These are the various services I offer

The “Built for Growth” Programme

… is now my primary focus. I still accept the occasional coaching or facilitation project; please read on below, and contact me to check my availability.

The programme is designed to help mid-sized companies break free of planning meetings that don’t go anywhere. It provides clients with a blueprint for better growth, so that they can win in the marketplace, build an enduring business, and create a buzz around the organisation. It’s tailored to the client and it runs in-house for nine months. It comprises facilitated workshops, coaching, training and more.  Click here to read more about it.

Other Programmes

Clearing the Ground

Many clients contact me with a specific issue which is halting their progress. Sometimes they know what the problem is; sometimes they don’t; sometimes the problem turns out to be different to the one they thought they had. My usual approach is to interview key people once, or perhaps twice.  I will then put together a prototype diagnosis and strategy.  That becomes the starting point for a workshop in which we thrash out a way forward to overcome your biggest barrier to successful growth.  This normally involves about six to ten days of my time, and it’s about three weeks from start to finish.  (This programme is similar to the first stage of the Built for Growth Programme.)

The Blueprint Programme

This programme helps you to create a winning business strategy.  It gives you a blueprint for stronger results, including a compelling brand, a robust financial model and a clear sense of purpose. This is a very significant endeavour. It’s a three month programme involving you and your top team in about a dozen full day workshops, with plenty of offline work too. It is only for companies which are serious about the need to change and grow. (This programme is very similar to the second stage of the Built for Growth Programme.)

Outsmarting Competitors

Almost all companies underestimate their competition. The proof? Year after year, more than 90% of businesses aim to grow faster than their market. And year after year, they fall short of their target. But underlying those targets is a hidden assumption: to grow faster than your market, you have to take share from your competitors.  I’ve read literally hundreds of business plans over the years. In all that time, I’ve only seen four which backed up their sales forecast by saying who they would take share from – and how.

My wargame approach (nothing to do with paintball!) helps you to pre-empt your most dangerous competitors. It gives you a specific plan, covering sales, marketing, new products and other activities, that plays on their weaknesses and boosts your market share at their expense.  Each competitor wargame will require a two-day workshop for your most senior team and others.

More General Services

Ghostwriting Business Plans

Sooner or later, even the most inspired, agile, entrepreneurial and lucky businesses are going to need business plans. Investors and lenders demand them. Boards steer by them. Strategic suppliers or customers will expect them. And managers will be lost without them.

The act of writing your business plan also helps you. It helps you to get your thoughts straight. It helps you to set priorities. And it helps you to stress-test your instincts about the business. People often find that some problems evaporate when they address them in a business plan, and that other challenges emerge for the first time.  Better to discover them now, in a business plan, than later, in the marketplace.

Trouble is, it’s daunting, especially if you’re asking for finance.  Readers of business plans are typically much more experienced than writers.  It can feel like buying a car from a smooth salesman – the other guy holds all the cards.  I can re-balance the scales, by helping you to write a business plan with the right mix of analysis, insight, candour and persuasion, so that you’ll be entirely comfortable presenting the plan to anyone.

Facilitation

All too often, meetings go round in circles without achieving any lasting impact.  A bad meeting can result in hassle, confusion, time-wasting and resentment. A facilitator can help you design and run a much better meeting, so that you achieve your aims with much less effort.

Obviously, some topics are hard and complex.  For example, recently I’ve worked on:

• A complex commercial negotiation involving three businesses.
• The re-branding of an IT services company.
• A merger of two long-established companies.
• A staff consultation over a new business strategy.
• A radical change to a business model (needed in the wake of currency fluctuations and their impact on import prices).

In such cases, it pays to choose a facilitator with a business background. My own background includes strategy, finance, branding, planning, marketing and organisational development. I “speak the language” and can help you participate in the discussions without worrying about running the meeting.

Executive Coaching

My natural style is to ask very open questions, provide candid feedback and offer plenty of suggestions if asked. I always aim to be provocative, helpful and funny. That doesn’t work for everyone. But I can flex my coaching style and we should agree exactly what approach you want from me.

Please note. I limit myself to three coachees at any one time. As of Feb 2012, my practice is full, and there’s a waiting list.  I recommend a small number of executive coaches. Contact me to see whether a referral would be appropriate.

I continue to offer coaching as part of the “Built for Growth” programme.

Teambuilding

Why do some teams soar and others fail? Sometimes a group of bright people can only achieve mediocre results – it’s as though the group IQ is way lower than their individual IQs.

I can provide teambuilding workshops (including psychographic profiling using MBTI and FIRO-B if you wish), and I’m good at getting the best out of a new or existing team.

Training in strategy, branding, NPD

CEOs are fond of saying that everyone has a role to play in each of these areas, but very few people are ever trained in them. This training extends tools, processes and a common language to everyone.

Training in management skills

For many years now, I have trained lawyers and other professionals in leadership and management skills. My focus is on finding the small differences to mindset and behaviour which lead to big changes in results.

 

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Next, read some case studies, or some testimonials, or contact me.