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Client: Global information technology company

Client Objectives: Develop constructive business partnerships between the client's Asia/Pacific area organization and their largest customers. Develop the strategic consulting and tactical planning skills of their marketing support organizations. Increase profitability by decreasing dependence upon support groups in the United States and Europe.

Issues: The client's Asia/Pacific marketing support organization wanted to develop their own business consulting skills, rather than rely on U.S. and European support. This entailed the ability to help customers:

1. Define strategic business initiatives

2. Create plans to achieve the initiatives

3. Support the implementation of the initiatives.

The client's marketing support staff needed to grow their knowledge in the areas of organizational development, process re-engineering, and the like.

Both customer and client-internal audiences had to be addressed.

• Customer audiences included both executive and middle/operational management.
• Internal audiences included direct sales, marketing support staff, and senior management.

Diverse languages, cultures, and customs found among 15 widely differing countries of Asia and the South Pacific also had to be taken into account.

Solution: Over a five-year period, FLI's development team created a series of education sessions and support materials, including presenter guides, train-the-trainer guides, customer planning packages, video presentations, posters, brochures, service data sheets, and customer reference guides.

To build client consultative concepts knowledge, FLI developed 21 self-study leader reference guides summarizing business consulting concepts from such experts as Peter Drucker, John Henderson, Peter Keen, Kenichi Ohmae, Tom Peters, Michael Porter, and the like.

FLI's team assisted the client in testing, implementing, and validating each component of the solution in each of the 15 countries represented. (FLI has since adapted the program for use in North America, South America, and Europe.)

FLI conducted semi-annual meetings with country coordinators to collect program evaluation data, to identify common requirements, and to introduce new program components needed to keep the materials and programs current and relevant.

Business Results:    At onset of the project, the client set a series of business performance objectives which, if met, would deem the program a "success"

Performance objective areas included:

• Degree of customer executive involvement
• Customer executive commitment to continue with the program by sponsoring follow-on staff development sessions
• Customer and client success in implementing projects
• Cost-versus-return--by comparing the initial investment against actual and projected revenue in terms of new business generated and customers won back from the competition.

Using data gathered by the client, FLI documented results in excess of objectives in every area listed. Most significantly, the client reported the generation of hundreds of millions of dollars (US$) of incremental business. Customers now:

• Recognize FLI's client as business consulting experts
• Establish partnerships with the client to identify and implement business goals
• Endorse the client as a favored vendor

This program received the Outstanding Achievement in Instructional Design Award from the International Society for Performance Improvement.