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"Strategic offsites are a fundamentally different kind of
meeting, both in terms of the objectives you establish and in
terms of the effort necessary to free up the conversation and
drive out-of-the-box thinking. Too often, executives make the
mistake of using people who aren't trained specialists in strategic
offsite design and facilitation, and the meetings end with no
buy-in and no clear next steps. It's like tennis - you don't use
a good player to teach you tennis, you find a good coach. You
don't want to spend the entire offsite discussing the probable
- you need to break out and begin to collectively explore what's
possible. And that's hard to do with your internal people.
Prior to our meetings, the preparatory work by the
team at Strategic Offsites has been not only outstanding but extraordinary.
They are adept at framing the issues, gathering relevant data,
and preparing participants so that when we convene we’re
ready to make the most of the meeting. As facilitators, Strategic
Offsites has no peers. They listen, elicit all points of view,
make sure the discussion is solidly grounded in fact, and, when
necessary, challenge participants to genuinely confront the issues.
Their artful, structured way of leading a group of executives
through a series of complex issues to genuine alignment around
a strategy adds enormous value to these critical meetings.”
Thomas J. Wilson
Chairman, CEO & President
The Allstate Corporation
Allstate Corporation is the nation's largest
publicly held personal lines insurer, providing insurance products
to more than 16 million households.
v
“Strategic
Offsites is highly adept at bringing together a comprehensive
set of people representing different senior level perspectives
of the company and getting them to deliberate thoughtfully about
issues of long-term strategy. And because of the high-quality
pre-meeting work done in collaboration with Strategic Offsites,
we don’t spend hours watching consultants or division heads
make presentations. Instead, when we arrive at the meeting we’re
ready to engage the facts and through a mutual process of discovery
arrive at and align around five or six highly focused strategic
initiatives that will take the company forward.”
Doug Stotz
Partner, Bain & Company, formerly
Senior Vice President, Strategy
Monster.com
Monster.com, the flagship brand of Monster Worldwide,
Inc., is the leading online global careers network, with sites
in 23 countries around the world.
v
"They are the superior choice for this kind of work. Their
strategic insight is as good or better than the top strategy consulting
firms, and their ability to help management teams use strategic
offsites to make smart decisions and act on them is unique in
the field. They aren't saddled with the cost structure of the
larger consulting firms, so they are more economical to use. And
I don't have to worry about their priorities - they are there
to deliver a great work product at my offsites, not sell me on
large strategy projects."
Laura R. Dunne
Assistant Vice President, Finance, Strategy
Encompass Insurance
v
"The offsites they managed for us resulted in decisions that
we really owned as a senior management team. This is in contrast
to prior offsites we had held, where the outcomes were tainted
and lacked participant buy-in because the facilitators showed
up with their own agendas or an inappropriate bias. The success
of these offsites also reflects the careful preparation they put
into planning, especially the time spent framing clear objectives
for the offsite, and the strength of their facilitation. We also
benefited significantly from working with them in a series of
strategic offsites over several years. They built an approach
for each offsite that leveraged the work accomplished in the past,
and this continuity increased the overall effectiveness of the
offsites for the senior management team."
Kenneth R. Meyers
Executive Vice President, Finance, Chief Financial Officer and
Treasurer
United States Cellular Corporation
United States Cellular Corporation is the eighth
largest wireless communications provider in the US, providing
service to more than 3.9 million customers in 26 states.
v
"I went
into this suspicious. Based on a prior experience one of my clients
had with a major consulting firm, I was expecting flim-flam, and
lots of people using buzzwords but bringing no real value. Working
with them, however, changed my whole outlook on what good consultants
can help an organization achieve. The Landmarks Preservation Council
of Illinois (LPCI) faced serious issues, and the survival of the
organization was in doubt. They managed a series of strategic
offsites for the LPCI Board of Directors that were instrumental
in pinpointing the critical issues facing the organization, and
accomplished something I thought would be impossible - uniting
a diverse Board behind a single, coherent strategy for turning
around the organization. The Board came away from the offsites
with a renewed sense of mission and the short- and long-term plans
they helped us develop became our guiding principle for the next
2 years."
John H. Stassen, Esq.
Partner, Kirkland & Ellis
Chairman of the Board, Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois
Kirkland & Ellis is one of the leading law
firms in the US. The Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois
is a leading voice for historic preservation.
v
“Strategic
Offsites is very good at challenging the conventional wisdom of
a company – something every organization can use when faced
with difficult strategic choices, a new competitive landscape,
or a need to do business differently. If you already know the
answers, you don’t need to conduct the meeting – and
what Strategic Offsites does better than anyone else is to help
move you along toward the answers you need but which may not be
apparent.”
Doug Arnold
Vice President of Human Resources
World Kitchen
World Kitchen, Inc. and its affiliates manufacture
and market bakeware, dinnerware, kitchen and household tools,
rangetop cookware and cutlery products sold under well-known and
trusted brands including CorningWare, Pyrex, CORELLE, Revere,
EKCO, Baker’s Secret, Magnalite, Chicago Cutlery, and OLFA.
v
“When
we do strategic offsites right they have a significant impact
on the business, especially through the commitment to follow-up
and to implementation that we develop at the meeting. Strategic
Offsites has a unique ability to design and conduct offsites that
give you that momentum. A sense of ownership and a depth of understanding
of the issues that comes from the debate, dialogue, and, ultimately,
alignment create the energy and passion necessary for success.
And it ensures that you walk out of the meeting with detailed
implementation plans that bridge the gap between strategy and
action.”
Bill Gisel
Chief Operating Officer
Rich Products
Founded in 1945, Rich Products is known around
the world as the founder of the non-dairy segment of the frozen
food industry and a leading supplier and solutions provider to
the food service, in-store bakery, and retail marketplaces. As
one of the world’s premier family-owned food companies,
Rich’s posts annual sales exceeding $2 billion.
v
“The
work Strategic Offsites did for us was absolutely phenomenal.
They helped provide the critical success factors – solid
meeting pre-work, clarity of objectives, and expert facilitation
leading to real alignment – that enabled us to address a
strategic issue with which we had been struggling for some time.
Their ability to uncover the real opinions of executives and quantify
that information before the meeting and then use it to surface
issues and genuinely engage those issues at the meeting itself
enabled the team to overcome barriers to success. Most importantly,
the implementation of the plans that emerged at the offsite is
already generating significant results for our business.”
Zaydoon H. Munir
Senior Vice President
Experian
With approximately 30 years of experience and
more than 30,000 clients in North America, Experian helps organizations
reach new clients and build, nurture, and maximize lasting customer
relationships. Its businesses include credit solutions, marketing
solutions, and automotive solutions; and Experian Interactive
assists consumers in managing the financial aspects of key life
events. Experian also provides U.S. consumers with tools and services
to help them understand, manage, and protect their personal credit
profiles.
v
“In
preparing and facilitating strategic offsites, the Strategic Offsites
Group provides precisely the right balance of content and process
needed to make sure both that the discussion has real substance
and that it moves forward to an actionable conclusion. Their ability
to generate insights in an objective manner adds depth and perspective
to complex business issues, and their ability to guide a team
of diverse members, with diverse skills, through a strategic conversation
helps harness the best thinking of the organization and put it
to work to grow the business.”
Richard M. Ferranti
President, International
Rich Products
Founded in 1945, Rich Products is known around
the world as the founder of the non-dairy segment of the frozen
food industry and a leading supplier and solutions provider to
the food service, in-store bakery, and retail marketplaces. As
one of the world’s premier family-owned food companies,
Rich’s posts annual sales exceeding $2 billion.
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