It is made up of three State of Play^TM Conversations that capture your executive team's strategic thinking about growth. The exercise captures ideas from all team members' and rolls them up for decision-makers. It delivers a set of recommendations organized into a decision matrix that looks at available resources, business processes, and strategic goals. This is not strategic planning but rather the big decisions that set direction. This work ensures that important topics get discussed and strategic decisions are better informed.

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State of Play ^TM - Business Development 

These are the big decisions that set direction.  Executives must decide where to play and how to play.  This state of play exercise is used to improve business development choices and outcomes.  We start the conversation with a broad conversation about business development options.  Business development for us encompasses all efforts to reach customers including sales and marketing work, new product development work, and corporate relationship or transaction work.

• grow market share 
• new markets 
• new products 
• digital marketing 
• exporting  
• licensing 
• direct sales 
• channel partners 
• licensing 
• mergers & acquisitions 
• growth capital

We take a page from Alex Osterwalder and look at four types of market opportunities.

1. New markets 

2. Existing markets - market and competitors are well known

3. Re-segmented markets (niche player strategy) - more focused than existing solutions

4. Re-segmented markets (low-price strategy) - when a “large-enough” market segment will buy a “good enough” or inferior product, at a lower price.  

Tell us about your journey so far. Let us know how you work across all market types.

Start a conversation by taking our free assessment.  

Assess My Biz Dev Choices

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This state of play exercise is used to improve intellectual asset portfolio choices and outcomes. We start the conversation with a broad conversation about building effective moats or barriers to entry.

• barriers to entry 
• intellectual property 
• intellectual assets 
• brands & trademarks 
• patents & inventions 
• copyright 
• open source 
• design patents 
• industrial design 
• know-how 
• trade secrets 
• scale 
• location 
• local regulations 
• network effects 
• other moats

Warren Buffet describes what he looks for as an investor as “moats”. The study of INTELLECTUAL ASSETS is the main business role responsible for “moats” or barriers to entry. Intellectual assets come in two types: formal assets in the form of intellectual property (IP) such as copyright or patents, and informal assets such as know-how or trade secrets. These moats can be captured, valued, and monetized.

Tell us about your journey so far. Let us know how you support your value proposition with effective barriers to entry.

Start a conversation by taking our free assessment.

Assess My Competitiveness Choices

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This state of play exercise is used to improve operations management choices and results. We start the conversation with a broad conversation about operational excellence.

• LEAN 
• PMI 
• theory of constraints 
• quality management 
• industrial engineering 
• decision systems

Operational excellence comes in two types. First, we have those that stem from industry standards or best practices such as ISO 9000 for quality assurance, or LEAN manufacturing for reducing error rates. These are, by definition, industrial standards and best practices.  They will never deliver unique value or a sustainable competitive moat. The second type of operational improvement includes something unique that delivers a unique value proposition.  

Tell us about your journey so far. Let us know how you are methodically improving your operational productivity.  

Start a conversation by taking our free assessment.

Assess My Productivity Choices

Learn More:                                      

Sean Irvine, P.Eng (np), C.L.P.
Managing Director

604-904-9499    |   800-915-3050