The Hidden Gems of Strategic Conversations
In Planning, Mary discussed the importance of gathering fresh information through strategic conversations. When we conduct formal research for our clients through this type of conversation, we often uncover valuable and sometimes surprising feedback. Two situations come to mind:
- A company’s clients identified high value services that they wanted the company to expand. The company saw these services and activities as just an accommodation to the clients. As a result, the company reorganized and expanded their offering to facilitate these services and now gets paid for the value.
- Despite a very long and successful relationship, a company’s most important client expressed concern that the company was falling behind the times. The company was actually a leader in its industry, but it was not communicating that fact. It had a very stale website, and never communicated about their new services or about the important role they played in their industry’s regulation by the FDA. As a result, the company made a conscious effort to communicate its expertise through article writing and speaking appearances by the senior management. That same client recently called the CEO and said, “We hadn’t thought about you for this job until I saw you on the cover of our industry magazine today. Let’s talk.”
The catalyst in both of these situations was a strategic conversation with key clients. The results of this type of conversation should be examined together with external research, industry meetings, and internal knowledge collection. The patterns that emerge can become an excellent catalyst and inspiration for change in operations, marketing, service, communication with clients, and product mix.
If you are ready to undertake some strategic conversations on your own, please read our article in The Handbook for Business Strategy for practical hints on how to do it.
- Michael Oleksak 2005
