Five phases, from the purpose of the business to the market that recognizes it.
Every engagement we accept follows the same sequence, from the first conversation through to the market. Order matters: a phase addressed before its time almost always forces the downstream work to be redone. For that reason we neither compress it nor reorder it on request.
It begins with the purpose of the business and closes when the right market recognizes it. Each step prepares the next, and none is skipped.
Before any discussion of positioning or market, we focus on the reason: why the business exists and what would make it difficult to replace. These are simple questions, and they rarely have a ready answer.
This is the phase many take for granted. When it is absent, every subsequent decision becomes more difficult, because it has no criterion to rest on.
We bring the value proposition into focus, in terms the market understands. Knowing what the business does well is not enough: it has to state which need it answers, and why it merits selection even when it is not the cheapest.
This is what moves the negotiation off the ground of the discount. With a vague proposition, margin is conceded at every renewal, and gradually so is the standing the business holds.
We determine where the business should carry weight, and in whose judgment. Positioning is constructed over time, through consistent choices about what to hold and what to leave to others. An announcement alone does not create it.
Much of the work lies in deciding what to forgo. A recognizable business holds a few territories and defends them, rather than dispersing across everything.
We open relationships in the order that makes them useful. A name introduced at the wrong moment counts for little; the same name, after the work on positioning, opens a door. For that reason the network arrives late in the sequence.
We work within a perimeter we know, in Italy and in the settings we are close to. Proximity allows us to introduce a counterpart with genuine command of the subject.
We accompany the entry into the market and remain until the business is recognized for what it is worth. The launch is only the beginning: what counts is that the position takes hold and endures over the years.
At this point the work of the earlier phases becomes visible. The business enters where it counts with a recognizable position already in place.
Describe it precisely, and we will indicate where to begin.
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