Kai Method is not a firm, but rather a methodology that helps unlock the innovative power of our clients’ people. We offer four types of services:
- Seminars
- Hands-on strategy workshops
- Consulting
- Executive coaching
- Strategy Analytics
Seminars
Our team organizes and delivers a set of unique workshops designed to help companies and their managers become more creative, innovative, and strategic. Combining art and science, left-brain and right-brain approaches, our practical methodology draws on our experience designing innovative strategies across sectors and markets. We conduct open-enrollment workshops for audiences of between 30 and 100 managers and entrepreneurs. We regularly deliver these throughout the U.S., Asia, and Latin America. We work with partners such as Harvard Business Review, EO, SHRM, and YPO, and conduct in-house programs for clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and Colgate-Palmolive.
Hands-on strategy workshops
After gathering competitive and market intelligence, we apply a proprietary strategy-design methodology during a one to three-day off-site workshop to help management rapidly agree on an aspiration, conceive of strategic options, and reach “strategic clarity” so that they know what they must focus on to win.
Off-site clients include Hewlett Packard, Fidelity Investments, Tradestation, Abiomed, and Right Management, among others.
Case study: a division of a major multinational was struggling to accelerate growth. As its service was being commoditized by new competitors, the division found it increasingly difficult to differentiate itself. We conducted a one-day off-site during which the leadership team generated over 50 new ways to disrupt their competition. One of these proved to be a "winning move" which tripled revenues within three years. The division's leaders were soon recognized by their global peers as innovators.
Executive Consulting
We apply our methodology over a long term to help ensure that the ideas unlocked by our workshops unlock deliver tangible, bottom-line results. We walk clients through each phase of innovation, removing the mental barriers that hinder their potential, and thereby open up new growth.
Consulting clients include Microsoft, Fidelity Investments, and the Trade Station Group, among others.
Case study: a mid-sized pharmaceutical company was facing flat growth held down by deteriorating regulatory and competitive environments. We involved nearly 100 employees in a process to generate new growth options, prioritize the highest-potential ones, develop execution plans, and build a tracking system to continually monitor progress. The company focused on the product-market segments in which it could win, partnered to expand production capabilities abroad, and began growing faster than the market.
Coaching
We apply our methodology to help individuals build their capacity to drive innovation and to help them discover new ways to overcome challenges at work, inside their firms, and in their careers. We guide clients through the process of generating new openings and transforming them into reality. Our coaching programs are focused not only on helping clients realize an exciting new innovation but also on simultaneously expanding their ability to consistently and rapidly generate valuable innovations.
Our coaching clients include executives from a variety of our corporate clients as well as numerous individuals and entrepreneurs.
Case study: the former business head of a multi-million dollar consumer-products business, a major division of a publicly-traded firm, had recently accepted early retirement after his business was purchased by another firm. After several months exploring how to spend his retirement, he decided he wanted to return to the job force. Through the Kai Method he clarified a new long-term vision for his “second career,” identified 50+ tactics that would lead to a new career, and from these executed five specific opportunities to reinvent his career.
Strategy Analytics
Our strategy consultants help clients identify and analyze the data needed to make informed, fact based, mission critical decisions, drawing on statistical modeling expertise and econometric tools. By combining quantitative methods with creative strategy we offer clients innovative solutions to business challenges.
Strategy Analytics clients include Fortune Brands, Kellogg, and Tyco International, among others.
Case study: a large consumer brands manufacturer & distributor was facing regulatory review of a key acquisition in their spirits division. We used econometric models of consumer behavior to analyze sales data in the industry to assess the competitive effects of the acquisition. By taking into account differences in geographic markets as well as adjusting for seasonal variations we were able to show there would be limited impact to consumers if the acquisition went through. The regulatory agency agreed with our analysis and the acquisition passed review. This lead to a 20% increase in operating profits for our client.
