Strategy Workshops

Strategy is fundamental to business success.
However, something is broken.

How it Works

Before the event, our experts spend weeks getting immersed in your business and the category. We then do research in 6 areas to identify gaps and opportunities for growth, creating custom “Spark Decks® multi-media stimulus presentations that provoke fresh thinking.
On day 1 we diverge – getting many potential strategy ideas on the table. We start by thinking deeper about your current strategy as well as fresh opportunities. The creation of ideas is powered by a set of Innovation exercises and Spark Decks® created in advance. ~75 strategy ideas are created.
On day 2 your group will confront reality and think deeper. Dividing into smaller groups, each mini-team will select 1 or 2 strategy ideas to refine and present to the wider team (typically 6-12 of them.)

Our Story.

Eureka! Ranch was founded more than 35 years ago by Doug Hall.  Doug was at P&G and got a record number of innovations shipped in a short period of time with a tiny staff and budget (9 products in 12 months with a  team of 3).  He did this by using a systems approach because of his knowledge of the work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the inspiration for Lean, Total Quality and Six Sigma.

Doug left P&G and founded Eureka! Ranch and started helping large companies like Nike, American Express, and Disney create big, disruptive ideas, which it continues to do today.

By the early 2000s, it became clear that some companies did not have the systems in place to commercialize the disruptive ideas Eureka! Ranch helped create.  They would either compromise the ideas (to pass Stage-Gate milestones) or even kill them due to fear of change.

That experience inspired a sabbatical at the University of Maine and the creation of a new field of study, Innovation Engineering®.  It includes 48 skills or competencies for creating, communicating, and commercializing meaningfully unique ideas and system driven leadership skills that help innovation leaders implement the system company-wide.  It teaches people to create disruptive ideas like we do (not guru, it’s a system), but also teaches them what to do next – all the way to market/implementation.

We found that the preacher teacher approach (lecture then test) did not work, and results varied professor to professor. That’s when we developed the patent-pending Cycles to Mastery® teaching method.  In our certification programs, these are submitted to a human grader who provides feedback.  Students adjust and submit till approved.  No test needed.  That’s what we mean by Cycles to Mastery.

On campus the courses are taught under the “Innovation Engineering” brand.  For consumers and businesses, it’s available as professional development under the Jump Start Your Brain® (JSYB) brand.  We’re making it easier for everyone across the company from the front lines to CEO to learn and apply innovation skills.  We have 100s of micro-lessons, tools, badge courses, and certifications that can be customized and plugged into an LMS or accessed through our platform.

Today the Ranch is led by CEO, Maggie Nichols, and a strong cadre of innovators, engineers, educators, and programmers, with founder, Doug Hall, remaining actively engaged as CIO and on special projects. 
We help organizations in 3 ways:
1) building their innovation pipeline,
2) improving their innovation process, and
3) training their people to think more innovatively. 
We work with large multinationals, non-profits, and small and mid-size companies around the  globe to help them think & act smarter, faster & more innovatively.