TBK Consult Manifesto

TBK Consult® – the software industry growth consultants Growing and globalizing software-­‐driven companies Getting products, solutions and services to the market fast is on the very top of the agenda of any CEO in the software driven industries. National and international The TBK Consult Advisory Board: expansion is probably the most urgent, yet also the most 1 Gianmaria Odello , Hans Peter Bech and Steen Helmer difficult and risky business development endeavour for any ambitious software-­‐driven company.

Helping software executives achieve local and global success is the business of TBK Consult®. We are the software industry growth consultants.

Business Model Summary TBK Consult® is the brand. To our2 clients we are business developers (growth consultants) who specialise in helping software driven companies achieve national and international expansion.

Internally we are organized as a loosely coupled network of independent senior partners.

The TBK Consult brand, tools and platforms belong to TBK Consult Holding ApS. Those TBK Consult Partners who have received and executed stock options jointly own TBK Consult Holding.

TBK Consult Holding is a partner owned company.

TBK Consult partners join TBK Consult in order to use the brand, the network and the platform as the basis for selling and delivering high value business development services to their software industry clients.

Clients The clients choose their own consultants and as such the clients “belong” to the individual TBK partner. TBK Consult Holding ApS has no consulting relationship with the clients.

The TBK Consult partners help their clients create results they couldn’t create on their own or by using “mainstream” consultants. Clients pay the TBK Consult partners consulting fees related to the value they help them create.

1

Gianmaria Odello passed away on March 1st 2015. We will miss him, but his integrity and passion for TBK Consult and the software industry with continue to inspire us.

2 The contractual relationship with the clients belong to the individual TBK Consult partner

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Partners The TBK Consult partners invoice their clients directly. Partners, who share projects, also share the consulting fees based on agreements made between the partners on a case-­‐by-­‐case basis.

Membership Subscription All TBK partners pay a semi-­‐annual membership subscription fee to TBK Consult Holding for using the TBK Consult brand, the network and the platform.

The TBK Consult business concept is illustrated is Fig. 1 below.

Figure 1: TBK Consult Business Model

It is important to note that TBK Consult Holding is responsible for developing and maintaining the network, the brand and the platform, but is NOT directly involved in lead generation and client projects.

Lead generation, client project coordination and execution activities are exclusively performed by the TBK Consult partners.

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TBK Consult Partners meet twice a year (Synergy Conference) to review the business and discuss the direction for the development of the network. The strategy of TBK Consult Holding is defined by the shareholders and executed by the Advisory Board.

The TBK Consult Value Propositions3 In ValuePerform4 terms the TBK Consultant’s value proposition is customer centric. The approximate composition of the value elements is shown in fig. 2. As business developers providing individual solutions to our clients, Customer Intimacy is the most critical value element.

Figure 2: Generic Customer Value Proposition

Product Leadership plays a role. Our methodologies and our approaches must be effective and appropriate, but they are definitely not as important as the TBK Consult partner’s experience and instant understanding of the individual clients’ specific market, business situation, challenges and opportunities.

Operational Excellence is not critical. We need to be excellent in knowledge sharing and have fast access to domain expertise and market information. However, any attempt to reduce our prices is not going to make any significant difference on the business case for our services.

The price elasticity of our type of business development services is negligible.

Using the ValuePerform approach we can determine how to prioritize the 15 management fields for the best possible support to deliver outstanding value to our clients.

The approximate rating is shown in figure 3.

With Customer Intimacy as the most important value element the TBK Consultant needs to be a “black belt master” in helping our individual clients, in having

Figure 3: Importance of management fields

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Our potential clients are in the market for consulting services or are susceptible to a proactive effort with the objective o f engaging external consultants. We are not driving a value proposition convincing clients to engage external consultants. We are executing a value proposition convincing clients who are prepared to engage external consultants to make the decision in our favour.

4 rd ValuePerform is a 3 party strategy analysis tool used by TBK Consult. Please visit www.tbkconsult.com to learn more about ValuePerform.

