When:
Thursday, July 01, 2010 from 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM (GMT)

Where:
Castle Hill House
Castle Hill
SL4 1PD Windsor And Maidenhead
United Kingdom

Hosted By:
Erudyte Ltd

Erudyte Ltd is proud to bring to our clients, Rainmakers who have had hands on experience as being leaders, delivered on their goals and now share a vision to create a better world.

Our Rainmakers are driven by a deep passion towards making a measurable, significant and permanent difference in the world and are therefore people who have all made things happen – people who have brought an edge of demonstrable value into an organisational environment.

They do this by imparting their knowledge through popular methods such as speaking, consulting, training and one to ones or a seamless programme working alongside existing training schedules, consulting processes or conference events.

Rainmakers will take you and your organisation
to the edge – beyond the boundaries!

Register for this event now at :
http://maxblumberg-rss.eventbrite.com

Event Details:

Rainmaker Thursday:

Implementing Multinational Sales Forces to Maximise Global Sales.

Thought Leader:
Rainmaker – Dr Max Blumberg. 

Corporate Advisor extraordinaire and Statistician. Max began in Accenture before he founded and successfully exited a technology start-up and then went on to complete his Ph.D. Max is a corporate advisor to Senior Level Executive, C-Suite and board members using evidence-based programmes.

Cost: All refreshments and lunch are included. If you are multi-booking, you may be entitled to a group discount.  Please contact Chris on 0 845 0941044 for further details.

All prices listed above exclude VAT.

Next step – book now: Places are very limited so click the button now to secure your place.  Alternatively, this can be delivered in-house and tailored if required.

Rainmaker Thursday
Value 2.0 The Next Level -

- Thick Value or Creative Destruction?

Date: 6th May 2010

Venue: Castle Hill House, Windsor.

‘Adding Value’ is fast becoming an over used, worn out corporate buzz word and it could be damaging your organisation.  It’s taking some organisations to crisis point – especially those that are not even aware of it’s true nature.

Simply ‘Adding Value’ is no longer enough to get the attraction you desire.

Consider:

• After pulling your belt in for over a year are you sure you are not on the extinct list or can you rebuild and flourish?
• Has pulling in your belt over the last 6 months killed your next big thing?

Every day it seems yet another product or service is being labelled as ’added value’ and laying claims that it’s now better than ever before or better than its rival!  But lets really think about this… what IS the difference between one ’new added value’ offering  to another? How would your organisation’s value truly stand up to comparisons?

• Research has shown that many customers think value is intrinsictly linked to money either as a ‘how much can I get for my money’ or ‘How little can I pay for this?’ stance.
• ‘Value’, in the opinion of some, has turned into the ‘Spam’ phrase of the corporate advertising, marketing and PR collateral as well as some of the corporate thinking and strategy.
• Somehow ‘value’ seems to have become lost along the way as more people view ‘added value’ as a standard that a company should be offereing and thereby no longer a true added value!

So how do you do something which is better than others and more importantly seen to be better, valued to be better and talked about as being the best?

As rainmaker Gary Sage said in a recent interview:

“The global financial storm has produced a global shift in awareness, not only have the rules changed – future sustainable business will need to understand that there is a new value equation out there – value 2.0 if you wish – achieving great performance will depend on truly understanding how to deliver and support this value.”

This session is for those wanting to understand the future of ‘Value’ today and it’s impact to organisations before it arrives!  Do Not underestimate the value of ‘Value’!

To be held under Chatham House Rule

Thought Leader:

Rainmaker – Gary Sage of SageHagan.

Gary Sage is a ‘Super Skiller’.  He is a gifted consultant and Communications Coach whose personal clients span the globe.  Gary has coached and conducted seminars and workshops on five continents to thousands of people and successfully taken his unique methodology into organisations from as diverse a background of; international banks to luxury goods manufacturers to multinational computer companies, to sole traders.

