G R O U P P A R T N E R S & R U S H M A N S

I N T R O D U C I N G

We’ve learned the harsh lessons of the world’s most successful enterprises over thousands of engagements across all industries and applied them, together with our in depth knowledge of sport, to major events.

Our mission is to redefine the model for the delivery of major sporting events – increasing effectiveness and efficiency, reducing cost and error – by taking a whole systems approach to the entire event.

Group Partners and Rushmans have joined forces and combined our expertise, techniques and experience into an approach that we call ‘The Rushmans Major Event Architecture’.

This is the world that we thrive in – one that demands 21st Century thinking and techniques.

We know the Key Challenges• Multiple suppliers, vendors and ‘Functional

Areas’ with different briefs and lack of shared definition or goals

• Subjective opinions on what the baselines for quality actually are

• Tremendous duplication through vague and often unintended briefing and delivery requirements

• The rapid evolution from startup to operational excellence

• Failure or significant slippage against critical milestones is not an option

• The variability of the local context & culture

Large scale visual representations of the challenge and ambition remove the risk of multiple interpretations

Based on the Philosophy of Structured Visual Thinking™

SVT™ is all about bringing visualisation to complex or critical issues – in a way that enables everyone on the team to understand.

Ensuring that there is structure within these discussions enables logical and important reasoning. Just like all Group Partners engagements we are applying SVT™ and for our clients that starts from the moment we have our first conversations. The degree to which we apply the three dimensions can vary, but they are always driving the way that we approach our assignments.

There is no deep or hidden meaning behind the three – they mean exactly what they you might expect:

Structure – without some structure to a challenge and without being about to create some degree of order from complexity, it is particularly challenging to shape the future. For us structure primarily takes the form of architectures and frameworks within which we can develop context. We have developed an approach called 4D™ which we will explain later.

Visual – even for people who wouldn’t class themselves as visual or creative, an image provides significantly more clarity and meaning that words alone. Visualisation brings a subject to life and removes ambiguity and semantics. There was a time when it was the only form of communication – telling stories through pictures dates back to the earliest days of man. We have a very unique approach to visualisation.

Thinking – the world that we live in today is not exactly conducive to taking time out to think, time is becoming too rare a commodity and the result is that we spend most of our time simply reacting or just ‘doing’. We believe that quality time now and then – especially at critical times in a businesses lifecycle – pays dividends and should never be underestimated or undervalued.

It is sometimes quite hard for people to fully appreciate the benefits of this approach until they actually experience it fully, and we often find it hard ourselves to explain the core principles and why it is so effective.

Our aim is to achieve simplicity for the client – achieving that is anything but simple!

Imagine a room that starts the day with large blank walls that rapidly become full of your thoughts and insights – expressed in a unique way

Through this article we would like to invite you into the

world of and share a little of our passion with you.

Applying SVT™ We have already mentioned that we apply SVT™ throughout the assignment. It is used in a number of ways through a number of roles within RMEa.

Out of all of the modes of application the most powerful by far is achieved through group intervention.

The effect of getting a group of people together to have a series of open conversations about something that unites them (or needs to unite them) without burdening them with process, opinions, endless pages of strategy and theory is more than a little liberating. Expertise in major events is critical, but it needs first to be placed into context and a shared perspective established.

None of us had to strain to understand that we had to complement each other’s specialities; it was simply a fact, and we all tried to

figure out ways to make our combinations more effective.

Bill Russell, Boston Celtics

The Science Behind the

Approach

Knowing how to guide and interpret conversation and how to make the most of complex information is Group Partners particular brand of expertise.

RMEa is melding tried and tested management techniques from business with tried and tested practical experience of major events.It streamlines and creates definition to roles in a collaborative and communicative methodology.

It empowers events to optimise resources and apply the right resource, human or physical, at the right time for the right amount of time.

The Requirement and Vision being Created...

Event Vision It is crucial to agree a single minded vision – these are often intangible and subjective things we believe – we should visualise this

as a team.

Event Governance We must build a clear and agreed plan

against which all stakeholders agree to work to. A major event cannot run without clear

guidance, governance and standards.

Commitment From The Top Leadership by everyone involved in the event and at every step is what makes an inspiring event. In our experience the leadership being completely involved or just watching from the sidelines is what makes the real difference.

Introducing Frameworks

The Group Partners 4DTM

approach provides the same rigor and logic that is applied

to businesses and organisations globally to support everything

from strategy through to planning and execution. RMEa brings in:

• Sporting Context: Everything is considered in context. Then and only then starting to deep dive into the topic area

• Event Connectivity: Everything is connected. It’s a system! This means understanding everyone’s contribution and the value of that contribution

• Event Systemics: Everyone has different responsibilities and they may vary along the event lifecycle – this is critical and must be clearly defined

• Accountability Throughout: Everyone knows where they fit in and knows their role in the outcome. This has to be underpinned by decision quality and appropriate measurement

The first thing that we do is to form a concise statement of the problem that we are trying to solve. We call this the Exam Question and it will shape and govern every conversation that we have as a group.

