What Is the Business Performance Engine (BPE)?
The BPE comes in two dominant halves. The first half depicts thirty Drivers of firm valuation not from just a finance viewpoint but from strategy, execution, innovation, customer, people and risk management viewpoints. The Drivers cover much more as well. These Drivers have some academic support but mostly rely on my almost forty years in the field as a strategy consultant. Thirty Drivers may seem like a lot, but in my view they are the “minimum necessary and sufficient” things required to grow the market value of the for-profit firm. But as you will learn, your firm will usually work only on two to five of the Drivers at any point in time. More on why will learn about all of the thirty Drivers in this course below.
The second half depicts fifteen Dimensions of your firm’s external environments, covering a variety of external constituencies. These Dimensions sum to give you a picture of your firm’s Environmental Carrying Capacity(ECC). This is the degree to which your external competitive space allows all competitors to grow and thrive together or just the opposite – the degree to which your competitive space has been subsumed by Darwinian “survival-of-the-fittest” tactics. The fifteen dimensions of your ECC can change in as little as every eighteen months – or less. This time frame is crucial for the dynamic part of the BPE. Most other depictions of the external environment, except for customer behavior, cause time spans, which are much greater than eighteen months. We find this eighteen-month drumbeat is critical for strategic management to today’s world.
The key to the BPE is to align which Driver(s) are most critical given the changing nature of the Dimensions of the ECC. This is the truly dynamic part of the BPE. As you will learn, a certain configuration of the Dimensions of your ECC will strongly suggest which Drivers are the most important for the next eighteen months. Then all of this can change again. So there is a lot here. But the dynamic alignment aspect allows you to work on the two to five most critical Drivers at a given time to grow the market value of your firm or client.
Why then should we learn all of the thirty Drivers? Here is a key finding from my years in the field and academic research: the typical for-profit firm will spend from ten to fifteen years on its innovation and growth journey. We will depict your firm’s innovation and growth journey along the “4Bs” continuum. These are Getting Better, Bigger, Broader and Bolder. In the dynamic movement from Getting Better, to Getting Bigger, to Getting Broader, to Getting Bolder, your firm will end up working on all of the Drivers. Better to have the bird’s eye view of all of the Drivers now. And some visionary firms who can execute well will move faster to the Getting Bolder stance as they create their future as opposed to reacting to external changes and customer demands. This is rare but can happen as we see from Medtronic, Danaher, Amazon, Google and others.
The course will describe and define each of these Drivers and Dimensions, give examples, offer discussion and then you will have a small weekly optional assignment to apply to your firm or a current or recent client.
Who Will Benefit From Taking This Course?
- This is a comprehensive and thus an advanced framework. It is for what I like to call “practically rigorous” executives, managers and consultants. While many times actions happen quickly within the dynamics of the BPE, those liking only quick fixes or even fads will not like the BPE.
- Thus, senior strategy professionals in firms or senior strategy consultants will be most able to use the material immediately. However, younger strategy professionals or those who desire to be strategy professionals are most welcome. I would be glad to work with such participants pro bono outside of the scheduled sessions if they would like to make sure they do not feel swamped.
- So ideally participants should have an undergraduate degree in business with an MBA being preferable. A minimum of three years of work experience using strategy frameworks and tools and/or ten years of work experience, in general, would be preferable as well.
- By strategy professional, I mean anyone who is charged with using strategy and its offshoots in securing superior firm performance. These professionals can be the CEO, members of the top management team, key managers, mergers and acquisitions, valuation, and investment professionals, attorneys and others vested in the field of strategic management.
What We Will Do In the Course Each Week:
- The course will be a fifteen-week 100% online course. Each week you will view a five to twelve-minute video made by me on a few of the Drivers and Dimensions of the ECC at a time. Thus we will build the course and the Business Performance Engine like a puzzle.
- During any week, you can come and go to the course any time that fits your schedule. Thus there is no fixed time the course “meets”.
- There will be a short optional “assignment” for that week and you will interface with that week’s lesson on Survey Monkey and perhaps other online means for the assignment. Here you will apply that week’s learning to your firm or a current or recent client.
- We will use what is considered the best Learning Management System to deliver the course online.
- We can communicate via online chats and conversations about that week’s learning and how that week’s learning applies to your firm or client if you desire. If confidentiality is key, you can discuss using no names or code names.
- Total time per week: about thirty minutes if you do the optional homework assignments and about five to twelve minutes a week if you only have time to view the video conversations.
- At the end of the fifteen weeks, those who complete each week will receive a Certificate of Completion.
- The course will be completely free for you to attend, except for a total of about 3 hours if you do not have the time to do the optional assignments or about 7 hours of your time and energy over the fifteen-week period if you do the assignments. If you miss a week, you can go back to it, as prior weeks will be left open in the Learning Management System.
- Finally, you can leave the course at any time if it is not meeting your needs.
Who Is Bill Bigler Your Course Leader?
- I have authored over forty blog length articles here on LinkedIn about the things that grow the market value of the for-profit firm. Some of you have made nice contributions with comments that have strengthened my learning greatly.
- I am a retired tenured associate professor of strategy and MBA Program Director. I have taught the capstone MBA course in strategy to over 1300 MBAs over the years. I also spent twenty-five years in strategy consulting at firms like PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Ernst and Young, Thomas Group and my own boutique, Southwest Management Consultants, among others, before starting Bill Bigler Associates.
- Some people consider me a master teacher and my MBA strategy course usually received very high marks. I think you will like my style, interest in your learning, application of the learning and the like. The lectures will be lively and upbeat, with some of my goofy humor.
- If you would like to read some Testimonials about me in my role as a strategy consultant, please check About Us – Welcome and Testimonials.
What To Do Now If You Want to Participate:
Please sign up here by clicking this link (and then click inside the box) to the application form in Survey Monkey by June 15, 2018:
If we get at least twenty qualified participants, I will make the investment in putting the course up on the best current online Learning Management System to aid our communication and learning and hire a great resource to help manage the online course. If the course makes, we will start the first week in July 2018.
If you have any questions, please reply here on Linked In or email me at bill@billbigler.com. Or call me on 214-284-6006.
I look forward to working with each of you who desire to participate.