Cost: All refreshments and lunch are included. If you are multi-booking, you may be entitled to a group discount.  Please contact Chris on 0 845 0941044 for further details.

All prices listed above exclude VAT.

Next step – book now: Places are very limited so click the button now to secure your place.  Alternatively, this can be delivered in-house and tailored if required.

Rainmaker Dialogue:
How to Get Great Performance Using
Social Media in the Corporate World.

Do you Need to do any of the following:

• Increase innovation and creativity
• Improve efficieny
• Create environments where staff can learn from each other

Business as usual?

• Do your managers know how to manage the internet generation?
• Will you attract the brightest new recruits and would you know where to find them online?
• Are your IT department enablers or gatekeepers and how much do they cost?

Driven by the networked communication, tools are flourishing on the web. Tools like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Not only is the way we communicate with those who benefit from our services are changing but also how we organise ourselves will be changed forever.

These changes mean business and they represent exciting opportunities to ensure that business is never the same again!

Forget the word “social” – what is happening now is a fundamental revolution in how we conduct business and sell products. Networks have always been around but the internet puts them on steroids.

Come and spend the day with Euan and leave with the answers on how to:

Give you competitive advantage in your industry by making you better informed about your customers and their needs
Make you better at running your own business by knowing what’s working, what isn’t and how to improve it
Give you the best chance you have ever had of being understood by your organisation and able to lead them effectively

This seminar will be held under Chatham House Rule

Thought Leader: Rainmaker -Euan Semple.
Euan Semple is a leading authority on the use of social media in organisations. He gained unparalleled experience as Director of Knowledge Management at the BBC. He was one of the first to introduce what have since become known as social media tools into a large, successful organisation. Euan hans since taken his knowledge to other large organisations, working with them and helping them learn how to make the most of this wired-up world of work.

Cost: Costs include light lunch and all refreshements. All prices are listed above and ex VAT. Discounts maybe available on multiple bookings. Please call for info.

Next step – book now: Places are limited as it is preferable to keep discussions to a small group, so please book using the above form or call 08450941044 now to speak to Chris and book your place. Secure payment can be taken over the phone, or an invoice can be raised if you prefer.

When:
Thursday, February 11, 2010 from 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM (GMT)

Where:
Castle Hill House
Castle Hill
SL4 1PD Windsor And Maidenhead
United Kingdom

Hosted By:
Erudyte Ltd

Erudyte Ltd is proud to bring to our clients, Rainmakers who have had hands on experience as being leaders, delivered on their goals and now share a vision to create a better world.

Our Rainmakers are driven by a deep passion towards making a measurable, significant and permanent difference in the world and are therefore people who have all made things happen – people who have brought an edge of demonstrable value into an organisational environment.

They do this by imparting their knowledge through popular methods such as speaking, consulting, training and one to ones or a seamless programme working alongside existing training schedules, consulting processes or conference events.

Rainmakers will take you and your organisation
to the edge – beyond the boundaries!

Register for this event now at :
http://erudyte-rss.eventbrite.com

Event Details:

Getting The Next 5%: and the next and the next…

A One Day Seminar for Senior Executives

To be held under Chatham House Rule.

11th February 2010, the Boardroom, Castle Hill House, Windsor

Great companies:

• embrace continual improvement
• compete and thrive
• grow and consolidate

Great managers:

• have a strong grasp of their business levers
• demonstrate consistent delivery of best-in-class KPIs
• show understanding and control of their business drivers
• relentlessly drive new levels of performance
• have strong allies among stakeholders

 At this seminar (under the watchful eye of Gordon Lovell-Read) you will:

• discuss methods and processes used by some of the most successful start up companies and conglomerates 
• learn to apply the tips and tools which helped to successfully lead businesses from startup through to exit
• learn to grow an organisation into a household name
• absorb the same tips and tools that helped to successfully manage 435,000 employees across 161 countries
• learn to deploy mission critical projects
• learn how Gordon managed to reduce budgets by over a billion whilst keeping the workforce happy and ‘on side’

NB Most seminars usually provide the basics, others have a bit more information. This seminar however will be providing the equivalent of advanced methods and practice as used by someone well used to improving organisations, irrespective of size. 

