Creation Wheel (VCW). He has been a Visiting Scholar at leading institutions including London Business School, MIT School of Engineering, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Stanford Graduate School of Business.

His work focuses on innovation, value creation, and managerial decision-making, and has been recognized with the American Marketing Association Global Marketing SIG Research Excellence Award. He regularly advises and presents to corporate, governmental, and academic audiences worldwide, with research featured in leading international media such as Time and The Wall Street Journal.

Learn more about the VCW Creator

VCW Lab

@ Nova SBE

We enable better decisions before resources are committed

We advance innovation, decision-making, and problem-solving by continuously refining the VCW method. Through research and development, real-world testing, and disciplined go-to-market and commercialization, we design solutions that enable better decisions early and scale resources only when value is proven.