• Development

• Decision

• Deploymenta

The four ‘D’s stand for:

• Discovery

– The Approach Aligned and Engaged Team. Achieved through collaborative/senior stakeholder sessions to agree a complete framework – co-creation. Visually removing any doubt or risk.

Coherent Blueprint. Gathering all of the moving parts into one comprehensive and detailed blueprint. The RMEa Architecture™.

The Value Network. Everyone who plays a crucial part gets to contribute in a way that ensures that they know their area and where all the dependencies exist – regardless of whether they are inside or outside the organising committee.

The Master Plan. All of the above mapped to a shared view of the programme with clear roles and responsibilities and a roadmap that is sustained and relevant throughout.

Communicated Fully. A sustained and clear output ensures that everybody knows and understands their tasks and responsibilities.

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Trust us –

it Works!

Coming to a workshop unprepared and without the inevitable slide

decks to present or a declared method to follow can require a

leap of faith.

For us there is a fine balance between providing enough information to reassure attendees and too much that overwhelms

them. It is also much more valuable if attendees arrive with open minds – so any advance questions or actions are carefully

considered so that we are not guilty of leading the witness ahead of the discussions.

There is a lot more structure and logic to this process than will be immediately obvious – this is due to the 4D™ approach that we have developed over the years. All of our conversations find their way into a logic framework – or at least the critical aspects of the conversations, the insights and observations that will help the team to gain value from the engagement and equip them to continue to work on the programme after we have completed our assignment.

Our workshops are fun, highly interactive, very inclusive and intense. They are meant for teams who want to have a real say in the future success of their company; they require focus, commitment and engagement.

And they work – as long as that commitment persists beyond the event.

– How a Typical Programme is Delivered…Rushmans/Group Partners work is a blend of different activities over a period of time and delivered in distinct phases.

We start an assignment with a standard entry phase that establishes a framework for the programme. The exact scope is determined by the degree to which the client wishes to utilise the method and may lead to multiple workshops.

• Preparation, research and readiness. 3-4 weeks

• Agreement of the goals and vision

– Development of the master plan. 3-4 weeks

• Co-creation of the Major Event Architecture™

– Creation of the Programme Team and Office

– Sustained management governance throughout. 8-12 weeks

360 Degree Reporting and Management for the Duration of the Event...

With this master plan will be a recommendation of the most effective way to coordinate and track progress. There are a number of post workshop activities that we suggest.

Typically they cover:

The establishment of Control Points to check progress and respond to changing situations

The establishment of a ‘War Room’ for the team to work together and share insights, progress, activities and to display the various outcomes from these sessions

Within the War Room there would be a large scale milestone chart that would be used to track the critical actions, responsibilities and dependencies

The Value Proposition… Changing the way we see the

success and management of the major sporting event. Redefining the effectiveness and efficiency. Reducing cost and error through engaging with the whole event as a system of optimally connected parts.

• RMEa is melding tried and tested management techniques from business with tried and tested practical experience of major events

• It streamlines and creates definition to roles in a collaborative and communicative methodology.

• It empowers events to optimise resources and apply the right resource, human or physical, at the right time for the right amount of time

• It balances the critical needs of stakeholders such as Sports Governing Bodies and Rights Holders, Governments, Participants, Spectators and Media and ensures through active collaboration, visualisation and clear communication the optimisation of Major Events

• The world’s most successful corporations are using these methods and we am very pleased to say that some visionary Governing bodies and LOCs are now doing the same

What the Customer gets as a Result – Outputs & Benefits…• Clarity and communicable plans

• Engagement and shared definitions

• A strong framework for governance

• Inspired and aware teams working to a common plan

• A fully integrated plan

• Resources and costs optimised

The Rushmans Major Event Architecture – encompassing every aspect of the Rushmans process

Group Partners32 St James’s Street, Mayfair London SW1A 1HD, UK

www.grouppartners.netwww.grouppartnerswiki.net

T +44 (0) 20 7925 2111F +44 (0) 20 7925 2288

RushmansPO Box 2391, Marlborough Wiltshire, SN8 3WJ, UK

www.rushmans.cominfo@rushmans.com

T +44 (0)1264 852 010F +44 (0)1264 852 011

Nigel RushmanChairman of Group Partners Middle East

nigelrushman@rushmans.comUK Mob: +44 (0) 7880793462Monaco Mob: +377 (0) 678 637398

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