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professional and experienced colleagues, in sharing knowledge and in staying within our area of experience and expertise -­‐ the software-­‐driven industries.

As a loosely coupled network of independent partners, we need to be able to manage and execute a consistent approach to client projects with very few management overheads. Short learning curves in all client engagement activities are required to optimize speed and the price/performance ratio of the services we provide.

Management fields, which are not critical for the services we provide our clients are regulatory & environment, innovation5, operations, product-­‐service, human capital and financial.6

The External Customer Value Proposition The ValuePerform value proposition definition, described above, is primarily used to identify which management fields we must master in order to execute our consulting assignments successfully i.e. sell and deliver outstanding value to our clients.

The external customer value proposition, described below, must explain to the external world how we provide tangible value to our clients’ critical needs in return for the consulting fees we ask.

Figure 4: External Customer Value Proposition

TBK Consult has been operating since 2007 and during this period we have continuously refined our customer value proposition7 constantly exploring ways to increase the value we provide to our clients.

The following is the generic external customer value proposition8.

Needs Challenges with growing revenue fast seem to be the predominant issue for almost all software driven companies. Software driven companies are notoriously product focused – and for good reasons. It certainly takes an excellent product to grow faster than the market and faster than any of the competitors.

But having a good product is not enough.

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We must be able to facilitate innovation processes with our clients, but there is no value for our clients in us "inventing" new strategy concepts or business development approaches. Our value lies in helping our clients implement contemporary and lean business development approaches building scalable and repeatable business models.

6 The value proposition and the management focus were reviewed at the TBK Consult Partner Meeting in Barcelona, November 2013.

7 The value proposition is described according to the NABC definition introduced by Stanford Research Institute, http://www.sri.com/ 8 Any engagement with a client will be based on a client and a situation specific value proposition. ValuePerform and Business Model Generation are some of the tools we use to gain the insight and make the analysis required to define our entry-­‐level value proposition.

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You need solid and robust business models with repeatable, replicable and scalable revenue generation capability. Only very, very few software-­‐driven companies manage to get the demand side of their business model designed and organized to grow faster than the market within the window of opportunity available.

Thus all software driven companies need help in developing their capabilities to systematically sell and/or have their products/services sold, domestically as well as internationally.

Some software driven companies are actively in the market for external consulting services to help them improve domestic as well as international market penetration, while others must have these needs activated through a proactive effort from our side.9 The typical compelling needs of our clients are: § §

Grow faster than the market (or die) Grow fast to a potential and attractive exit opportunity

No software driven company will survive as a small local player. They will eventually find themselves at a competitive disadvantage against bigger players and face the possibility of being eliminated or at best acquired on non-­‐attractive terms. At the same time all companies want to grow to create an attractive exit opportunity or pursue some other equivalent and measurable business results.

Approach We address the needs described above by providing customized solutions, through consultants who are already experienced in taking software solutions to domestic and international markets.

Our approach is to engage with the client in a 7-­‐step process: Insight: Learn about the situation and the challenges. We prefer using ValuePerform and Business Modelling to gain this insight, but the insight is more important than the method achieving it.

Analysis: Compile the insight and define the most critical focus areas. We prefer using ValuePerform and Business Modelling to help us identify the critical success factors, but again, we have no emotional relationship with our methods.

Figure 5: The 7-­‐step consulting approach

9 Obviously there is a group of software company CEOs who cannot fund or who do not believe in engaging an external consultant to help improve his business model “front-­‐office.” Such companies are not a part of our accessible market. They need to be pre-­‐ qualified early in the sales process and left to mature.

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Objectives: Define the objectives, which a (new) strategy/approach should pursue and the value it can release.

Strategy: Define the best overall strategy/approach to achieve the objectives and harvest the value.

Translate objectives into KPI’s.

Plan: Define the “who, what, when” and the associated budget (the plan) required to implement the strategy/approach.

