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Dr. William L. Fraser, former Chairman, Managing Director, Kodak Australasia
“We used Michael’s DPV executive education course and its powerful concepts extensively during the 1990s in Kodak, including in Australia as well as many places worldwide. We found it outstanding – in fact one of the very best management courses I’ve ever encountered. It helped us strengthen both our strategies and the leadership of our key teams. I therefore heartily recommend it to any senior leader responsible for general management or business/marketing strategy.”
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Dr. Frederick F. Geyer, CEO V-Brick Systems, former VP Eastman Kodak, and, Senior VP Texas Instruments
“A few years ago my career was profoundly affected by attending Mike Lanning’s seminar. Over the course of a few days, my eyes were opened to a new conceptual framework for discovering profitable growth. I’ve been utilizing his practical methodology ever since those days. My success in transforming businesses is largely based on the new mindset I acquired, the insights I gained, and the tools I learned. “
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Kent Blumberg, CEO Thai Cane Paper Co, Bangkok; former Chief Executive, Pulp & Paper Division, Carter Holt Harvey (CHH), Auckland
“We found the Delivering Profitable Value course immediately useful. I was accompanied by our general managers of marketing, finance, human resources and performance improvement. Bringing such a large team to the course allowed us to quickly make something happen on our return. In our first application of the process, we discovered opportunities to increase value for our customers and ourselves.”
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Dr. Franz B. Humer, Chairman and CEO, Hoffman La Roche, and Former Director, Glaxo Holdings (now Glaxo Wellcome)
“This workshop revitalized the marketing and sales strategies behind our leading product [in Glaxo, Zantac] throughout our subsidiaries around the world. It clearly focused people’s minds on what is important to maintain unprecedented growth of the world’s most successful pharmaceutical product ten years after it was first launched. A number of initiatives developed during the meeting [were] implemented globally by our subsidiary management.”
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Some DPV Evaluations & Comments
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A Systems Technology Division of a high tech company
35 R&D managers designing the basic technology for workstations:
| Question |
% ‘Agree/Strongly Agree’ |
| Content is really valuable for my job |
87% |
| Instructor’s teaching skills/ are excellent |
96% |
| Instructor’s knowledge of the subject is excellent |
100% |
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A Paris-Based European Executives Association – 20 Executives
Average ratings: (4=Completely Agree; 3=Agree; 2=Not Certain; 1=Don’t Agree)
| Course was well organized |
3.29 |
| Teaching aids were useful |
3.29 |
| Handouts were well adapted to the course |
3.14 |
| Instructor was easy to follow |
3.43 |
| Instructor was well prepared |
3.43 |
| Instructor was competent for this course |
3.86 |
| I was inspired by this course |
3.14 |
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5 Divisions of a global manufacturing company
(5 Strongly Agree; 4 Agree; 3 Neutral; 2 Disagree; 1 Strongly Disagree)
| Division: |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
| Overall, quality of course is excellent |
4.55 |
4.36 |
4.13 |
4.43 |
4.47 |
| ..content really valuable for me in my job |
4.82 |
4.59 |
4.41 |
3.93 |
4.53 |
| ..instructor’s teaching skills excellent |
4.55 |
4.41 |
4.06 |
4.75 |
4.40 |
| ..instructor’s knowledge of subject excellent |
4.91 |
4.86 |
4.71 |
4.93 |
4.80 |
| ..will definitely recommend course to others |
4.82 |
4.45 |
4.65 |
4.36 |
4.60 |
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Some responses to, “What aspects of the course did you find most useful?”
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I’ve been taking classes and seminars for over 15 years, here and in my previous company, and this is the best single course I ever had on overall running the business and managing R&D and marketing with a useful customer perspective.
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The concept of “walking in the customer’s shoes” and “customer’s resulting experience” is powerful.
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The hands-on approach. The use of excellent examples of businesses that have been successful or unsuccessful and why. They were current and relevant.
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Real case studies, especially ones related to my industry. The exercises requiring us to work on actual situation. Also the instructor’s excellent knowledge and ability to provide comprehensive, balanced answers.
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Great core concepts!
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Areas that dealt with uncovering the “true” benefits needed by the customer.
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The case studies Southwest Air and FedEx were excellent illustrating the concepts. They were simple, clear, powerful and will be remembered.
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Great anecdotes.
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The concept of looking at the problem as the customer – not asking the customer what he wants.
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The actual industry examples Mike used.
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The case studies are great. Pre-reading was very valuable.
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I received superior value [compared] to other courses. I wish my upper management would take this class, internalize the content, then manage accordingly (i.e., Set the direction based on the Value Proposition and let the organization deliver on it).
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I wouldn’t change a thing unless more time, i.e., an extra day or two. I believe that a half-to-one day follow-up would be worthwhile – 3-6 months after the original class, to check that folks are applying the VP/VDS efficiently.
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Understanding that you need to understand your customers’ business to provide better value
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Very pragmatic – made sense
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Letter from Marketing manager of a Division that took the DPV course
Dear Mike…I wanted to…thank you for the valuable time we spent…and to update you on our progress. You absolutely put us on the right path, and since our meeting we have been able to achieve a full and rugged segmentation. We have documented Value Propositions for each segment and have been working on the skill gaps. In process also is a competitive analysis by segment…Enclosed are the materials I presented at our strategic planning meeting…Needless to say, the analysis and presentation were huge hits. I would like to personally thank you for your help as this will help our organization become Market Focused….Consider me one of your…“prophets” as I am committed to this concept for life.
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