Showcase Page -Targeted Capability
Post Graduate Opportunities
A global leader in the manufacture of commercial vehicles runs an in-house graduate training program under the auspices of The Australian Institute of Management Business School (ABS). Over a five year period, Harrison Consulting were invited to facilitate two of their first-year subjects on three occasions. These subjects are:
Such in-company "Universities" are becoming popular with well-run and resourced large companies, as a key element of an "Employer of Choice" positioning.
Although Harrison Consulting is not a Registered Training Organisation or an Academic Institution, the calibre of our facilitation delivers strategic capability commensurate with the Graduate Certificate or Diploma. Some organisations are motivated more by by the calibre of the learning itself, and less by the paper qualification.
If this sounds like your organisation, please ask us for more details.
A global leader in the manufacture of commercial vehicles runs an in-house graduate training program under the auspices of The Australian Institute of Management Business School (ABS). Over a five year period, Harrison Consulting were invited to facilitate two of their first-year subjects on three occasions. These subjects are:
- Manage, Develop and Implement Strategy
- Marketing for Managers
Such in-company "Universities" are becoming popular with well-run and resourced large companies, as a key element of an "Employer of Choice" positioning.
Although Harrison Consulting is not a Registered Training Organisation or an Academic Institution, the calibre of our facilitation delivers strategic capability commensurate with the Graduate Certificate or Diploma. Some organisations are motivated more by by the calibre of the learning itself, and less by the paper qualification.
If this sounds like your organisation, please ask us for more details.
A Case Study from Hardware and Home Improvement
On the recommendation of a previous satisfied client, we were approached by a leading supplier in Hardware and Home Improvement to built a strategic capability in Category Management ("CatMan" or "Shopper Marketing"). Fasteners are one of the top 4 Categories in Hardware, and our Client dominates the Category with a portfolio of leading brands. Unsurprisingly, their people were increasingly expected to exhibit polished skills in Category Management.
Click here to review a downloadable backgrounder on the Harrison approach to Category Management, one of our niche specialties.
We developed checklists from the key Strategic Capabilities the client wished to execute their strategy of Customer Intimacy and from Position Descriptions which had recently been upgraded.
Click here to review Checklist 1 (generic version) and refer to Zacharias et al for relative weights of these factors.
Click here to review Checklist 2 (generic version) and download it if you wish.
As well as a 60-strong field sales team, the Client had around 25 experienced Key/Account/Sales Managers working with channel partners under their strategy of Customer Intimacy. (See Treacy & Wiersema's Value Disciplines(11,12). See also video 1 on the Strategy Execution page).
In addition to a thorough understanding of "CatMan", however, the client had identified three further skill-sets:
Below are two short videos which illuminate how we addressed the second and third of the above skill-sets.
Financial Skills, Retailer Metrics
For the financial skills, we employed our simple proprietary model of how resellers deliver profitability and growth for their stakeholders. We call it "The Retail Wheel". A slideshow with audio is reproduced below; it has attracted almost 5000 views on YouTube. It serves as an introduction to the important topic of Retail Metrics and KPIs, which we address with customised workbooks and exercises. We start with the basics of "mark-up and margin", and proceed to the more challenging and esoteric aspects of return on inventory investment (GMROI) and promotional effectiveness. Please visit our free Toolbox to review and download the three Q&A booklets and reminder cards.
Partnership Negotiation Skills
To illustrate negotiation skills in part, there is a video/slideshow on one of our Five Golden Rules for negotiation. Good negotiation skills are "mission-critical" for any organisation pursuing a strategy of Customer Intimacy or Operational Efficiency, along with well-developed financial skills, as mentioned above. This video presentation includes a semi-scripted demonstration clip from our library of skills-based clips we call "The Classic Harrison Collection". You can read more about this specialised area of our capability under our Video Tools Value Stream (click here).
