About Us
LW Speer and Associates is a corporate consulting company, assisting clients in Strategy Development and Optimization, Growth Initiatives, and Disruptive Innovation. As an advocate of Disruptive Innovation (and through a collaboration with Innosight and Market Pivot LLC), we have worked with a number of national and international clients (P&G, E.W. Scripps Co, State Farm, Jarden, Stryker Medical, Worthington Industries). We are different because we have a thorough understanding of risk profile, internal requirements, and other parameters that companies work within. We have a unique combination of Internal and External Entrepreneurial experience, and have a proven quick and effective track record.
Areas of Expertise
Company and innovation startegy
This demonstrated and successful approach is based upon the concept of defining Growth Gaps by identifying the Lighthouse Goals and using a Future-Back Design to identify the Key Priorities and Projects and the timing necessary for success.
A multi-year plan with specific action steps and timing is developed using 5DDP (Five Dialog Development Process).
The plan is then tracked via quarterly assessment and review sessions.
This process is also used to create a successful Innovation Strategy and New
Product/Business Portfolio to drive growth and profit.
This strategic approach has been successfully executed in multiple industries, products or services and with small and large companies.
New Product Development Process
The successful creation of new businesses and/or new products today requires a different mindset and approach (Disruptive Market Innovation -DMI) than the typical development and assessment approach for incremental improvements.
Disruptive Market Innovation focuses on the principles of Job To Be Done, Target Consumer, Trade-offs, Unique Solutions, and Critical Assumptions for Success.
The development and assessment process then uses Fast Cycle Behavioral Learning to quickly and efficiently deliver successful offerings to market.
This unique creation process begins by working with your department in a new way of thinking, creatively looking at their customer’s needs, beyond the obvious to their unarticulated needs.
Fast Cycle Behavioral Learning Approach
This validation approach leverages standard attitudinal research techniques with behavioral assessment techniques.
The process moves through 3 phases of learning in short timing (90 day) and is based upon the assumption that each phase of the study would be successful and would inform the next phase of learning. Each phase is aligned with success targets to move forward, or pivot, or cancel, into the next phase.
Throughout the learning process, small, fast testing iterations are the key to defining the few key critical assumptions that are being tested and supported by the data. This approach assists in the identification of high potential projects and builds a robust New Product Portfolio.
Transactional Learning Markets
This takes the MVP into the market in a variety of distribution points. Speer has used E-commerce on dedicated web sites (and Amazon), partnered with existing, established retailers (with control of pricing and placement), and establishing totally new, dedicated retail stores.
This can be done with company-branded or Speer branded products. It is especially effective when Speer creates and trademarks a brand, allowing an understanding of the commercial viability of the Job, then calculating the ‘lift’ from the company’s brand to determine total market size.
The Team
L. Wayne Speer
Founder and President
Wayne Speer has held executive positions in both private and public Fortune 500 companies and brings domestic and international experience in a wide range of industries including Consumer Packaged Goods, Retail, and Building Products. He led the strategic repositioning and growth of companies and business units as a divisional President for Williams Holdings PLC (Darby England) and Sencorp LLC (USA).
His leadership capabilities include expertise in strategy development and optimization, new business creation, marketing, and portfolio innovation.
Wayne also holds the position of the Markley Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies and Corporate Innovation at Miami University, Oxford, OH. He co-leads the Corporate Innovation Platform in both graduate and undergraduate studies and is a resource in the Executive Education at the VOA Center.
Most recently, he was working with Miami’s Technical Commercialization Office in commercializing the Patent Portfolio of the US Air Force Research Lab and the DOD. Wayne was the Faculty Advisor to the MU Redhawk Venture Fund, a pre-revenue investment vehicle vetting and funding start-ups in a variety of industries.