Celebrate: The Celebrate phase allowed MacPhie to go back to the client at the end of (or a short time after) the project to measure the impact and effectiveness of the work that had been completed. This phase was important because it provided an opportunity for MacPhie to maintain client relationships and for future business, based on recommended next steps. The company had often struggled to conduct the measurement aspect of this phase, given the subjective nature of deliverables. The MacPhie Way had proven to be a useful template for the company from a project planning perspective, both internally and as a method for describing the engagement process to clients. It was unclear how many competitor firms used a similar approach. . 0 2 0 2 , 2 2 c e D o t 0 2 0 2 , 5 0 p e S m o r f s u p m a C n y k o o r B l y t i s r e v n U d n a s I i l g n o L t a y g e t a r t S g n i t e k r a M n i v o n y e s u H l i g A y b y n o e s u l r o f d e z i r o h t

n o i t a o v l i t h g i r y p o c a s s r e t e m a r a p e s e h t e d s t u o i e s U Page 7 9B16M133 THE MACPHIE BUSINESS MODEL

Core Activities MacPhies core activities had evolved significantly from 2004 to 2015. At the onset, the company offered speech writing, corporate communications, and market research, which reflected Hughs personal skill strengths and experiences. As MacPhie became more mature, it expanded its offering based on the skill sets of its employees. New services included report writing, business planning, training programs (in areas including customer service, persuasive communications, and change management), grant writing, group facilitation, and brand definition. If clients approached MacPhie with service requests, the company tried to accommodate them, even if they were not part of the traditional offering. Although this brought in additional revenue, it sometimes resulted in narrow profit margins, given the time required by the employee to master the delivery of services that might be tangential to existing offerings. By 2015, MacPhie focused on four main areas, as described by Hugh:

First, we offer strategic planning. Our process helps organizations to articulate their mission, vision, and values, and establish clear priorities and strategic directions. Second, we offer market research. Our focus groups, stakeholder audits, and online research methodologies seek deeper insight by asking better questions, and capture the thoughts, feelings, values, and personal identity of target audiences. Third, we offer brand and culture definition. Our most successful engagements have involved helping organizations, products, or people to determine how they want to live in the minds of their target audiences. We also help organizations achieve competitive advantages by articulating their aspirational culturesand bringing that culture alive. MacPhie also concentrated on communications counsel, planning, and execution due to Hughs background in communications and speech writing. This offering formed a major portion of revenues.