On the recommendation of a previous satisfied client, we were approached by a leading supplier in Hardware and Home Improvement to built a strategic capability in Category Management ("CatMan" or "Shopper Marketing"). Fasteners are one of the top 4 Categories in Hardware, and our Client dominates the Category with a portfolio of leading brands. Unsurprisingly, their people were increasingly expected to exhibit polished skills in Category Management.
Click here to review a downloadable backgrounder on the Harrison approach to Category Management, one of our niche specialties.
We developed checklists from the key Strategic Capabilities the client wished to execute their strategy of Customer Intimacy and from Position Descriptions which had recently been upgraded.
Click here to review Checklist 1 (generic version) and refer to Zacharias et al for relative weights of these factors.
Click here to review Checklist 2 (generic version) and download it if you wish.
As well as a 60-strong field sales team, the Client had around 25 experienced Key/Account/Sales Managers working with channel partners under their strategy of Customer Intimacy. (See Treacy & Wiersema's Value Disciplines(11,12). See also video 1 on the Strategy Execution page).
In addition to a thorough understanding of "CatMan", however, the client had identified three further skill-sets:
- consultative selling skills (click here for our dedicated pages on consultative selling)
- financial skills and Retailer metrics (from GP% to GMROI, WOS, Stock turn and PI)
- advanced negotiation (from a transactional model to one of partnership and "win-win synergy")
Below are two short videos which illuminate how we addressed the second and third of the above skill-sets.
Financial Skills, Retailer Metrics
For the financial skills, we employed our simple proprietary model of how resellers deliver profitability and growth for their stakeholders. We call it "The Retail Wheel". A slideshow with audio is reproduced below; it has attracted almost 5000 views on YouTube. It serves as an introduction to the important topic of Retail Metrics and KPIs, which we address with customised workbooks and exercises. We start with the basics of "mark-up and margin", and proceed to the more challenging and esoteric aspects of return on inventory investment (GMROI) and promotional effectiveness. Please visit our free Toolbox to review and download the three Q&A booklets and reminder cards.
Partnership Negotiation Skills
To illustrate negotiation skills in part, there is a video/slideshow on one of our Five Golden Rules for negotiation. Good negotiation skills are "mission-critical" for any organisation pursuing a strategy of Customer Intimacy or Operational Efficiency, along with well-developed financial skills, as mentioned above. This video presentation includes a semi-scripted demonstration clip from our library of skills-based clips we call "The Classic Harrison Collection". You can read more about this specialised area of our capability under our Video Tools Value Stream (click here).
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Complex Strategic Negotiation
At a much higher level of complexity, we were asked by long standing Client, Exxon, to assist them in building strategy, process and skills for Complex Negotiations.
Complex Negotiations in this context were defined by:
- “big-ticket” investment
- Multi-level negotiating teams
- Multi-functional negotiating teams
- Cross-cultural negotiation
- Protracted and long-term negotiations in a series of meetings
- Both internal and external perspectives
- Highly qualified team members in their chosen fields, but lacking the requisite skills
The subject matter was a $2bn investment in a steam cracker and ethylene plant in Fujian Province, in the People's Republic of China. Exxon’s Major Ventures team for Asia Pacific were tasked to negotiate with two levels of Chinese Government, with incumbent technology partner SABIC (of Saudi Arabia), and with challenger technology partner, Mobil. Not to mention their own parents in the USA!
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This was a challenging and rewarding assignment which was based on a suite of strategic planning templates which we developed with the Client during two high-level senior management meetings in Singapore and Hong Kong. The sessions produced comprehensive recommendations on strategy for the upcoming negotiations, in the following areas: |
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Epilogue |
COMPLEX NEGOTIATION STRATEGIC MODEL
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A Senior Manager from Exxon MVAP later returned to Australia to take up a Leadership role in the Plastics and Chemicals Industry Association (PACIA). At their request, Harrison Consulting created a generic version of “Complex Negotiations”, which was conducted as a public forum for senior managers from member companies. In introducing the program, the Client casually remarked that he believed his application of the processes, skills and templates we developed during his time with Exxon had saved his corporation approximately USD 2million!
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