Immediate Impact Workshops are just that, facilitated workshops involving the client’s team that are designed to address specific and immediate needs in the client’s business. TCC workshop offerings include
Synergies in a Day(SM) is designed to help firms either contemplating or in the middle of an acquisition identify, value, and assess the achievability of synergies. Types of synergies identified include Growth, SG&A, R&D, Operational and Supply Chain, Tax, and Strategic Advantage. This workshop is also helpful for companies trying to identify the “best fit” among multiple target or partner candidates. It is our experience that an objective third party with a fresh perspective, operating experience, and knowledge of acquisitions can help find new synergies and separate real from wishful synergies.
Negotiation Support is an immediate impact workshop designed to help a client’s negotiating team develop strategies and tactics for specific negotiations that are underway or upcoming. Negotiation Support helps the client understand the constraints, wants, needs, and alternatives of all parties involved; identify the information gaps; identify the “win-win”; choreograph the negotiating approach; and build support within the client’s team. The founder’s experience is that a fresh perspective, in an advisory or facilitative role, is very helpful in negotiations where there are many opinions and emotions as to the path forward.
Development Portfolio Management (DPM) is organized around a central theme: increasing the financial and strategic value that businesses obtain from their new product development investments. DPM workshops can be structured to address important development portfolio needs, including
* Defining portfolio criteria – “What should be added to the development portfolio and what should be pruned?”
* Achieving portfolio balance given (a) near, mid, and long term market opportunities and business growth desires, (b) NPV, cash burn, and investor/customer proof-of-concept targets, (c) business diversification goals, (d) resource utilization concerns, and (e) other client-specific criteria
* Improving development investment returns and speed-to-market by addressing the soft, hard, and controversial “stuff” – accountability; management and functional roles; communication, team building, and cross-functional coordination; and risk taking in fast-track project/program management
* Identifying and approaching potential partners
TCC can facilitate workshops to address other topics at the intersection of technology and business management such as (a) allocation of R&D resources across technical service/product support, product development, and platform development activities, (b) cost effective strategic intellectual property protection, (c) achieving a better mix of internal and outsourced R&D capabilities, (d) balancing R&D capabilities by region and location, and (e) annual technology budgeting.
An AFFKO Workshop(SM) helps clients describe and decide which opportunities to pursue or seek out by defining client-specific Attractiveness, Fit, Feasibility, and Knockout criteria. AFFKO criteria, which incorporate strategic, market, financial, cultural, and other elements, can be used to (a) identify and prioritize both internal (R&D) and external (M&A, partnering) growth initiatives and (b) align management and organizations behind shared objectives. AFFKO workshops may be conducted at both corporate and business unit levels. AFFKO workshops may also be conducted in conjunction with periodic pipeline reviews.
Customer Segmentation and Management is designed to improve customer and channel understanding and, to find value creating (and value destroying) opportunities and approaches. These workshops typically identify new means of segmenting customers, unmet needs, value creating clients and prospects, competitive advantage and differentiation, channel issues and opportunities, better value propositions, and better approaches to customer management.
Competitive Gaming is a scenario planning tool that helps clients understand the perspectives of competitors and anticipate how market participants would respond to changes in the marketplace, different business conditions, and initiatives undertaken by the client or other market participants. Competitive Gaming can be used to analyze customer and supplier perspectives and responses. Competitive Gaming is also useful where deep and fast immersion is needed to educate or unify a larger management team or organization.
Sales Force Design(SFD) helps clients improve sales force effectiveness. SFD workshops focus on finding root causes that hold back the performance of the client’s sales force, defining the current and desired missions of the client’s sales force, and identifying actions to improve sales force performance. Sales force authority, skills, training, compensation, tools, supporting infrastructure (intellectual, operational, emotional), and effectiveness metrics will be addressed in the context of theclient’s specific offerings, markets, and business objectives.
Synergies in a Day(SM) is designed to help firms either contemplating or in the middle of an acquisition identify, value, and assess the achievability of synergies. Types of synergies identified include Growth, SG&A, R&D, Operational and Supply Chain, Tax, and Strategic Advantage. This workshop is also helpful for companies trying to identify the “best fit” among multiple target or partner candidates. It is our experience that an objective third party with a fresh perspective, operating experience, and knowledge of acquisitions can help find new synergies and separate real from wishful synergies.
Negotiation Support is an immediate impact workshop designed to help a client’s negotiating team develop strategies and tactics for specific negotiations that are underway or upcoming. Negotiation Support helps the client understand the constraints, wants, needs, and alternatives of all parties involved; identify the information gaps; identify the “win-win”; choreograph the negotiating approach; and build support within the client’s team. The founder’s experience is that a fresh perspective, in an advisory or facilitative role, is very helpful in negotiations where there are many opinions and emotions as to the path forward.
* Defining portfolio criteria – “What should be added to the development portfolio and what should be pruned?” 
Customer Segmentation and Management is designed to improve customer and channel understanding and, to find value creating (and value destroying) opportunities and approaches. These workshops typically identify new means of segmenting customers, unmet needs, value creating clients and prospects, competitive advantage and differentiation, channel issues and opportunities, better value propositions, and better approaches to customer management.
Sales Force Design (SFD) helps clients improve sales force effectiveness. SFD workshops focus on finding root causes that hold back the performance of the client’s sales force, defining the current and desired missions of the client’s sales force, and identifying actions to improve sales force performance. Sales force authority, skills, training, compensation, tools, supporting infrastructure (intellectual, operational, emotional), and effectiveness metrics will be addressed in the context of the client’s specific offerings, markets, and business objectives.