Action: Execute the plan.

Measure: Measure performance and apply corrective actions (nothing ever goes according to the plan).

It is crucial to understand that we are not selling the client a specific solution or approach to get his products to the market, nor are we selling his products for him.

We are management consultants helping to analyse his situation and options and facilitate the development of solutions, which are customized to his specific ambition, situation, market and capabilities.

These solutions must produce measurable results for the clients.

Our clients need scalable and replicable business models that will work after we have left the building!

Our help is packaged as facilitation services using templates and tools, which are adapted specifically for the software driven industries. Our consultants must have substantial operational experience with sales and marketing of software driven solutions, as all our clients are software driven companies.

When we have completed our assignments our clients must be able to repeat, replicate and scale their business models without us being present.

Benefits With ValuePerform, Business Modelling and our previous experience from the software driven industries we can complete steps 1 (insight) and 2 (Analysis) in a very short time. Compared to engaging internal resources or other consultants, TBK will be the fastest to comprehend the situation, start working on the solutions, releasing the value and showing results.

An integrated part of the generic TBK Consult customer value proposition is providing readily available industry experience, insight and networks. All TBK consultants have been operationally engaged in similar projects prior to becoming management consultants, thus they are capable of helping their clients make steps 3 (Objectives), 4 (Strategy) and 5 (Plan) focused, consistent, realistic, achievable and predictable.

Step 6 (Execution) is obviously always a customized effort. TBK Consult partners have access to market intelligence, direct market penetration, channel development expertise, M&A expertise, local market insight and all the other skills and resources required to turn plans into results. Step 6 can be performed faster and more efficiently with the help of TBK Consultants operating on location.

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Step 7 (Measure) is very often overlooked. When reality differs from the plan and the results don’t come as fast as expected or when they come faster than expected, what should the client do? The work of the TBK Consult partner is based on KPI’s. We help the client review the results and adjust the plans to make sure the strategic objectives are achieved.

TBK Consult enables software driven companies to accelerate domestic and international market penetration by providing them with insight, connections and a methodology that would otherwise have required substantially more time and resources to establish through their own efforts.

The TBK Consult partner network enables a client to market his solution available in multiple markets in parallel thus achieving economies of scale much faster.

Competition The biggest competitor to proactive change and growth is “doing nothing.”

If doing nothing is acceptable then “doing nothing” will be done.

Any growth project requires change and investments.

Changes and investments are associated with risk.

Engaging TBK Consult will be a risk mitigation measure, but eliminating the risk is never possible. “Doing nothing” will eliminate the direct risk associated with any investment, but it will unfortunately not stop the world from turning.

Doing nothing will obviously also eliminate the benefits, the opportunities and the value the investment/change was meant to achieve.

Our secondary main competition is our clients’ perception that internal resources could meet these needs.

However, no client has the option to employ the domain knowledge and experience base of TBK Consult. It is simply not available in the market at a price that the client can pay on a dedicated salary basis. His only choice, if not engaging TBK Consult, is to pursue the project with internal resources with only limited experience of international business development10 or engaging someone from the personal network of the executives11.

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Using internal resources for managing major change projects is often undesirable for four major reasons: 1) They are assigned to other activities, 2) They don’t have the experience or if they are new hires, they have a long learning curve, 3) Most employees will be very creative in defining how others should change, but very resistant to changing their owns ways and 4) Most employees can resign from the company with 30 days notice thus jeopardizing project performance.

11 There are many brilliant independent management consultants out there, but none of them are working in a software industry focused team of senior business development executives sharing networks and approaches.

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The Internal TBK Consult Partner Value Proposition While the external customer value proposition of TBK Consult is based on delivering high quality business development services to our clients, the internal Partner Value Proposition is based on supporting our partners' ability to do exactly the same.

TBK Consultants are already excellent business developers when they join TBK Consult.

Otherwise they wouldn’t qualify.