This seminar will be held under Chatham House Rule

Thought Leader: Gordon Lovell-Read – CEO of Orgmentor

Who for: This Seminar will be of value to Senior Executives working towards building a better future for their organisation and wanting to be the leaders in their field.   

Cost: Erudyte Ltd are pleased to be able to offer this at £498 per person.  All refreshments and lunch included.

Next step – book now: Places are limited as it is preferable to keep discussions to a small group, so call    0845 094 1044    now to speak to Chris and book your place.  Secure payment can be taken over the phone, or an invoice can be raised if you prefer.

Early stage venture capital is by definition milestone based investing. The entrepreneur raises enough capital to get to a significantly different place with his or her business and both the entrepreneur and the investor hope that the next round will be done at a significantly higher price that reflects the progress made.

This is one of the main reasons why I think early stage venture capital is a much less risky form of investing than many outsiders think. Most experienced venture capital investors scale the dollars invested in a startup such that they don’t have much capital at risk when the investment is the most speculative and they increase the capital invested as the risk is mitigated.

But sometimes investors get too cute with this milestone based investing approach and try to build that into the investment round itself. This is called “tranched investing” and serial entrepreneur Chris Dixon has a post on it this morning.

I agree with Chris that tranched investing is a bad idea all around. But first, let me explain how it works.

The entrepreneur will agree to raise a set amount of money, let’s call it $3mm for a set amount of equity, let’s say it is 25% of the company ($9mm pre, $12mm post). If it is three tranches, then $1mm will come in at the first closing and the entrepreneur will dilute 8.33% (1/3 of 25%). There will be a set of agreed upon milestones set in advance. Let’s say tranche two milestone is the shipping of a product and tranche three is the first contracted revenue for that product. When each of those milestones is hit, the investors will invest the second and third $1mm tranches and the entire round will be completed and the full 25% dilution will have been taken.

Let’s be honest and see this as what it is. It’s an option for the investor to put more money in at the old price as the investment increases in value and the risk is mitigated. It’s a bad deal for the entrepreneur and a great deal for the investor.

But as Chris explains, there are other problems with this approach:

Milestones change anyway:  At the early stage you often realize that what milestones you originally thought were important actually were the wrong milestones.   So you either have to renegotiate the milestones or the entrepreneur ends up targeting the wrong things just to get the money.
The idea that you are going to hard wire the key goals of an early stage company is nutty. The best entrepreneurs weave and bob their way into the market, changing things as they go. Setting hard goals is a mistake early on in the life of a company.

The idea behind tranching is right which is to limit the capital at risk (and the dilution) until the business increases in value and risk is mitigated. The right way to do this is raise smaller rounds more frequently and negotiate the prices of each financing as the round is done.

via Milestone Based Investing.

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When:
Thursday, February 11, 2010 from 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM (GMT)

Where:
Castle Hill House
Castle Hill
SL4 1PD Windsor And Maidenhead
United Kingdom

Hosted By:
Erudyte Ltd

Erudyte Ltd is proud to bring to our clients, Rainmakers who have had hands on experience as being leaders, delivered on their goals and now share a vision to create a better world.

Our Rainmakers are driven by a deep passion towards making a measurable, significant and permanent difference in the world and are therefore people who have all made things happen – people who have brought an edge of demonstrable value into an organisational environment. They do this by imparting their knowledge through popular methods such as speaking, consulting, training and one to ones or a seamless programme working alongside existing training schedules, consulting processes or conference events.

Rainmakers will take you and your organisation
to the edge – beyond the boundaries!

