Strategy Innovations Inc. | Driving growth through innovation | Business Consulting

Exceeded Our Expectations

“The consultant we worked with, Urko Wood, exceeded our expectations and we enjoyed working with him immensely. He was professional, conscientious, collegial, a coach, and willing to spend extra time with us when we needed it. We are very excited about the results…and we have high hopes that it will play an important role in helping us make vehicles that customers...

Professional, Knowledgeable...

“Urko’s patience and guidance in this very important step allowed us to move forward with the utmost confidence in his abilities. He has a deep knowledge of how to get to the customer’s needs all while keeping in mind the results we were trying to achieve. This is something that he never loses sight of while he manages the project. To me this is the...

Deep and Expert Knowledge

“I was very impressed with Urko’s deep and expert knowledge. I couldn’t imagine a better experience and we created a very high quality output. Urko is the perfect example of a professional and was very easy and friendly to work with. If I worked with someone on a project of this nature in the future I would insist that Urko would be the guy to work with....

Great Results, Personable, ...

“We were extremely happy with the results of the project. We were pleased to have access to four different consultants who worked on our project at different times – including Urko who led the project – and we were impressed with each of them. Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, High Integrity.” Paul Crossman, VP of Marketing, National Fire...

Above the Call of Duty

“Urko was a tremendous asset to me as I worked on three big projects simultaneously. He went above the call of duty to help, train, and assist me. I highly recommend him as a diligent, trusted associate who will do great work and make the ride enjoyable. Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, High Integrity.” Kim Westover, Director, Marketing and...

Asks the Right Questions

“We hired Urko Wood to help us implement a sales strategy and generate more business for our R&D consulting group. In my first conversation with him, I couldn’t help but recognize professional and personal attributes that are often difficult to find in a consultant. He asks the right questions and listens for the real need of his clients. He cares deeply about...

Creates High Confidence

“Urko offers high quality and comprehensive services targeted at company growth. He is a skilled strategist, tactician, and implementer. In our work with him he led the design and execution of an important information collection project, and then led our internal and business teams in workshops to integrate the new knowledge into our work. At every step of the...

Insight, Integrity, Diligen...

“I have known and worked with Urko Wood for the past seven years. I can recommend him whole-heartedly as a colleague who has consistently demonstrated insight, integrity, diligence, and strong customer focus. He is particularly skilled at developing rapport with project teams. I also worked with Urko several years ago in preparing a business case on marketing...

Understand Value

No company ever floundered because it knew too much about its customers. Yet companies fail everyday because they have a faulty or incomplete understanding of their customers’ needs. Understanding, creating and delivering value should be the cornerstone of everything a business does. We help clients gain a superior understanding of how their customers define value so that they can create and deliver superior value to their customers.

Create Value

Once companies gain a solid understanding of how their customers define value, they will have a target on which to focus all their creativity and expertise. This might entail generating ideas for new and improved offerings, establishing competitive advantage (differentiating), crafting better messaging and positioning, improving sales effectiveness, and/or designing great customer experiences. We deliver clarity about where to focus and what to do to create superior value for your customers so that you can differentiate and growth.

Deliver Value

In addition to helping clients create new and improved offerings, we also help clients design great customer experiences. While no one buys your offering to “have a great experience,” they may take their business elsewhere if it isn’t easy and convenient to consume/obtain. We know how to capture all of your customers’ needs throughout the “consumption chain” to ensure that you know how to deliver great customer experiences.

The Customer Information That is Essential For Innovation Success

Posted by Urko Wood on Apr 30, 2013

Today, every marketer talks about the “buyer personas.” While personas can be powerful tools for guiding all kinds of value creation activities, such as messaging, positioning, and new product development, the critical information marketers need to discern is “What are people trying to accomplish with your offering?” While there may be a strong correlation between various customer characteristics and certain purchasing behavior, people don’t buy products and services because of their characteristics; they buy products and services to accomplish functional, emotional, and/or social ends.

How Nike Comes Up With Great Ideas

Posted by Urko Wood on Mar 29, 2013

“Just do it.” I love this Nike slogan. It conveys a can-do attitude that encourages me to stop procrastinating, get off the couch, and take action! But, just do what, exactly? Take what action? If you want to drive growth through innovation, how do you know where to focus and what to do? There a lot of companies “just doing it” and most of them are just failing! In many cases, entrepreneurs are wasting time and money pursuing the flawed approach of launching a minimally viable product and “failing faster” before they have clarified the market need. This is a huge waste of time if you don’t know what the customer is trying to get done first. Let’s take a look at how Nike is winning and what we can learn from them.

Lean Startup: Doing The Wrong Thing Better

Posted by Urko Wood on Dec 30, 2012

Eric Reis has created a movement with the publication of his book The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Based on his experience with consumer software, he encourages entrepreneurs to launch “minimally viable products,” run as many “experiments” with these minimally viable products as is possible to accelerate learning about what customers want, and thereby “pivot” to a value proposition that customers want. It sounds quite compelling until you realize that this entire approach is based on one of the great myths about innovation: that customers have latent unarticulated needs, needs that they cannot tell us.