However, irrespective of how excellent and qualified you are, operating alone or in a boutique format has some inherent and intrinsic disadvantages. Our internal Partner Value Proposition is designed to eliminate the disadvantages and amplify the advantages.

Figure 6: The Internal Partner Value Proposition

Needs Individual management consultants and boutique management consulting firms all face four fundamental challenges:

Fluctuaong revenue • The fluctuaoon is a simple funcoon of the ome the consultant makes available for new project acquisioon purposes when engaged in current consulong projects. This paradigm can also lead to low margin engagements as the consultant is open tempted to engage in "commodity" projects where focus is on delivery of certain services rather than on business value.

Leverage • Working alone limits the type and size of projects you can be engaged in. You are limited by your own skills and personal network, which is not aligned with methods and consulong approaches.

Branding • It is impossible for the independent management consultant to find ome to develop and maintain a professional profile with a web site, press releases, blog, social media acovioes, sales tools, methodologies and templates.

Capitalizaoon • It is impossible to capitalize the value of a single consultant operaoon. When the consultant gets ill, reores or wishes to withdraw, the value of his operaoon is nil.

That being said, it is crucial for the individual consultant to maintain his need for independence andfor being his own master. Most senior people choose a consulting career because they love the professional

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side of their profession, but they resent corporate politics, the supervision from a boss and the need for “people management.”

Approach The TBK Consult loosely coupled network model is designed to improve the quality of and the price/performance ratio on the services we deliver to our clients.

In the TBK Consult business model we have removed all the activities and cost elements, which do not create value for our clients.

TBK Consult is a network of independent senior consultants – senior executives who can manage themselves, their projects and their clients. TBK Consult does not have a need for exercising a corporate management approach vis-­‐à-­‐vis the TBK partners.

TBK Consult is a self-­‐managed network.

The business model is deliberately based on a network of independent senior executives in order to maintain minimum overheads. Having close to zero overheads enables the TBK Consult partner to offer superior price/performance on the services to the clients.

Client projects are managed by the TBK partners involved and do not require any central coordination and reporting.

As a consequence of the business model TBK Consult does not require headquarters with staff on the payroll. A three person Advisory Board, elected by the shareholders at the annual shareholders meeting, currently manages the TBK Consult Holding Company. TBK Consult Holding is not engaged in client projects and is not involved in coordinating clients’ project activities.

Benefits TBK offers the combination of local independence and freedom of operation with the benefits of being part of a global setup and brand, where many consultants through a very small contribution can deliver high quality services to their clients. The focus on international market penetration ensures that a major portion of the projects undertaken involves more partners across borders, thus enabling a “deal flow”, which continuously adds to our experience with operating exactly such projects.

The work associated with branding is progressively affected by economy of scale. Pulling together enables the workload and financial burden for the individual partner to decrease and the ROI to be abundant.

Only by working in a network where the various tasks can be shared and where a portion of the projects are provided by the network is it possible to maintain a steady flow of projects and to build capital value which is independent of the individual consultant.

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Competition Although there are numerous consulting networks in the world, none of them are organized with the objective of creating maximum value for the clients12, none provide profit sharing and value capitalization and none of them have a 100% dedicated focus on growing software driven business models.

TBK Consult offers ownership in the TBK holding company, profit sharing and an exit model, which guarantees a capitalization of the value created for the group.

The Vision The vision of TBK Consult is to maintain and strengthen our position as the #1 business development “company” in the world for companies with software driven business models.

As of today TBK Consult partners are already serving clients with software driven business models all over the world with concept development, strategy, business development, planning and implementation services.

We believe that a new way of building and operating a consulting company is emerging. It is possible to "package" expertise represented all over the world into a coherent network and brand utilizing the web for effective collaboration delivering outstanding value to clients.

