"The best business development tools and techniques for SMEs"
The most successful organisations approach business development and strategy as a discipline they seek to master. Stories of turnarounds at companies like Danfoss and Lego make for inspiring reading.
However, many businesses, particularly SMEs, struggle to reach the same level of mastery in business development as they have neither the resources nor capabilities that tend to be available in bigger companies.
The strategic direction of the business might only live in the CEO’s head, and “business development” might be little more than a desire to grow sales by ten percent over last year. And for SME’s in particular, day-to-day operations and fire-fighting tend to absorb all the available organisational bandwidth and focus, leaving little room or time for stepping back to look at the bigger picture and the longer-term horizon.
DM Strategy helps large and small organisations get more out of their work with business development and strategy.
What we do
At some point in the year, most organisations will tackle one or more of the following challenges:
1. Revising the current business development plan, perhaps in connection with the annual budgeting cycle.
2. Responding to a disruption in the market, for example a new competitor entering the market or two competitors merging.
3. Developing the value proposition for current and future customers, for example as part of a product development program or a marketing campaign.
DM Strategy helps organisations tackle these challenges using the best tools and techniques available.
Many businesses, particularly SMEs don’t have the available resources or the capabilities to get the most from their efforts in situations like this.
DM Strategy brings the skills and toolkit used by the world’s most successful companies to smaller organisations who otherwise might not know even where to start in approaching challenges like these.
DM Strategy helps organisations lift their business development and strategy to the next level.
The DM Business Development Healthcheck enables organisations to fully understand where the main improvement potential in strategy and business development lies.
DM Strategy can then further support organisations as they work towards defining and communicating a more compelling version of where they will compete and how they will win in the market.
About
Philip Baxter is a business developer and strategist with over 20 years’ experience from the consulting, industrial and SME sectors. He founded DM Strategy based on his belief that small and medium sized enterprises have much to gain from using the same business development tools and techniques applied in major industrial companies such as Danfoss.
His firm helps SMEs assess and improve their performance by focussing on the most important aspects of business development.
A native of Manchester, England, Philip has lived and worked in Denmark for the last 22 years and is fluent in the Danish language.
An experienced consultant and facilitator, Philip enjoys the challenge of working with people and organisations to reach and then stretch their potential whether that be senior executives, entrepreneurs or in Sønderborg Triathlon Club where he is an enthusiastic age-grouper.
References
During nine years with Danfoss, Philip Baxter ran strategy and business development processes in multiple business units, and also for Danfoss at the Corporate level.
He has also worked with organisations including ProjectZero, Grundfos, Rockwool, Novo Nordisk, and IBM on a broad range of strategy and communication projects.