John Soter, Principal with ZweigWhite Consulting, presents an in-depth approach to planning for growth that balances the challenges and risks of the current economic environment with an objective assessment of market potential and internal capabilities. Tailored to the unique needs of typical AEC firms like yours, this “blueprint” covers how to quickly recognize and address internal and external opportunities and threats—and how to plan and manage them for continuous growth.
In today’s competitive economic environment, leaders need to find new and innovative ways to grow their firms.
Growing top line revenue requires creative and well thought out market, product, and geographic plans. Additionally, savvy leaders today are focused on growing earnings and operational capabilities, often in the face of flat or possibly decreasing revenues.
The current turbulent economic climate has many AEC leaders concerned about managing for continued growth. Most firms are seeking innovative approaches to grow their companies in 2010. Successful leaders acknowledge that business planning is as, or more important in this kind of environment than in most any other.
However, many leaders want more return for their investment in their Strategic Planning efforts. Simply, the tolerance for failure is much lower and the consequence of poor decision making is much greater. The answer is in finding the best “blueprints” and inputs to use in building strategic and tactical growth plans that are flexible and that accommodate economic ambiguity, candid market and internal capability assessments, and risk mitigation.
What is covered:
As firms grow and evolve, leadership’s focus and planning processes must adapt to meet the specific needs at each stage of development. You’ll learn:
How the required adaptations affect growth plans that help you move to the next level
Why what used to work may not be right for your firm today.
How M&A activity affects growth cycles of both the buyer and seller, when it makes the most sense and what to consider when planning for integration
How to apply this thinking to enhance your strategic, tactical, and business planning
How to establish binding consensus among the leadership team
How to quantify opportunities and their impact
How to avoid potential “blind spots” in your process and preparation.
John Soter has over 25 years experience as a consultant and draws on best practices gleaned from assisting clients in diverse industries including engineering, creative, and complex project driven environments, as well as electric and gas utilities (generation, exploration/exploitation, transmission, and distribution), transportation and logistics, life sciences, and hospitality. He has conducted hundreds of engagements with clients at both Fortune 500 and emerging growth companies where innovation, flexibility, focus, and competitive advantage dominate the contribution to success. John has expertise in strategic, tactical, and business planning; business, management, and systems audits; knowledge worker productivity improvement; process capability improvement, error proofing, and complexity reduction; organizational transformation and change management; and operational effectiveness improvement.
John’s skills include leadership and management development; rapid prototyping, concurrent design, and integrated project delivery management; business standardization; business system implementation; competency development and management; post merger integration; business development and top line enrichment; delivery quality and client satisfaction improvement; and profitability enhancement.
To support sustainability of operational improvements, he has helped clients by facilitating consensus on strategy and direction, developing and translating goals to align the organization, designing and implementing measurement and management processes and systems, and training executives and managers in strategic, leadership, and managerial skills.
John’s abilities to focus and leverage client resources, while generating rapid and sustainable improvements, have resulted in measurable value added and bottom line gains, reduced risk/regulatory exposure, and optimized processes and structures. Prior to joining ZweigWhite, John worked as managing director, overseeing and delivering consulting projects in North America and Europe with Navigant Consulting, Brooks International, and Decision Management International for clients including AMEC, Emerson, and Lockheed Martin.
John received a BA from Tufts University in Massachusetts.
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