TBK Consult is a truly global brand and for companies with international growth ambitions, TBK Consult is the obvious partner serving as the catalyst for growth and globalization. The TBK Network, as of August 2014, has a core of senior consultants located in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Hamburg, London, Seville, Lisbon, Milan, Warsaw, Lyon, and Tel Aviv. Its headquarters are currently located in Klampenborg just north of Copenhagen, Denmark. This core of TBK Consult partners has a network of contacts all over the world that we engage on a project basis.

The ideal customers are profitable software driven companies with an established position in their domestic market, B2B or B2C type solutions and with serious global ambitions.

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There are certainly partner owned consulting companies, well in fact, most of them are. However they operate on completely different business models based on layers of consultants and very hierarchical structures. They focus on providing maximum value for themselves rather than for their clients.

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The brand

We are building a brand. Building brand equity is critically important to our clients, to TBK Consult and to the TBK Partners.

Brand building is important for the following reasons:

1. It is easy for clients to find and justify engaging a branded consulting service.

2. It elevates the client’s own value proposition that he is using a recognized brand for his business development activities.

3. Using a branded consulting service will "open doors" for our clients (to potential customers and partners) in territories where he currently does not enjoy brand recognition himself.

Building a brand is the effort of paying close attention to all the details associated with delivering excellent and superior services and value to our clients. The value we deliver to our clients builds our brand.

As a management consulting company we do not promote excellent services. We promote excellent track records!

"The devil is in the detail" applies to branding. It is first and foremost about creating outstanding value for our clients to the extent that they are excited to serve as our references. The brand amplification grows exponentially with the size of the network and the client base. Already the TBK Consult brand enjoys much higher brand recognition than the brands of most of our clients. Our clients with little brand recognition can piggyback on the TBK Consult brand when growing their business locally and globally.

Why does the world need TBK Consult?

Our communities need TBK Consult because national and international business development is a major contributor to growth, welfare and peace in the world. Helping companies grow and become large national and international players is one of the most valuable contributions you can make to local and global welfare. At TBK Consult we are proud of being instrumental to the global growth of wealth and welfare.

Our clients need TBK Consult because it gives them access to specialist competence in national as well as international business development and access to local business development resources in all major markets. At TBK Consult we are proud of being instrumental in helping accelerate our clients' global growth efforts.

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Our partners need TBK Consult because it gives them a platform, which improves their value proposition, increases the value of their consulting services and provides opportunities for leverage and improvement of their utilization. At TBK Consult we are proud of being instrumental in helping senior software industry executives release their full potential and provide superior value to their clients.

Our shareholders need TBK Consult because the holding company provides the individual and independent consultant a way to create and grow equity value and exit his consulting business with a capital premium. At TBK Consult we are proud to share the equity value of our brand with the partners who are contributing in creating this value.

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The TBK Consult Holding Business Model The TBK Consult IPR and brand belongs to TBK Consult Holding ApS in Copenhagen.

Customers TBK Consult Holding is primarily generating revenue from the membership subscription fees paid by the individual TBK Partners in exchange for sharing the brand, the network and the platform delivering value to their clients.

Value Proposition The TBK Consult Holding value proposition builds on a passion for delivering maximum value to our clients. You can compare TBK Consult Holding with a virtual hospital. We provide the infrastructure enabling our teams of doctors, nurses and other staff to deliver sublime services to our clients. The value we together can deliver to our clients is many more times larger than what the individual staff member can ever deliver on his/her own.

Our value proposition includes: §

TBK Consult consultants are 100% focused on the growth and globalization issues facing software driven companies. It will enable you to approach software driven companies in your territory with a dedicated value proposition and access to a global network of senior business development consultants.

§

Global branding through the TBK web sites: o

www.tbkconsult.com

o

www.tbkconsultblog.com

o

www.tbkacademy.com

o

www.tbkpublishing.com

o

www.tbkholding.com

§

The TBK web sites are very dynamic with regular updates from blog posts and press releases. The web site has frequently changing campaigns promoting our core services. The TBK blog is a professional social media "platform," which is updated regularly. TBK currently maintains company pages on LinkedIn, XING, Google+ and Facebook and an active Twitter account. The TBK social media presence is professional and draws an increasing amount of traffic from our target audience.

