Turbulent times require intelligence, experience and the maturity to navigate through difficult circumstances. This comes from having helped leadership teams hundreds of times over decades.

Providing calm guidance in turbulent times.

Deep experience + firm direction = progress.

• Strong facilitation encourages balance and diversity.
• Control outspoken senior executives and encourage deeper contribution from more softly spoken participants.
• Ensures collective, decisive and tangible outcomes.

“Turbulent times are messy. People are stressed and defensive. Problems are multi-dimensional and complex. Time is short. Kevin relaxes the room, simplifies the issues to focus on the critical questions we need to crack, and gets to clear actions in days not months.” 

Oliver Joyce, Global Chief Transformation Officer, Mindshare

“I am a fan of a well-led workshop and Kevin delivers exactly that.”

Grant Millar, EMEA Client President, Media Futures Group

“Kevin’s is a mind so well organized that it would be foolish to ignore his wisdom on the subject of strategy. Just the right amount of guidance in creating valuable, and most importantly, action-oriented strategies.”

Richard Morris, CEO, IPG Mediabrands, UK & Ireland.

“Kevin has an uncanny ability to make the complex seem simple – immediately useful advice.”

Graeme Adams, Head of Media, BT Group

“Kevin’s techniques are practical and immediate, unlocking the creativity that lies within.”

Paul Davies, BBC Director of Marketing & Audiences

We are often asked to facilitate meetings. The types and circumstances vary hugely. Here are some examples of issues dealt with recently.

• Leaders need to discuss the global positioning for an international network. They need to be guided to a mutually agreeable consensus.
• A global network needs a new management structure and positioning. We design both over two days.
• A communications network needs to agree the positioning for two worldwide brands. They need to judge their internal awards programme. And they need an inspirational speaker over dinner.
• A major UK retailer needs to meet and take stock in a fast-moving market. We facilitate a two-day programme analyzing the market and using learning from the relevant books summarized on our Business 500 blog as an intervention to update them on new business thinking. Two months later we follow up with the next level of 12 executives.
• A major UK bank needs to gel a board of eight and add greater momentum to a challenger brand initiative. We use the latest business writing to get into detail about what challenger behaviour really means. Two months later we expand the session with 20 next level executives.
• A well-known film producer and distributor needs to resolve a sales issue. We gather a team of 20 for a meaty working session to analyse the problem. We whittle the issues into a manageable number, and preside over group work. Two weeks later we repeat and refine, to produce a recommendation for head office.
• A major technology client is not getting on very well with its advertising agency. The session airs and resolves the issues to generate a better working relationship.
• An international company has been through a period of consultation and the team members have all had to reapply for their jobs. This has caused confusion and put a strain on the working relationship with their media agency. Our intuitive approach and breadth of techniques were used to design a more productive relationship in both cases.
• A top-ten advertising agency wants to improve the quality of strategic thinking for itself and its clients. Sessions raise the latest and most helpful recent business and marketing thinking, and are applied to sectors as diverse as brewing and financial services. Their strategic standing rises as a result.
• A research company wants to increase its sharpness with its clients. We mix intellectual thinking with training for better relationships and sales skills. The Business 500 books and method were used to generate fresh approaches.
• A new team at the head of a performance and data agency has only worked together for a few months and it’s time to get the plan together. A media agency wants to start the year with a bang. An innovation agency wants its global sales team to pull together more consistently.
• The leadership team of a media agency is not taking enough collective responsibility. Over two days we thrash out the reasons and set more wide-ranging objectives for the next year. The agency doubles in size by the end of the year. Methods are drawn variously from the many books we have written to inspire, motivate, and crystallize effort.
• An agency needs new ideas for a prospective client. We plan the pitch, the approach to winning the business, and the chemistry session. When through to the next round, we generate creative concepts and write the strategic story.