Double-Team

Developing an effective strategy and business plan presentation isn’t simply a matter of reading a book, or following a fill-in-the-blanks “recipe.”  It calls on four strengths that, in our experience, are not often found in great abundance in any one person:

(1)  Analytical ability—for assessing what is really going on out there, even in a deceptively-complicated marketplace.

(2)  Marketing intuition and training and experience—to see a path through all these complexities, then mapping it all out in a winning strategy and operating plan.

(3)  Credibility and confidence—to get this strategy and plan across clearly and compellingly in words and numbers and charts and graphs that make sense.  This includes doing 3-year pro-forma financial projections (or 5 years if necessary), illustrated in a clear and persuasive way to investors, lenders, and those charged with making your plan work in practical terms.

(4)  Passion and conviction—to help you get everyone on board in executing the strategy and plan to the best of their abilities.

 Like you, perhaps, we do a lot of things badly.  (Ice skating and integral calculus and painting pictures come immediately to mind.)  But the four business-planning tasks listed above are things we do VERY well in a "double-team" with clients.

Our Business Background

We’ve developed some 440 business and marketing and promotional plans--in all kinds of product and service categories. Some were done for well-established companies.  Others were done for new companies, new products, and new services. More than a few of these highly-professional business plans have helped clients grow into spectacularly profitable companies.

For examples, these strategies and plans have helped build dozens of Fortune-500 clients that include Kraft/General Foods, Shell Oil, Gallo Wine, Avon Products, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

• Six plans were done for financial institutions.  One of them grew from zero to $600 million in assets in four years.
• Another plan helped an audio-video retailer achieve the second-highest per-store sales volume of anyone in their industry in the United States.
• A recent plan helped a toy manufacturer go from zero to several hundred thousand dollars in sales in a three-month market introduction. 
• Another helped a "green" hedge fund get off the ground, and successfully weather the global financial meltdown of 2008.
• Other plans have helped a marble-and-granite importer, a commercial real estate firm, a Geneva-based fixed-income investment firm, an INC 1,000 energy products company, a pet shop, an ice-cream “scoop-shop”, an IT consulting company, a “quick-clean” products manufacturer, and hundreds of other businesses. 
  

Every plan we’ve developed taught us something new—what works, what doesn’t work, and what “rabbit-holes” to look out for. Wouldn’t it help your chances for success, and reduce your risk of failure, if all this big-league experience was brought to bear on your strategy and plan?  (We are absolutely certain it would.)

Our Conviction: The Best Person to Develop a Business Strategy and Plan Presentation Is  Your CEO

 No one knows your business better.  No one cares more about it, either. However...

...as they say about war strategy and planning, “it’s too important to be left to the generals.”  Plus, most CEOs are very busy running their company. Few have a lot of time or experience to develop an effective business plan that will really help them manage their company profitably. That's why it makes sense to "double-team on this all-important job. 

Who We Are

Here’s some other information about managing director Doug Hedlund to help you make your all-important planning decision:

• CEO of a new-product, new-service, new-business consulting firm for more than 15 years.

• MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business, New York, NY.

• BA in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass.

• Military officer training as a cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado.

• Many business-building strategies were learned during my seven years of working with clients at Ogilvy & Mather/NY.

• Regular guest speaker at conferences and seminars.

• Taught strategy development and business planning for 3 years to entrepreneurs at Santa Monica College extension division.

• Author, Double-Team Your Business Plan: How To Make (Reasonably) Sure Your Business Will Fly—Before You Go Out On a Limb (Publishing in November, 2014)