§

The TBK Consultant can leverage social media content for his clients. By posting client press releases and social media content on the TBK Consult social media platforms the TBK Consult partner can help his clients with awareness creation and brand recognition.

§

TBK Consult clients have access to the full value of the network rather than to just a single person.

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§

TBK Consult clients get access to a large and growing repository of books, whitepapers, videos, fact sheets and case stories providing inspiration and learning opportunities.

§

Access to consistent methodologies and templates, which will enable the TBK Consult partner to: o o o o o

§

Deliver more value to his/her clients Increase delivery productivity Increase utilization and thus improve price/performance Cooperate with other TBK Consultants using the same terminology, methodologies and templates offering more value to clients Enable the individual partner to grow and improve his/her personal professional capabilities becoming steadily more valuable to their clients

Access to the partnerships of other TBK Consultants, such as: o o o o

National Software Organizations Leading software vendors like IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle and other key players Business Networks for the software industry (IAMCP, Microsoft Ventures) National Public Growth Organizations & NGO business development networks

§

Access to TBK partnership with Really Connect, the world's first Certified LinkedIn Training Company, to provide certified training on how to get the most out of LinkedIn for you and your clients.

§

Access to TBK Academy® which is a "learning and experience exchange" platform with a 100% focus on the software driven industries. Each TBK Academy® event has a narrow focus on software based business models, thus ensuring a high degree of relevance to the attendees.

§

Access to the TBK Intranet, contact sharing, and using a web-­‐based document-­‐sharing platform makes communication and cooperation swift and affordable.

§

Semi-­‐annual conferences (Synergy Conference) where you will meet your TBK colleagues to develop your professional skills/profile (and have a good time).

§

Being a part of TBK Consult will enable you to provide your clients with access to knowledge, experience, people and markets that would otherwise be very difficult if not impossible, or at least very expensive, to obtain.

Becoming a TBK Partner To qualify as a TBK Consult Partner you need to meet the following criteria: §

§

§ § §

Have at least 10 years of operational experience with international business development in the software driven industries. This experience can be “outbound” i.e. business development out to global markets or “inbound” i.e. business development into your local market.

Have at least 5 years of experience from a C-­‐level position with full P&L responsibility in the software driven industries including responsibility for business development and revenue generation.

Have a facilitating and analytical approach to problem solving.

Have a solid working knowledge of the English language.

Be familiar with contemporary business development concepts such as: o Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

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§

§

§

o Business Model Generation, Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur o Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey A. Moore o The Startup Owner Manual, Steve Blank o Or similar literature and concepts Be familiar with contemporary sales approaches such as: o SPIN Selling, Neil Rackham o The New Solution Selling, Keith M. Eade o The Challenger Sales, Matthew Dickson and Brent Adamson Be familiar with management consulting principles such as: o Management Consulting Essentials, Hans Peter Bech o Million Dollar Consulting, Alan Weiss o The trusted advisor, David H. Maister o Or similar literature and concepts Have or establish a legal entity (with a VAT number) that TBK Consult can contract with.

Partner relationship Entering the TBK network and obtaining rights to share the IP and brand currently requires meeting the qualification criteria and the payment of a sign-­‐on fee.

The sign-­‐on fee for one consultant from the same company is €5.000 and €2.500 for each additional consultant boarding at the same time. The sign-­‐on fee for additional consultants boarding later is €4.000 for the first consultant and €2.500 for each additional consultant in the same batch.

The sign-­‐on fee always includes a membership subscription fee for the first 6 months.

The semi-­‐annual membership subscription fee for the first consultants is €2.000 and for €1.000 for additional consultants. The membership subscription fee is invoiced in January with payment due before end of February covering the period April – September and invoiced in July with payment due before the end of August covering the period October – March.

TBK Consult Holding is currently issuing stock options to Partners in April after decisions made at the annual shareholders meeting.

