Last updated: 5.40pm (Sydney) (Final update - Comments are still live) (Day 3)
This page will be updated about every 30 minutes so check back regularly or keep this page open in the background and refresh when you can. Day 1 is here.

I know most people are readers - welcome. If you want to be actively involved, please feel free to register and ask questions, leave comments, or email me. And don't forget to click on the links for more information (most open in a new window).

(I've had a question from Chicago about How to Register. Our site is open and free to join - if you click on the 'Register Now' button to my right and fill in some information. Of course you're welcome to read and learn without registering, but maximum value comes from registering and interacting.) 

9.00am - Back in Black. As the rest of the room filters in, here's a tip for conference presenters and organisers about the morning of Day 2: A lot has happened to attendees individally since they were last together in this room, so maximum value for the day will be achieved if you do a brief exercise to link right now to yesterday afternoon.

For those of you reading all 3 days at once, I don't need to concern myself about that. For those following live, I will put up shortly some of my processing from last night and the exercises our presenters use to bring people 'back into the room' (as opposed to having their minds wander for the first hour or so).

9.22am - Comments. So Macca has checked-in to the room - are there any burning questions or points that aren't clear? (There weren't any) Are there any big learnings or comments people would like to make? (I had one of those)

The material we covered yesterday was powerful, and really capable of guiding strategic decisions and adding true asset value to a business. But it wasn't...flashy.

Much of what we do as coaches, at workshops and the early stages of a client relationship, is flashy and new. We have great frameworks that allow clients to realise what may be missing or what needs to be done, and that's exciting.

Yesterday, and what I'll be blogging about for the next two days, is at a deeper, more valuable, level than the flashy stuff. So I received an insight into the client experience as they shift from new and powerful (exciting) to implementing powerful change.

9.50am - Thumbing my way to Vegas. Yesterday, we discussed strategic business assets with a view to leverage. But even two identical businesses may have a different idea about what to do with that opportunity - and an individual's risk profile is a contributing factor.

This is a common exercise in financial planning circles - rating your risk profile from 1 (under the bed) to 10 (Vegas, baby, with next month's salaries). It's a simple exercise that has its limitations - for one, it changes over time (which is why internet start-ups generally aren't created by married guys with three kids).

The first important point that Marc is making centres on Alignment. I have a risk profile of 6 - if I'm running a business where everybody else has a profile of 3, how will they react to my strategic plan?

What if I merge into a larger business run by three directors with risk profiles of 8 & 9?

The second point is Balance and Understanding. If you don't understand people with different profiles, you may miss opportunities or gamble too much, too soon. Have a good balance with your team, advisors, and coach.

What's your risk profile? Your teams? Your clients?

10.15 am - Capability v Opportunity. We're in the middle of a good discussion about different opportunities, and how they relate to risk profiles and ultimately the value of the opportunity to the market and to your business.

A key to implementing any strategy is the capability that exists within your business. At this stage, however, you don't care about that. Many businesses kill some potentially great ideas because they start worrying about ‘How' to do it; at this stage, ask yourself ‘Why' you would do it...if it's a great idea, you will work out ‘How' to do it in time.

This may require training or recruiting additional capability. Easy! My controversial piece for the day - there's no skills shortage, there's no shortage of staff in the market.

And Marc's just shifted the exercise to identifying what fears exist about the strategies attendees have developed. Always good to know what's blocking you.

10.26 - Does the Culture of your Business allow Failure? If it doesn't, risks won't be taken, and this will limit strategic options! 

10.50 - Morning Tea Lesson. The hotel here has a nifty coffee machine (and yes, I'm still off the coffee, this happened to a friend of a friend of mine). The machine offers decaf, regular, and strong sachets of coffee...but doesn't explain which is which.

Michael Kerr, one of the coaches on my Queensland team, has been wondering why the coffee hit hasn't arrived yet...poor guy's been drinking decaf all morning!

11.15am - More keynote. Ak Sabbagh has just introduced another Keynote Speaker - Karin Hawkins, Executive Manager of PMMs (Personal Mortgage Managers) for ANZ. Karin will be addressing their Shirlaws experience, what she's titled 'The Journey to Becoming a very different PMM'.