Register for this event now at :
http://erudyte-rss.eventbrite.com

Event Details:

Getting The Next 5%: and the next and the next…

A One Day Seminar for Senior Executives

To be held under Chatham House Rule.

11th February 2010, the Boardroom, Castle Hill House, Windsor

Great companies:

• embrace continual improvement
• compete and thrive
• grow and consolidate

Great managers:

• have a strong grasp of their business levers
• demonstrate consistent delivery of best-in-class KPIs
• show understanding and control of their business drivers
• relentlessly drive new levels of performance
• have strong allies among stakeholders

 At this seminar (under the watchful eye of Gordon Lovell-Read) you will:

• discuss methods and processes used by some of the most successful start up companies and conglomerates 
• learn to apply the tips and tools which helped to successfully lead businesses from startup through to exit
• learn to grow an organisation into a household name
• absorb the same tips and tools that helped to successfully manage 435,000 employees across 161 countries
• learn to deploy mission critical projects
• learn how Gordon managed to reduce budgets by over a billion whilst keeping the workforce happy and ‘on side’

NB Most seminars usually provide the basics, others have a bit more information. This seminar however will be providing the equivalent of advanced methods and practice as used by someone well used to improving organisations, irrespective of size. 

This seminar will be held under Chatham House Rule

Thought Leader: Gordon Lovell-Read – CEO of Orgmentor

Who for: This Seminar will be of value to Senior Executives working towards building a better future for their organisation and wanting to be the leaders in their field.   

Cost: Erudyte Ltd are pleased to be able to offer this at £498 per person.  All refreshments and lunch included.

Next step – book now: Places are limited as it is preferable to keep discussions to a small group, so call    0845 094 1044    now to speak to Chris and book your place.  Secure payment can be taken over the phone, or an invoice can be raised if you prefer.

When:
Thursday, February 04, 2010 from 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM (GMT)

Where:
Castle Hill House
Castle Hill
Windsor And Maidenhead, SL4 1PD
United Kingdom

Hosted By:
Erudyte Ltd

Erudyte Ltd is proud to bring to our clients, Rainmakers who have had hands on experience as being leaders, delivered on their goals and now share a vision to create a better world.

Our Rainmakers are driven by a deep passion towards making a measurable, significant and permanent difference in the world and are therefore people who have all made things happen – people who have brought an edge of demonstrable value into an organisational environment. They do this by imparting their knowledge through popular methods such as speaking, consulting, training and one to ones or a seamless programme working alongside existing training schedules, consulting processes or conference events.

Rainmakers will take you and your organisation
to the edge – beyond the boundaries!

Register for this event now at :
http://erudyte-rss.eventbrite.com

Event Details:

A One Day Seminar for Senior Executives and Managers.

To be held under Chatham House Rule.

4th February 2010, the Boardroom, Castle Hill House, Windsor

Great Companies embrace continual improvement to survive, compete and thrive. Great managers have a strong grasp of their business levers and demonstrate consistent delivery of best-in-class KPIs. Those that relentlessly drive new levels of performance find strong allies among stakeholders.

This seminar is your opportunity to discuss methods and processes as used by some of the most successful conglomerates under the watchful eye of Gordon Lovell-Read. Learn his tips and tools which helped him to successfully grow start up businesses successfully to exit.  He also used the same tips and tools to successfully manage 435,000 employees across 161 countries deploying mission critical projects that could bring a country to a stand still if executed incorrectly and yet still manage to reduce budgets by over a billion without upsetting the workforce!

The seminar will cover and discuss:

• How to identify the waste which is masquerading as value
• Where to find new levels of productivity which is often overlooked
• Mission critical thinking and operation execution
• Complex processes : How increasing complexity can reduce costs
• Tried and tested methods tips and tools for finding 5% more business
• Explore how your organisation processes can be improved
• Consultancy process stripping methods strategy – do they really work?
• Reflect on issues which are costing your organisation

This seminar will be held under Chatham House Rule

Thought Leader:

Gordon Lovell-Read – CEO of Orgmentor & former Group CIO of Siemens.

