Know-How Exchange : Strategy

I would like to start with a question for you: what are your clients expecting of you, and how do you provide the evidence for having achieved it?

Because I don't conduct quarterly reviews. Each and every time they're in contact with me is when I check back for how they feel things are going. Usually they're happy enough with progress, if not, I deal with it. If they're still unhappy we discuss a termination.

Thanks Moriarty! We're trying to elevate the discussion above what's going on in projects and focus on our client's longer term strategy. We expect to learn ahead of time if the client is unhappy with anything we're doing, do something to address the problem and then, during the course of the review, either be able to demonstrate a solution or talk about what we're doing to resolve the situation.

Why are they not sharing their ideas about strategy from the word go? Are they a mid-level department who've hired you in to get results in a difficult situation? Where they're faced with a daunting problem that's been dropped on them?

I would have expected the end of each consultation to have agreed on at least one solution to a problem that could be worked on in the coming weeks.

There are times when a business culture doesn't want to change - especially when people are gathered in a team. The value of a consultant is that they're an outsider. However you can find resistance from an ingrowing culture that is actually as much a problem as the one they asked you to help them with.

That's when you need one on one chats to see how things can be moved forward outside of the "culture" that is inhibiting progress. That way groups that have knitted a circle that's too tight can loosen it.

Am I barking up the right tree?

You're definitely on the right tree! Thanks so much for your responses Moriarty. We find that the strategic discussions happen at the very beginning of a new client engagement especially when the senior project sponsors are in the room. Then, once the engagement is underway, it's more middle management discussion about the ins and outs of managing projects.

We find that even if a client is happy with our work, enough to give us more, the conversation does not rise again to the overarching strategic discussions that we had in the very beginning. We see quarterly business reviews, with client leadership, as a way of accessing the leadership's thinking. My hypothesis is that there are better ways than not of conducting this kind of meeting. I'm trying to learn from the experience of others.

I can't really help you with that angle - my forte is the small business, sole proprietor type (up to around the $25m bracket).

I can certainly help with the broader psychological aspects. Those are usually the point at which grids get locked. All businesses are made up of people after all ;-)

Hello KSA,

We're a brand strategy and execution firm. We help our clients tell their stories in order to attract customers that will be a good fit. Often times this work results in a website. Sometimes, companies execute tactics without having an overarching strategy. In these cases they can suffer from "busy being busy" syndrome. We see QBRs as a vehicle to keeping the strategy alive as we execute. I'm just looking for a tried and true framework in which to conduct these kinds of meetings. I'm thinking that this is a common practice in many professional service organizations.I hope that this clarifies things.