Some specific results in working with clients:

           For two national companies in the real estate sector, designed and led full-blown scenario planning projects.  One was to stress-test the company’s current strategy; the other was to find new offerings the company might add to its services list. In both instances, the Conbrio team guided participants in interacting with leading experts it had invited from across the country in areas including energy, transportation, green issuses, the office of the future, demographics and regional economics.  Participants used knowledge from the experts along with their own experience to create realistic, plausible, alternative worlds their companies might find themselves operating in – some good, some bad – in the next 10 years.   Using the scenarios as a guide, they decided where to place their resources, where to hedge their resources to best prosper no matter which future becomes the reality.

           For The Staubach Company, designed and led a project to bring Staubach closer to DTZ its partner in Europe and Asia.  The project culminated in a three-day, café-style meeting where 80 people sitting at small tables each equipped with a computer mulled over a series of questions and then answered them on the computer so the rest of the people in the room could see the answers. As they worked through the questions, as well as participating in other exercises, participants from around the world were able to make a strong case for a variety of initiatives.  They ended by writing suggested action plans.  Conbrio designed and led a similar project for Habitat for Humanity International, including 140 participants from affiliates across the U.S. and senior leaders from headquarters.

           For the City of College Station, Texas, designed and led a workshop for the mayor, city council and senior staff to resolve issues of trust among council members and to write a bold strategic vision for the next ten years for the city.  The College Station work is one of several visioning retreats for cities the Conbrio team has designed and led in recent years.  As part of dealing with the trust issues, the council unanimously agreed to a common purpose and high ground on council service; it acknowledged areas which could lead to hot debate; and wrote a charter to guide members’ behavior during such debate.  The council synthesized past history, trends, strengths and over-the-top brainstorming before unanimously agreeing on long-term goals and objectives.  A senior city staff member who called the session an overwhelming success said the output would guide the staff in formulating detailed programming.
 
           For the City of Mesquite, Texas, designed and led a three-month project to change the culture at the city’s animal control program. The program operated out of a new, state-of-the-art shelter designed to foster adoption of abandoned animals.  However, many of the overall program activities with their emphasis on enforcement remained unchanged from previous years and a number of actions by animal control officers precipitated discord in the community and angry letters to the editor of the Dallas Morning News.  All members of the control program team helped to articulate a new culture, resolve issues of trust and create a vision to increase community outreach and education which would increase adoptions and significantly reduce the number of euthanized animals.  Employees wrote an action plan, including updating the animal control ordinance.  As part of resolving trust issues, program employees took behavioral assessments to better understand how to communicate with each other and the public.

            For an Arlington, Tex.-based consumer products company integrating eight recently acquired companies, led a project to decide the merged company’s values.  Conbrio led sessions where each of the acquired companies reviewed their histories and the genesis of their values, then suggested which values to keep in the merged company.  The sessions were especially difficult because of hard feelings generated during the acquisition.  As a result of the sessions, wounds began to heal and participants began to come together as one team.
 
           For St. Philip’s School and Community Center in Dallas, led a strategic visioning project for the organization’s executive director and staff to set direction for the next five years, including specific implementation steps for the first year.  The staff was concerned about moving off a plateau. The result was an exciting new direction building on St. Philip’s past success to make it a national model. In addition staff members agreed on implementation plans they are already accomplishing.

           For dozens of  successful PricewaterhouseCoopers projects, provided the range of Conbrio services, including strategy and facilitation, to partners, including the firm’s Senior Partner, pursuing the audits, tax or special work at Fortune 500 companies.  Conbrio worked with teams in all-day goal-setting sessions and in one-on-one meetings to plot strategy and draw implementation plans.  Conbrio Principal Bill Bancroft orchestrated more than 100 goals sessions over 14 years.

           For FaithLEAP Dallas, a new program targeting at-risk preschoolers under the aegis of the Foundation for Community Empowerment, led a group of Dallas ministers in writing an implementation plan.  Some 30 people from different churches, Southern Methodist University, child care and other agencies lacked a process and a facilitator to lead them through it.  A day-long workshop resulted in renewed dedication to the project and a specific plan complete with assigned responsibilities and deadline dates.  With the plan as the blueprint, the program successfully began in September, 2003.

           Also for the Staubach Company, advised, collaborated on creation of company-wide marketing strategies, including conceiving the idea of a 12-touch program.  Work included implementation of some elements.  The strategies helped the company better organize its marketing effort, more effectively communicate its problem-solving expertise and, ultimately, strengthen its position among real estate firms as the company of choice to provide full service answers to complex real estate problems.

           For Assurance Medical, a Dallas-based company which designed custom-tailored drug testing programs, provided the range of Conbrio services.  Helped formulate strategy and produce written materials and oral presentations in several winning efforts. As part of counsel, participated in weekly management meetings, helped with service issues, pricing, targeting and other management issues.  As a result, Assurance Medical grew from a start-up to a company with a blue chip client list.

            For one of the nation’s largest Episcopal churches, Conbrio Principal Bill Bancroft volunteered the range of Conbrio’s expertise and processes to build a mission program which in eight years sent hundreds of parishioners on several teams to Honduras and Belize overseas and the Florida panhandle, New Orleans and El Paso in the U.S.  Bancroft personally led six teams in four years to Honduras, supervised a dozen different programs on the ground in Honduras, including a microfinance program started with a $50,000 donation which makes dozens of loans to Hondurans seeking to operate their own businesses.  As part of the work in Honduras, Conbrio principal M’Lou Bancroft started and now manages Honduras Threads, a string of six cooperatives with 80 members which make one-of-a-kind pillows and table runners.

            In addition, in writing for newspapers, magazines and newsletters, Bill Bancroft, Conbrio Principal, has spent over 30 years producing articles on business, economic and government topics.  In the business arena, he has written about industries, including banking, energy, real estate, technology and defense.  In the economic area, he has written about regional, national and global economies.  In the government arena, topics have included everything from city councils and state legislatures to police and parks to budgets and taxes.  He has also written about both non-partisan and partisan political campaigns.