Finding The Next 5% will give you the knowledge of new ways of increasing productivity as well as acutal tools and tips all backed with practical and actual examples.

This Seminar will be of value to Senior Managers and Executives involved in working towards outcome engineering the future of their organisation to be the leaders in their field.  It will also benefit those managers and executives who are tasked in managing and administrating shared services.

Cost: With special thanks to The Speakers Company & Sage Hagan, and their sponsorship of the event, Erudyte Ltd are pleased to be able to offer this at the reduced cost of £498 + VAT per person (should have been £2,875pp).  All refreshments and lunch included.

Next Step: Places are limited as it is preferable to keep discussions to a small group, so call 0845 094 1044 now to speak to Chris and book your place.  Secure payment can be taken over the phone, or an invoice can be raised if you prefer.

Sponsored by:

Finding The Next 5% -

What would an extra 5% mean to your business?

Time: 09:30 – 16:00 hrs
Date: 4th Febraury 2010

The Boardroom,
Castle Hill House,
Castle Hill, Windsor,
Berkshire
SL4 1PD

This seminar to be held under Chatham House Rule

Great Companies embrace continual improvement to survive, compete and thrive. Great managers have a strong grasp of their business levers and demonstrate consistent delivery of best-in-class KPIs. Those that relentlessly drive new levels of performance find strong allies among stakeholders.

This seminar is your opportunity to discuss methods and processes as used by some of the most successful conglomerates under the watchful eye of Gordon Lovell-Read. Learn his tips and tools which helped him to successfully grow start up businesses successfully to exit.

Gordon has also used the same tips and tools to successfully manage 435,000 employees across 161 countries deploying mission critical projects that could bring a country to a stand still if executed incorrectly and yet still manage to reduce budgets by over a billion without upsetting the workforce!

The seminar will cover and discuss:

• How to identify the waste which is masquerading as value
• Where to find new levels of productivity which is often overlooked
• Mission critical thinking and operation execution
• Complex processes : How increasing complexity can reduce costs
• Tried and tested methods tips and tools for finding 5% more business
• Explore how your organisation processes can be improved
• Consultancy process stripping methods strategy – do they really work?
• Reflect on issues which are costing your organisation

This seminar to be held under Chatham House Rule

Sign Up Now

About Gordon:

Gordon Lovell-Read – CEO of Orgmentor & former Group CIO of Siemens.

During Gordon’s thirty-five years in business, he has led or been part of, many global business transformation programmes to intercept, or outpace, significant market shifts. Most of these journeys have been in mission critical and/or regulated high volume business environments involving large, multi-year high-risk programmes and projects.

In parallel, Gordon is also working with Boston University, the Institution of Global Work and a selection of global IT leaders to define the next generation models for global distributed business operations.

About Your Day

Finding The Next 5% will give you the knowledge of new ways of increasing productivity as well as actual tools and tips all backed with practical and actual examples.

This Seminar will be of value to Senior Managers and Executives involved in working towards outcome engineering the future of their organisation to be the leaders in their field. It will also benefit those managers and executives who are tasked in managing and administrating shared services.

Cost: With special thanks to our sponsors of the event, Erudyte Ltd are pleased to be able to offer this at the reduced cost of £498 + VAT per person (normally £2,875pp). All refreshments and lunch included.

Next Step: Places are limited as it is preferable to keep discussions to a small group, so call 0845 094 1044 now to speak to Chris and book your place. Secure payment can be taken over the phone, or an invoice can be raised if you prefer.

Sign Up Now

Rainmaker Days are a new concept from Erudyte following feed back from their clients and the clients from their The Speakers Company subsidiary. 

What was said was that numerous organisations, whilst they enjoyed and learned from speakers who were at the top of their industries, wanted more from the speaker and a closer engagement with the speakers’ experience and expertise to benefit their companies.

