The Strategic Thinking Institute | Helping managers develop the skills and expertise to create great strategy and fulfill their leadership potential

Rich Horwath has helped the following organizations successfully guide and grow their business through strategy development, training programs and proprietary tools:

Adidas
Pfizer
Abbott
Alcan Packaging
Baxter Healthcare Corporation
Progress Software
Dewberry Architectural Engineering
Amgen
Society of Human Resource Management
Genzyme Diagnostics
Hospira
Professional Convention Management Association
MDS Pharma Services
H-E-B
MedImmune
Virotech
Actelion
Proxima Therapeutics
Society of Healthcare Strategists

"Rich has done an outstanding job in working with the Amgen organization and customizing his work to meet our specific objectives. He is very flexible and takes the time to listen and learn about our situation so that he is more effective in providing his expertise. Rich is a very effective presenter and focuses on engaging his audience while at the same time challenging them to think differently. The combination of his expertise, ability to listen and tailor a program to meet our needs and provide tools resulted in advancing our organizational competency in strategic thinking."

"Thank you for delivering the Keynote Speech at our North American Partner Kickoff Meeting. Your session on Strategic Thinking for Competitive Advantage was entertaining, thought-provoking and yet practical for a large audience of senior executives. It was exactly what we hoped for and was a big hit with the audience."

"Thank you for facilitating an outstanding strategic thinking session with our top CEO customers within our industry. The CEO's believe that the program provided them with tools that will allow them to be more effective strategists. In addition, we received a lot of praise about your knowledge in the field of strategic thinking and your ability to deliver the information at the right level. Thanks again for a great program."

"Thank you for an excellent presentation on strategic thinking and strategic planning for Pfizer's management team. Your professional and engaging presentation style combined with an expert command of the subject of strategy met and exceeded Pfizer's high expectations. Most importantly, the region's managers were able to take the information and tools you presented and begin implementing them the following week to positively impact their business. I relied on you to set the stage for our region's strategic planning efforts and you successfully did so."

"I appreciated your ability to teach/facilitate/moderate and move us through the strategy development process in a productive fashion. Your modular and highly tailored approach of the process to our business fits our needs nicely. Thank you for your preparation and hard work in navigating our team through the strategy development process. One year later, I can say that your work had a dramatically positive impact on our business. In addition to the strong strategic plan we developed, you infused a new mind set into our organization that has created the strategic discipline to make important trade-offs and has unleashed a powerful energy of confidence. You’ve truly made a difference to our business.”

“I wanted to write and thank you for your superb presentation at last week's Society of Human Resource Management National Strategy Conference in Tampa, Florida. For me, it was by far the most memorable, most educational, and most dynamic of all the sessions I attended. You took a complex topic and condensed it into an easy-to-understand and entertaining event—a task not achievable by many. You are a gifted and dynamic teacher and I am thankful to have had the opportunity to sit under your instruction.”

“Thank you once again for the informative and thought-provoking session on Strategic Thinking that you conducted for our Federal Programs managers. Our Executive Vice President was extremely pleased with the session and has mentioned how successful it was to our CEO. Several others in the group mentioned that it is the best presentation that they have ever attended at Dewberry.

I have also received feedback that your book, Sculpting Air: The Executive’s Guide to Shaping Strategy is a great how-to-guide for using the tools and developing plans. As a presenter you did a great job of pulling together the appropriate material for our group based on the pre-assessment that everyone completed ahead of time. You managed to take what could be the complex topic of strategy and presented it in a very simple and engaging manner.”

Leslie Keelty
Director, Training & Development
Dewberry Architectural Engineering

"Thank you for leading a valuable session on strategic thinking and planning for Amgen's Rheumatology team. The presentation you delivered on strategy, critical decision making and the impact on resource allocation created a strong foundation for our group's strategic plan development. The combination of strategy expertise and professionalism you bring provided for a valuable contribution. The result of the session is a better prepared team that understands the importance of resource allocation at both the strategic and tactical planning levels."

"At Baxter, we contracted with Rich Horwath to help us develop a robust strategic positioning and marketing strategy for one of our key business franchises within a 6-8 week period. Rich took our group through a variety of strategic exercises and templates that really flushed out a great deal of insights on our business, our customer base, our competition and the market environment. He then transformed this information into a very credible and most optimal strategic positioning for our business.

In addition, Rich helped guide the team in developing strong, fact-based marketing strategies to build the foundation for propelling us towards our optimal strategic positioning. Throughout the process, Rich was a leader, listener, presenter, facilitator, team member-in essence, he played whatever role was necessary to get the job done in a very tight timeframe. For the next strategy/marketing project I have that needs outside assistance, Rich will be the first person I call."

"Rich does an excellent job in assisting individuals throughout various levels of an organization understand that while strategy is an abstract concept, there are a variety of tools and methods available to guide teams through a definable process that leads to a well structured and focused strategy development effort. His materials are thoughtfully constructed, understandable and useful in leading a group through a comprehensive and objective analysis of their business that ultimately results in action plans focused on differentiating themselves from the competition. His grasp of the topic of strategy along with a comfortable and upbeat presentation style is effective in facilitating the overall strategic thinking and development effort."

“Every senior executive who attended the "Strategic Thinking for Competitive Advantage" Workshop felt the workshop was extremely valuable. Through a series of activities and modeling, Rich’s workshop provides the tools for strategically thinking through the business and channeling the resulting insights into an action plan to achieve an organization’s goals and objectives. The C-Level executives rated Rich’s content and effectiveness as a presenter as ‘excellent’ across the board.”

"Thank you very much for the excellent presentation for my Strategic Leadership offsite meeting. Everyone really enjoyed the stimulating session content. I look forward to future discussions and mapping out our path moving forward."

"Thank you for your assistance with the Service Map Program. The Service Map enabled our group to better document and understand the individual components of how we provide clients with our services. From this baseline, we will be able to benchmark our current performance and identify areas for improvement in the future. Your ability to begin at the conceptual level, concisely summarize research and insights and then guide the group to the finished product was very beneficial."

"The session's value was fueled by your ability to provide examples and make analogies that brought the concept of strategy to life for our group. You not only provided important strategy concepts but took it one step further and demonstrated the practical applications that are crucial for successful implementation and execution. The interactive exercises throughout the presentation kept everyone's interest at a high level and nicely emphasized the key points. Your comprehensive preparation and ability to tailor the material to the business needs of our managers was clearly evident."

"The StrategyPrint was helpful in defining our market objectives over a specific period of time. This framework drove us to clearly articulate our market message and develop appropriate marketing strategies and tactics."

"The StrategyPrint was a very effective tool that helped crystallize and prioritize our thoughts concerning how the product should be marketed. Within a matter of a few days, we were able to prioritize the most unique features and benefits of our new product, confirm how it should fit in the market and determine the most important benefits."

"Thank you so much for serving as a speaker at the Association Forum of Chicagoland Speed Learning Program. As you can see from reviewing the enclosed above average evaluation, your presentation on strategic thinking was a great success. The attendees thought you were excellent."

Client Results