When Karin joined she was aware of the huge potential within a high-performing division, and that the natural leaders in the team needed nurturing and guidance around maximizing growth (ie, not incremental!).

Shirlaws has helped them to focus on creating wealth for their premium clients; Karin's focus today is on Distribution, and how they realised they're not a mortgage sales business but rather in the business of developing relationships.

Key Point: It's OK to say No to clients who aren't in your target market. (Jacob: Within ANZ, this is just helping them to a different area that is better suited to their needs. Back to identifying fears, for SMEs and Mid-Tiers this is scarier because you'll likely be referring to other businesses. Do the numbers anyway!)  

Point #2: Action (which applies to any project). Monitor the activity required to achieve the results; build this into your KPIs and Performance Reviews.  

#3. 'Relationships' is a buzz word that tends to be 'warm and fuzzy'. To achieve benefit from developing relationships, codify what relationships at different levels look/feel like and the commercial benefits that exist as well. What is your capacity? How can this been improved?

#4. People do the right thing. When it comes to being abundant with opportunities, incentives, relationships, people naturally want to share so that everybody wins. Give them the space to make that decision and results will usually follow.

#5. Don't just tell people (eg, staff) what they need to do better. Ask them what you can do to help them be more successful. 

#6. Strategy takes time and people learn at different rates through different process. When it comes to communicating strategy: "Tell them, tell them what you told them, then tell them again". 

12.25pm - Case Study. In the unenviable position immediately prior to lunch, we welcome Brian Armstrong, CEO of Advanced Professional Solutions. Brian has"kindly volunteered" his time to provide a Shirlaws case study.

And right off the bat, he's confirming Craig Mowll's point from yesterday about applying multiple frameworks for a clear business goal.

Brian is sharing some solid information about the benefits of extending both Products offered and Distribution channels. It may seem obvious that more products sold through more channels equals more revenue - if so, what's your business doing to achieve this? APS has done some strong work on strength of brand - new logo and everything - to ensure new additions are successful not a Smith & Wesson Mountain Bike.

Bundle v Unbundle? When APS began they argued the benefits of Unbundled...because they only had one product! This actually worked, because most of their competitors were selling bundled, legacy programs that weren't as good but couldn't really be broken apart. Now that APS has a number of products they offer more touch points, deeper support, greater value.

Brian made a good point about Culture being a key platform on which to build Commercial growth. They were tested during the tech stock downturn, and Culture helped pull them through. (Shirlaws can't take full credit there; APS also worked with Open Up, and in the interests of full disclosure Open Up involves a guy that looks a lot like me.)

1.00pm - Lunch, and I'm sure seats near Karin and Brian will be highly sought after.

2.00pm - Back Live, and Marc is kicking things off with a real exercise to bring together all of the learnings from the past day and a half. We're all documenting our current Product and Distribution situation...and then defining them using the Risk / Value matrix we explored this morning.

Did you know that for most companies, their first Product / Distribution combination is not the most profitable? If you're focussing on that, what strategic opportunities are you missing? 

2.16pm - Conversation. There's a lot of high-energy discussion taking place, as different tables debate different options. And yes, we're still only looking at the current situation. What is a product? As a brief, if your clients see it as one product (eg, Tax and Audit Accounting), then it's one product.

2.43pm - Leverage. The discussions shifted into some strategic options - what other, related, products could we sell. What other distribution could we use (big one floated by a number of participants - internet - will be discussed in more detail tomorrow)? 

Most of the participants ended up with 5-6 products, and 5-6 distribution channels. Now the exercise is examining each of those combinations for the ones that promise the most. For example, I sat in with a community TV executive whose primary product is TV shows. This exercise may well shift focus to putting those programs online (new Distribution) and then developing and selling related merchandise (new Product).

3.05 - Vision. How does Strategy link to Vision? Well, if you have a clear vision for the business that will guide strategic decisions - ie, 'Does this move towards or away from our Vision?'. Most businesses do not have a clear vision; in those cases, strategy conversations can help make them clearer, often by making clear what you don't want more than just what you do.