Given that that engagement could be consultancy, training, mentoring, tutoring, brain dumping with the CEO or board or other activities it is very hard to describe the offering succinctly.  Equally few board members will admit that their skills and knowledge could be improved on especially within their organisations even when things are not going that well.  Reasons can always be found for why things are as they are but it takes foresight not to mention bravery to ask if things could be (even) better and what it would take to bring that about.

For us one obvious route is to engage with someone who has “been there, done that, had the T shirt” and proved it time and time again on an international stage. 
As an executive you might not want to admit that you had been talking with such a person but if that discussion could be held discreetly, for example under The Chatham House Rule, might great benefits not be possible?

Lets face it your HR or Training department are hardly going to suggest to the boss that he needed upskilling or advice  even if they knew what those skills looked like.

What came out of all this was the realisation that if we selected some of our brightest and best – “The Rainmakers” and allowed them to host a small group (max 16) for a day, (with refreshments of course to keep brains up to speed) in a discreet and secure environment at a fraction of the normal price as an way of engaging with a rainmaker to experience both the process and quality, whether or not it lead to something more long term, this could be an attractive idea.

So was born the “Rainmaker Day” the next one is on 4th February 2010 and the thought leader that day is Gordon Lovell Read.  We have launched a new Rainmaker site (www.rainmakerscompany.com) where you can not only see more details about the Rainmakers but read their thoughts and blogs (feel free to respond or contribute) as well as news feeds relevant to the C-Suite and Boards.

If this sounds too good to miss one can book online at www.erudyte.eventbrite.com or Telephone Chris at Erudyte on 0845 094 1044.

Gary Sage :

Early stage venture capital is by definition milestone based investing. The entrepreneur raises enough capital to get to a significantly different place with his or her business and both the entrepreneur and the investor hope that the next round will be done at a significantly higher price that reflects the progress made.

This is one of the main reasons why I think early stage venture capital is a much less risky form of investing than many outsiders think. Most experienced venture capital investors scale the dollars invested in a startup such that they don’t have much capital at risk when the investment is the most speculative and they increase the capital invested as the risk is mitigated.

But sometimes investors get too cute with this milestone based investing approach and try to build that into the investment round itself. This is called “tranched investing” and serial entrepreneur Chris Dixon has a post on it this morning.

I agree with Chris that tranched investing is a bad idea all around. But first, let me explain how it works.

The entrepreneur will agree to raise a set amount of money, let’s call it $3mm for a set amount of equity, let’s say it is 25% of the company ($9mm pre, $12mm post). If it is three tranches, then $1mm will come in at the first closing and the entrepreneur will dilute 8.33% (1/3 of 25%). There will be a set of agreed upon milestones set in advance. Let’s say tranche two milestone is the shipping of a product and tranche three is the first contracted revenue for that product. When each of those milestones is hit, the investors will invest the second and third $1mm tranches and the entire round will be completed and the full 25% dilution will have been taken.

Let’s be honest and see this as what it is. It’s an option for the investor to put more money in at the old price as the investment increases in value and the risk is mitigated. It’s a bad deal for the entrepreneur and a great deal for the investor.

But as Chris explains, there are other problems with this approach:

Milestones change anyway:  At the early stage you often realize that what milestones you originally thought were important actually were the wrong milestones.   So you either have to renegotiate the milestones or the entrepreneur ends up targeting the wrong things just to get the money.
The idea that you are going to hard wire the key goals of an early stage company is nutty. The best entrepreneurs weave and bob their way into the market, changing things as they go. Setting hard goals is a mistake early on in the life of a company.

The idea behind tranching is right which is to limit the capital at risk (and the dilution) until the business increases in value and risk is mitigated. The right way to do this is raise smaller rounds more frequently and negotiate the prices of each financing as the round is done.

via Milestone Based Investing.