With the objective of keeping the administrative overheads to an absolute minimum and thus keeping the price/performance of our services attractive to our partners, the relationship between the individual TBK partner and TBK Consult Holding is based on a self-­‐service concept through our cloud based collaboration platforms. General communication is open and primarily takes place on the Intranet. Client specific communication takes place through our CRM platform respecting clients’ needs for confidentiality.

Relationship between partners The TBK partners involved in a project agree terms and conditions for the projects on a case-­‐by-­‐case basis.

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Questions & Answers

Q1: A1:

Q2: A2:

Q3: A3:

Are there any fees associated with joining and being a member of the TBK Partner Network?

Yes, there is sign-­‐on fee of currently €5,000 including the membership subscription fee for the first six months. The membership subscription fee is currently €2.000 due in March and September. There is a reduction in the sign-­‐on fee and in the membership subscription fee for additional consultants from the same company.

What do I do with my current clients?

That is up to you. Moving them to TBK Consult will enhance your personal reference base and make it easier for you to win new TBK Consult projects. However, there is no obligation to do so. You can continue to run your business as you prefer.

How much business can I expect from the network (inbound projects)?

It depends on how good other Partners are at recruiting clients who consider you and your market attractive. This again depends on how well they know your skill-­‐set, competencies and experience. You can impact the volume of inbound business substantially by participating in the Synergy Conferences, by providing data on your market for various types of software driven segments, by being responsive to requests for initial market assessments and by actively promoting your market and your services to other TBK Partners.

However, if you do nothing to promote yourself and your services you may experience that the volume of inbound projects will dry up very quickly.

The TBK network is a loosely coupled network of independent partners and there is absolutely no guarantee that it will bring you any business if you passively wait for someone to call you. Engaging with your TBK colleagues can support national and international business growth.

Q4: A4:

Do I have exclusivity as a Partner?

No. Membership of the TBK Consult network is bilateral non-­‐exclusive.

Exclusivity would contradict the business model and be a disadvantage for our clients and for the other TBK Consult partners. TBK Consult is not a "zero sum play." The software driven industries are already some of the largest in the world and they are growing rapidly even in smaller geographies. Having more partners in the same location is a huge benefit for yourself, for your clients and for the other TBK Consult partners. Operating as a team will create business opportunities that are not available to a single partner. Further, the issues facing software driven companies require consultants with specialized skills that could never be covered by just a single person.

A5: Q5:

Q6:

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How many Partners does TBK Consult plan to establish in my territory?

As many as possible. We will balance the needs of our partners, their clients and the TBK Consult network.

Are there any other obligations associated with the TBK Consulting Partner membership?

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A6:

You must deliver projects with a high degree of client satisfaction. You must be responsive to inquiries for support and you should participate in the semi-­‐annual Synergy Conference where all Partners are invited to participate. Deciding not to participate in the semi-­‐annual Synergy Conferences is virtually the same as being invisible in the network.

You should add TBK Consult as an experience to you LinkedIn profile. You must use TBK business cards, e-­‐mail address, e-­‐mail signature and other stationery when operating on the TBK Consult platform.

Q7: A7:

Q8: A8:

Q9: A9:

Q10: A10:

Q11: A11:

Q12: A12:

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Which fees can I expect to be paid for the service that I render to clients and to other TBK partners?

As a Partner you will always be asked to provide your own quotation for the individual projects. If you are quoting the client of another partner directly, you must leave room for a commission to the referring party. If you’re working as a subcontractor for another Partner he/she will mark up your price vis-­‐à-­‐vis the client.

Can a TBK Consult partner act as a sales agent, reseller or distributor for his clients?

No, it is not the strategy of TBK Consult to act as sales agents (operating in the name of the client). It is part of our services to find and recruit reference customers (bootstrapping) for our clients and recruit sales channel partners, when this is a viable GTM approach. In such cases we charge for the recruitment on the same basis, as for our other services. We do not recommend TBK Partners operate on behalf and in the name of their clients.

