Business Strategy Workshops

Over the years, my brand positioning workshops have evolved to something much broader. First, I added brand mission, vision and values workshops to the mix based on client requests. After that, I added pricing strategy workshops to the mix, again based on client requests. Eventually, these workshops evolved into full-blown business strategy workshops tailored for each organization and its strategic issues. The types of issues we address in the workshops include:

• Determining the organization's highly motivating purpose
• Identifying "category of one" branding opportunities
• Developing a pricing strategy the produces increased revenues and profits
• Developing a distribution strategy that best aligns with the brand while still maximizing revenues
• Rethinking the brand's unique value proposition and the organization's culture after a merger or acquisition
• Identifying additional revenue streams
• Identifying passive revenue sources
• Increasing the value of the organization to potential investors
• Identifying strategic partnerships that can strengthen the brand's position and increase its revenues
• Identifying business model options that will create barriers to entry for potential competitors
• Identifying the fastest paths to reach scale and to achieve network effects
• Identifying the optimal sequencing of activities for sustained business growth
• Identifying add-on sales and other upselling opportunities

All of this is accomplished by using the appropriate tools and templates and through skilled group facilitation, insuring that everyone's ideas and concerns are thoughtfully considered. Most of these workshops involve the CEO and his or her staff. They sometimes also include key board members, depending on the type of organization.

I concentrated on business and marketing strategy while at Harvard Business School and throughout my career. My approach is informed by Michael Porter's competitive strategy model, W. Chan Kim's and Renee Mauborgne's Blue Ocean Strategy approach to creating uncontested market space, Peter Thiel's approach to creating successful startups, Adam Brandenburger's and Barry Nalebuff's concept of co-opetition, Thomas Nagle's and Reed Holden's approach to pricing strategy and tactics and Alexander Osterwalder's and Yves Pigneur's Business Model Generation approach to designing business models. 

To learn more about this business strategy facilitation process, email me at vanauken@brandforward.com.

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Brand Strategy Workshop Errors

We conduct strategy formulation sessions or workshops on the following topics with our clients:

• Brand mission, vision & values
• Brand positioning and repositioning
• Brand architecture
• Brand extension
• Inside out branding
• Customer touch point design
• Brand storytelling
• Brand co-creation with customers
• Pricing strategy
• Distribution strategy
• Brand planning

I have personally conducted more than 400 of these workshops and I have also witnessed others conducting similar workshops for a wide variety of clients. Unfortunately, I have observed many errors in conducting these workshops. Here are some of the more common errors:

• Not having all of the key decision makers participate in the process.
• Not understanding the group's "culture" and operating style upfront.
• Being dressed inappropriately for the group and their culture.
• Using inappropriate language for the group (too formal or informal, etc.).
• Not preparing adequately for the workshops. Neglecting to conduct pre-workshop participant surveys or prepare appropriate "information sheets" and other handouts.
• Not having the room set up properly with the right chair and table configuration, easels, marker pens, projection systems, sound systems, etc.
• Serving food that is too heavy and that will cause people to be drowsy. 
• Keeping the room too hot or too cold. 
• Not setting expectations properly or at all.
• Not gaining the group's upfront trust regarding the process and the intended outcomes.
• Not providing the appropriate instruction, guidelines, tools and templates so that people will be guided and even forced to develop sound strategies. 
• Showing off one's expertise or bragging about one's background (versus letting it speak for itself).
• Not configuring the break-out teams with the optimal mix of people on each team. 
• Not keeping careful track of time and therefore running way over on time or not completing the intended agenda with the promised outcomes.
• Related to this, not knowing how to give each person appropriate "air time" without long-winded speeches, rehashing of things previously said or going down unproductive "bunny trails."
• Not drawing out the quiet people in the room. Not allowing everyone to be heard.
• Not finding a way to gently shut down people who would dominate the conversation.
• Not knowing how to handle disruptive or passive aggressive participants. 
• Giving in to unproductive requests that will derail the process.
• Allowing people to be distracted by email messages or phone calls.
• Not paying attention to the energy of the room and calling for breaks when they are needed.
• Allowing participants to come and go throughout the day so that previous group decisions would need to be revisited to include the temporarily absent people in the process.
• Not knowing how to drive people to consensus. Not having developed a wide enough array of techniques to do this.
• Not holding and feeding the energy of the room. This is a key part of a facilitator's role.
• Accepting group consensus on mediocre or poor strategies. 

People may observe a strategy session or workshop and think, "That's easy. I could do that. Look how easy it was to come to consensus." I would liken it to watching a couple's winter Olympic skating routine. "Look how easy and graceful they make that seem." Indeed.

Before you conduct a strategy workshop, make sure you have fine tuned your group facilitation skills, properly prepared for the workshop with great attention to detail, had a good night's sleep and proper nutrition and thought through what the optimal result might be. It is easy to conduct a workshop. It is less easy to conduct it well with a happy energized team and outstanding results.