Not content with just having those conversations, the Conference is now shifting into what Marc calls 'the radical piece'. A practice 'Strategic Pitch to Boards' - and, in order to make the point, we're creating boards of coaches each with one of 4 different Risk/Value profile. Fun! 

3.30pm - Board Pitch. Let me explain this exercise a little more. All of the clients were asked to leave the room, and spend some time selecting 1-3 combinations from the Leverage exercise above. Meantime, the coaches were split into boards of 3-4 people, and given a Risk / Value profile.

The clients have just been let back in. Marc has compared this to speed dating (I'll take his word for it) - the clients have 5 minutes to pitch their strategy or strategies to the coach Boards, who will ask the tough questions to explore the strategy. Each client will pitch to 4 boards, one of each profile.

Three cool learnings for everyone here:
1) Explore a range of strategic options from different angles - you won't get that analysis at most real board meetings
2) Discover which profiles match different strategies. What profile are you? Your management team?
3) Practice. Even at the experienced and successful business level of our attendees, there is opportunity to explore not only what you propose to boards but also how you do it.

If you're at work wondering about the value delivered in these conferences, an activity like this really sums it up - an enormous number of strategic lessons spaced into just 3 days. I believe feedback from the US and UK supports my observation on this point.

4.06pm - Not so speed dating.  My bad -each round is actually taking about 15-20 minutes. We're 2 down, with 2 to go and afternoon tea has been called. Keep you posted!

4.24pm - Coach thoughts. This material, or at least the specific application of it through this exercise, is new to some coaches and creating a deeper awareness for others. I caught up with a few during the break, and they'd all developed a greater awareness of the distinction between different profiles. High Risk / High Value was an exciting place to sit, while Low/Low was not as thrilling; but how would that shift in real life?

5.06pm - Client observation. Many clients are pitching strategies they've been considering for a while, but which have been honed by the work today and yesterday. And this isn't just an exercise in examining the new strategies they've thought up recently. Wandering through the room, I'm noticing a lot of Clients are really getting grilled about their whole business (which is an excellent opportunity).

You see, they're not discussing ideas with people who know their business or even understand what they sell. I believe that's a good thing because it means many industry assumptions will be challenged (You know the type - "You can't do that, XYZ tried it in the ‘60s and failed"). The clients in the room are being forced to address some curly questions - how will this affect Culture? What are your opportunities for funding to go faster? Is this too risky? Is this not risky enough?

And the coaches are holding the 'Context' of the different profiles really well. Quote from Queensland coach Tim Dwyer: "Yeah, yeah, I get that this is new. But is it new enough?"

Marc's just given the 2 minute call, and then he'll bring it all back together to wrap up the day. 

Feedback from the clients: "Shows how flexible you have to be"; "The coaches really believed in what we were proposing and helping making it work, even within the profiles they were given".

One table of coaches got confused at one point about which profile they were, resulting in many questions at cross-purposes. A good lesson on what happens when you have a mis-aligned board. 

5.30pm - Key Learnings As always, we've moved onto Key Learnings from the day. As with yesterday, today really pushed into a strategic space focussed on reality for those clients who attended (a point I hadn't explicitly made already - we have a combined group of Shirlaws coaches and their clients for the three days here, which is why it's the 'Client Conference').

My key learning? Alignment - It's not just being aligned on what the strategy is, but why that's the right strategy for you. This incorporates risk profiles, value proposition, cultural base, existing relationships, market position, and more. Many business rush from a great idea into implementation, but it's only by slowing down and taking the time to work through all of those contributing factors that you develop a Strategy designed to be successful to your definition of success.

5.40pm - Other useful lessons:

Brainstorming all options for product and distribution before deciding on one is important.
Different risk profiles affect the value of a business - low risk can limit outcomes and speed, but is less likely to go under if strategy doesn't work. This can be risk profiles for you, your board, your team, your clients, your suppliers, even (especially?) your family.

And so Day 2 comes to a close. Day 3 starts at 9am tomorrow, and I remindyou that the comments section below remains live so any questions or observations you may have about today will be welcome, even encouraged. 

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