Research & Consulting
Whether it's fast answers to simple questions or detailed analyses of complex scenarios, the Playmakers offer a spectrum of strategy management research and consulting services.
Playmaker Consultations™
On the Line, Online or On-Site
Standard-certified consultants work with you and your team to break down the moves and motives of friends, foes and fence-sitters, build action-and-reaction scenarios, and put you in control of marketplace discussions.
The individual types of Playmaker Consultations™ we offer:
- Playmaker's On-Call™
- Adaptive Positioning™
- Reputation Management
- Crisis Management
Playmaker Wargames™
Simulate the Strategy, Play the Game
Wargaming has long been a best practice for boardroom and battlefield planning. But in the influence industries – i.e. marketing, sales, advertising, public relations, public affairs, lobbying, political campaigning – this was an untenable notion.
Why?
Because the battlefield had never been mapped. The game pieces had yet been discovered. And the irreducible components of influence – a.k.a., the moves that a player could make during a product launch or marketing campaign – were not yet defined. But that is now changed.
Playmaker Wargames allow you to:
- Simulate and stress-test influence strategies for advancing initiatives and launching products.
- Game-out prepared plays and platforms in support of announcements.
And answer questions such as:
- What sequences and combinations of plays are best employed to develop, drive and legitimize.
- What stakeholders will support your team? What plays will they run to help you?
- What stakeholders are detractors. What plays will they run to hinder you?
- How will you use detractors as foils, i.e., to alter/improve the positioning and perception of your brand and supporting solutions?
- What best practices will guarantee success?
Just as an airplane goes through numerous test cycles – consisting of engineers, mechanics, air-traffic controllers, pilots and crew – to ensure a successful first flight, the same can now be said about product launches and influence-based campaigns.
Playmaker Wargames are held on-site or at a location of a client's choosing and last between one and three days. They bring together an organization's best minds and knit together the collective expertise of the various divisions and departments that support your initiative.
Influence Strategy Audit
Preparing the Playmaker
To determine the optimal offering of Playmaker services, Standard-certified consultants conduct an audit of a client's competitive readiness, collaborative capacity, organizational capability, resources and policies. These are questions we seek to answer:
- What are your key competitive threats and opportunities?
- How can we collaborate with like-minded players?
- Where in the org chart is help needed most?
- Where do you require training and support?
- What is your ability to analyze and run plays?
- What are the best formats and means for receiving Playmaker services?
Audits are performed through a series of approved telephone or in-person interviews of key managers and executives and a review of existing methods for tracking and analyzing movements in the client's marketplace.