Program Descriptions

Leadership – The title of this program is Strategic Leadership for Growth and Innovation. In the opening session we will be presenting an overview of Leadership attitudes and exploring our understanding of what ways of thinking, doing and being serve growth and innovation. We will interactively survey your own expectations of the process and assess the direction of MLI as it relates to your company.

External Intelligence & Supply Chain Management – Understand the concept of external intelligence and how it affects your firm's success, including external information sources. Supply chain concepts are also explored within the context of small and medium-sized firms. Topics include target market positioning and assessment of industry competitors, relationship management, lean supply chain, market trends and changes, and the financial implications of supply chain decisions.

Organizational Culture & Leadership - Leaders can rely on themselves to have all the answers, or they can motivate and energize their workforce to high performance standards, thus leveraging the strengths and synergy of the entire team, and carrying the organization far beyond one person's individual talents. Values-based leadership is the means to creating a high energy, committed workforce that achieves incredible results. Powerful, effective leadership has always been important, but in critical financial periods it is even more important. This class is practical and theoretical, emphasizing and teaching specific behaviors that enhance leadership effectiveness and create a high performance culture so that a company may be best positioned for future growth opportunities.

Invention, Innovation, and Successful Products - The process of innovation management with emphasis on DESIGN FOR VALUE will be covered - i.e., fuzzy front end of New Product Development process. Concepts and tools such as product architecture, product platform, Six Sigma quality, in the context of Design-for-Manufacturability and Customer Value Management will be discussed.

21st Century Marketing and Sales Strategies - Explore the latest marketing and sales strategies to capture new business and increase repeat business from current customers. Small and medium sized businesses have access to a plethora of resources available today that allows them to compete with the big players. Yet, with so many choices, how do you decide what really works and what doesn't for your unique situation? Get the answers you need so you can effectively differentiate your products and solutions in today's hyper competitive and price-driven market. By developing a cohesive marketing and sales approach for your organization, you and your team can win more business, at higher profit margins, and with less effort.

Overview of Accounting and Finance – Develop an appreciation of financial (accounting) information to assist in day-to-day management while learning to read financial statements and analyze a firm's performance.

Strategic Financial Management – Enhance the participants' basic understanding of accounting and finance through financial performance metrics/standards to analyze significant managerial decisions, improve working capital management, prepare plan (or pro-forma) financial statements, and develop strategic financial business plans for individual company "self-valuation."

Vision – The current vision of the enterprise is explored (if one exists) and evaluated on it's capability to define the future and inspire the workers who help achieve that vision. Each attendee participates in a "vision forming exercise" to define and craft a vision for their organization’s growth, test its inspiration and content, and define the pathway to implement it into their organization.

Strategy Development and Strategic Planning – Explore the essential tools for sustained success and long term growth and profitability. Review the current strategy of the enterprise then dynamically reorient its direction based on the latest external and internal assumptions, and available company resources. Create a vision for growth, using strategic tools conducive to a small to medium sized business. Learn how to design a strategy that aligns with limited organizational resources which meets the company's current needs and positions itself for the next stage of growth, while managing potential barriers to growth, measuring against key financial criteria and success factors, and developing and implementing an action program to ensure positive results.

Human Capital and Change Management – How does change occur in your organization? How do you achieve buy-in among long time employees who 'have always done it this way'? From recruitment through retention and training, we will examine how a business culture is born and nurtured. Many of you accepted the culture you inherited, irrespective of the source. It doesn’t have to be that way. Design your own culture. Think about the possibilities for the bottom line.

Communicating Leadership and Company Growth Direction – Enable the emerging leaders in this program to highlight their action plans to realign and redirect their leadership efforts toward a more successful growth strategy for their organization (as part of the final project for this program). Based on the material covered in the program, a public presentation and feedback session will allow participants to take the first steps toward articulating a new vision for growth and to lay out an action plan which achieves it through resource and management alignment and innovative leadership.