Are TBK consultants working on a commission basis?

TBK Consult is a business development company and we should charge a fee related to the potential value we help the client release. We recommend never accepting performance-­‐ based payment, which is a function of forces outside your control.

Are there any methodologies, which I need to know?

Yes, you should be very familiar with contemporary management consulting, business development and sales principals. See page 14 for a suggested list of literature.

What should I do to become successful with TBK Consult?

As a Partner you must be able to sell and deliver outstanding value to your clients. You must be able to win engagements for business development projects where the value proposition of TBK Consult is meaningful and attractive to your clients. You must be able to manage the projects achieving the objectives on time, on quality and on budget.

What do I get for the sign-­‐on fee?

TBK Partners receive: § 2 full days of introduction to the TBK tools and frameworks § Pre-­‐paid membership subscription fee for the first 6 months. § A personal internal coach for the first 6 months § 500 printed business cards § Press Release about you joining TBK Consult § Individual Social Media audit and recommendation package delivered by our external social media advisers (value $ 350) § Listing on www.tbkconsult.com with skills, bio and link to your LinkedIn profile

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Upload of bio to PRLog TBK Google Apps account with calendar and e-­‐mail Access to the TBK intranet Access to the TBK file share with methodologies and templates (currently Dropbox) Access to the TBK Consult CRM contact sharing platform (currently http://highrisehq.com) § Access to TBK blog (posts are edited and approved by the chief editor) § Access to leads and potential projects when available § ValuePerform certification within 6 months of signing up with TBK at a reduced rate of € 1,000 including a free ValuePerform analysis for 5 users. Normal price is € 1,850. § Free webinars on how to use social media for promotional purposes § Invitation to the semi-­‐annual Synergy Conference

Is TBK Consult a company?

No, TBK Consult Holding ApS is a company. TBK Consult is the name of the brand. As a partner you can use the name "TBK Consult" as a part of your company name. In order to avoid conflicting names TBK Consult Holding ApS must approve the exact application of "TBK Consult" as part of your company name. § § § § §

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Is TBK Consult Holding coordinating all the client projects in the network?

No, TBK Consult Holding is never involved in the client projects. To keep down management overheads only the partners who are operational on the projects manage client projects.

Is TBK Consult Holding the source for information about which partners have which skills, competencies and experience.

No, TBK Consult Holding does not manage such information, which is already available on the individual partner’s LinkedIn profiles or on their profiles in our CRM system.

Why is the company called TBK Consult and what is the history?

The Company was founded in 2007 by Soeren Tang, Hans Peter Bech and Morten Krarup and started operating as Tang, Bech & Christensen. When deciding on an Internet domain the closest we could find was TBKConsult. Being a small company we didn’t want to complicate our communication with several names and thus decided to use the domain name as the company name. In 2008 Hans Peter Bech acquired the shares of Soeren Tang and Morten Krarup and became the sole proprietor. In 2011 TBK Consult Holding ApS was founded and Hans Peter Bech passed all the rights to the TBK Consult brand, concepts and materials to the holding company. Hans Peter Bech (DK), Steen Helmer (DK) and Luc Vanbecelaere (BE) currently own TBK Consult Holding ApS. The positioning statement of TBK Consult is "Globalizing the software driven industry". Does that mean that we do not engage in national or domestic business development activities?

No, on the contrary. A solid national base is often (but not always) a prerequisite for global expansion. The frameworks for national and international expansion are basically identical and the TBK Consult toolbox is applicable to both. In fact we often advise our clients to focus on national expansion first before making any investments in international growth.

Do I, as TBK Consult Partner, pay for participating in TBK Academy training sessions?

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No, we have a limited number of seats available for TBK Partners for the venue cost only. In connection with Synergy, special internal workshop sessions are often offered at internal rates (currently €175/day covering materials, venue cost, refreshments, lunch and dinner).

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