private.Report on our London Conference, IOU 2010

Our Conference – Income/Outcome University, or IOU – was held in the idiosyncratic (= confusing and annoying) Beaumont House in Old Windsor, near Heathrow. We wondered if whoever trains the hotel staff had been told about John Cleese training videos, but instead of using ‘Meeting Bloody Meetings’ or ‘The Customer is always Dwight’, used ‘Fawlty Towers’ instead. A unique experience, and many pages could be written about it.Participants attended from our global network:

• China: Danny Sun, Huson Bay Consulting
• France: Guy Bergeaud, Eagle’s Flight France
• Israel: Rami Joseph and Israel Yogev, Yissum
• Italy: Annalisa Gianoglio and Farida Jailani, Soges
• Spain: Pilar Lacasa, Teneo
• UK: Tim Cole and Terry Crow, Infocus… plus the veteran Bruce Miller
• USA: Eliza Helweg-Larsen and Robin Helweg-Larsen, Andromeda Training

The conference focused on two main areas: the use of the game board and of the Company Board to visualize financial information, and the use of web pages and Google AdWords to maximize marketing efforts.Visualization of information is where we have our greatest competitive advantage. Whereas other simulations (both board-game and computer-based) focus on representing operational issues, Income/Outcome is structured to represent financial statements. The resulting completeness and simplicity of the board is so powerful that, even 14 years after originally developing it, we are still exploring its strengths and discovering new applications for it. We are continuing to shift our teaching from the calculation of numbers on a page to the analysis of factors on the board itself – this creates deeper and more rapid learning. We are continuing to develop online analysis of real-world companies through the Company Board applications – this creates a better understanding of company-specific strategic concerns. And we are continuing to formalize our marketing information and selling procedures to capitalize on our unique strengths.A delightful affirmation of these strengths came from Guy Bergeaud’s enthusiasm at the new insights he gained from our discussions of visualization – and this from a man who has been familiar with Income/Outcome for over ten years!Eliza Helweg-Larsen presented information on our shift from mail-outs and trade shows to web-based marketing, and the value of a well-structured web marketing effort: in our case, annual AdWords-originated revenue of over ten times the cost of annual AdWords expenditure, more effective than our trade show expenditures ever were. She spent several hours working directly with delegates to help them develop the skills to create their own campaigns, which Andromeda will fund initially because of our belief in the benefits we will all receive.She also formalized a process for the creation of Company Boards by participants. This graphic of corporate results, a key aspect of business visualization, has become an essential part of both our marketing efforts and of our classroom offering. We believe it is an essential skill for anyone who wants to demonstrate the unique capabilities of Income/Outcome, and to gain the immediate support of the Finance Department in making sales to corporate clients.Terry Crow made an inspiring presentation on Infocus’ dual offerings of Assessments and Simulations. She showed how Infocus can offer more value to a client and develop a deeper relationship with them by flexibly using simulations as an assessment tool, or as a tool to raise fundamental skills prior to an assessment process, or as a post-assessment program to rectify identified deficiencies.Rami Joseph revived a process for updating and sharing pricing methodologies in different parts of the world, as part of our shared desire to increase the level of global networking and roll-out of Income/Outcome workshops. Rami has our thanks and admiration for creating the sale and roll-out to Amdocs managers in Israel, Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, using several members of the network for workshop delivery.Robin Helweg-Larsen reviewed the new ‘Levels 1 to 5' conceptual structure of Income/Outcome workshops, demonstrating Levels 1 and 4 in detail for those who were unfamiliar with their practical details. He also reviewed the Sales and Service version, and briefly showed the concepts behind three other industry variants: Hospitals/Non-profits, Internet Services, and Time & Money.The event was extremely productive – despite the best efforts of the hotel to deny Internet access and to frustrate clients by arbitrarily changing dining room times and pub procedures. (And every delegate’s hotel bill that we saw was incorrect, with overcharges in the GBP 150 – 200 range. Terry Crow has promised to offer them assessments and training. We feel it would benefit them more than the average.)The next Income/Outcome University is being scheduled for Chapel Hill in the first half of 2011. The location will likely be the Siena Hotel, site of IOU 2008. If any prospective delegates have a strong preference as to the best month, they should speak now!