Phase 1: Define Your Starting Point

Before you define where you are headed, it is important to understand where you are coming from. We start our process with an assessment of your organization – who are you, how is your business performing (internally and externally) and what are today’s market opportunities that could influence your end goal. Questions we will ask your organization include the following.

• Why does your organization exist and what are you trying to achieve?

• What do you sell and who are your customers?

• Who are your main competitors and how are you stacking up against these other businesses?

• What is your story and how is it being communicated to customers?  

• What is your internal DNA – organizational values and culture – and how is this impacting your business?

• Are there any opportunities in the market that could benefit your organization over the next 5 years?

Our goal is to identify many of the components - your organizational strengths, market opportunities, potential obstacles and gaps that will need to be addressed – that could impact your vision of where you are going and how you will get there.

Phase 2: Design Your Destination

After understanding our starting point, we next focus on defining where you are going – what does your vision look like and what are the goals that support this vision? How will this growth impact your team, customers and other stakeholders? Does this new vision reflect your current mission and core values? As we define the goals, we focus on the “why’s” to ensure that we are defining the goals and not the strategies to get you there. We also want these goals to be achievable in the specified time frame yet big enough to move your organization forward.

Next, we identify the strategies your team would like to employ to achieve the goals. We want to make sure that we are incorporating the components identified in Phase 1 – building on the company’s strengths, capitalizing on market opportunities and showcasing your unique story and brand – to set your organization up for success.

Phase 3: Chart Your Course

Once we define your beginning and end points, we assist in charting the route to move your organization to its future destination. We work with your team to identify actionable steps required to complete each strategy and ensure that each step includes the following - assigned responsibility, completion date, metrics for measuring success, and resources (funding, human capital, or other) needed for execution.

We then organize the steps into a road map. Our goal is to arrange the tasks so that they build off the successes of previous achievements, ultimately creating momentum on your path to achieve your larger end goal. At each milestone, we define what your business will look like – increased revenue, increased attendance, improved customer loyalty – to ensure that each outcome is contributing to the final vision. We also identify quick wins to get you started and contingency plans to help you overcome obstacles that could impede your forward movement. 

Navigating Your Journey

Of course, sometimes you may need a little help as you move towards your end goal.  No worries, we’ve got your back!  Whether it’s helping to track and manage progress, preparing for upcoming pitches, assembling a team to design your next attraction or even just acting as an advisor to help toss around some ideas, we are here to help your team along the way.

While our experience has been focused on attractions, tourism destinations and guest experience operations, the principles of our process are transferrable to other businesses focused on creating exceptional experiences for both their employees and their customers.