Grassroots Strategy Program

Our flagship offering is a proven, action learning program centered around three to five day Grassroots Strategy Workshops. In our workshops, we create a powerful learning environment where strategic marketing concepts are taught and applied to actual growth projects.

The Grassroots Strategy Program results in:

• Training in and ultimately, internalization of proper market strategy analysis techniques and evaluations
• Acceleration of existing growth or business strategy projects
• Shared management experiences that create a culture change to a more growth-oriented environment
• Enhancement of internal, cross-functional relationships through the creation of a common vocabulary

These Grassroots Strategy Workshops have been delivered in over 260 seminars for over 70 companies on five continents.

Structure of the Program

A typical Grassroots Strategy Program includes one or a series of three- to five-day Grassroots Strategy Workshops each one attended by three or four project teams. Each team works with an Amphora strategy coach as they learn the principles and concepts of strategic growth and then apply them to their project over the week and beyond.

Every project that goes through a Grassroots Strategy Workshop begins with a charter that describes the current situation and Identifies key questions to be answered. The project sponsor chooses a cross-functional team of five to eight people from marketing, sales, engineering, support, operations etc. to attend the workshop and drive the project. This chartering process typically starts three to four weeks before the actual multi-day face-to-face session.

The project is not over at the end of the workshop. We advance the project significantly over the course of the week and develop a set of hypotheses relevant to the opportunity. These hypotheses are typically further developed and tested by the team over a 90 day follow-up period with support from the Amphora GSP coach and typically with check points at 30 and 60 days.

At roughly 90 days the project team presents their findings and recommendations to the project sponsor.

Full Structure of Grassroots Strategy Program

The deliverables at the end of the full program Include:

• Several Important growth projects significantly advanced and accelerated – real near term Impact
• A cadre of leaders and managers trained In Grassroots strategy frameworks – the core of a strategic growth capability
• A leadership team thinking the same way about strategy and growth – the beginnings of a broader culture change

Structure of a Grassroots Strategy Workshop

During the course of the workshop the teams are taught each the major building blocks of the Grassroots strategy framework through a combination of lecture, stories and cases. After each building block Is Introduced each of the teams applies the concepts to their own specific business project In a breakout session working with their assigned Amphora SMG coach. After which (often the next morning) the teams then present their work to each other, the other coaches and sometimes other visitors from the company. These report out sessions provide a lively interactive discussion of the work and the projects and allows the Amphora Coaches to both redirect the project work real-time and further drive home leaning points about the Grassroots Strategy Framework.

The workshops are a powerful learning experience and make for an exciting week. Each of the participants first learns each concept, then applies the concept to their own project and the sees and discussed the application of the concept to several other real business projects.

The workshops are also an effective project accelerator. Project thinking Is done In real time with Amphora Coaches In the breakout sessions and then discussed with colleagues and visitors the following report outs. This Iterative cycle of four or five breakout sessions and the following report out sessions results assures that the concepts are applied appropriately and hypotheses about the business projects are developed and tested over the course of the week.

Typical 5 Day Workshop

The last report out on the final day of the workshop synthesizes the advancement of the thinking on the project over the course of the week and presents workplan to finalize the work, usually with the aim of delivering a business plan or investment proposal at end of 90 days. The last report outs are generally attended by Senior Management of the company and provide the teams the opportunity to show their work over the course of the week and Senior Management the opportunity to engage and better understand the Important growth opportunities that have been addressed In that session.

Why it works:

• An intensive learning experience followed by a working project tail – immediately business relevant
• Focused on the basics of growth (not the latest buzzwords) – solid strategic marketing
• Incorporating real projects for your business
  • Action learning improves retention
  • Project evaluation and advancement builds momentum
  • Measurable results help convert the undecided
• Facilitated by knowledgeable and experienced ‘coaches’ – not driven by templates