The Issue: Bayer identified a high-profile company opportunity to holistically review their meetings & events programme core operating model to determine what activities and to what degree should be managed in house or delegated to their suppliers in a volatile environment – a balance was needed that fits to Bayer’s needs regarding capabilities, flexibility and cost. The team recognised that they’d benefit from market sector experts who were profoundly knowledgeable and connected to support them through the assessment, to guide them to the right outcome.

The Solution: FESTIVE ROAD responded to a call for support by the Bayer team highlighting our ability to provide a neutral and informed position, deep sector knowledge, highly networked individuals and a truly flexible and accommodating approach that would allow Bayer to flex their requirements as the project developed.

The Result: FESTIVE ROAD’s independence, industry expertise and proven consulting skills meant that we were able to efficiently facilitate the objectives of the project whilst maintaining a neutral position. We provided the perfect balance of support and guidance to allow Bayer to initiate their operational review, knowing that they were receiving ‘state of the art’ input and would be able to operate in a comfortable ‘challenger’ environment. The Bayer project team operate to the highest professional standards and being confident that they had someone to validate the contribution from all parties was important to them.

The Issue: Once the future operating model process was completed, the focus turned to every region across the globe to assess the maturity of their strategic meetings management programme. The objective was to develop a clear understanding of the state of their programmes today and identify priorities and opportunities to standardise policy and processes to drive strategic transformation. The Bayer team strive for outstanding results in every aspect of their business and this activity would allow them to focus on targeted action that will deliver transformation.

The Solution: Using the FESTIVE ROAD Managed Meetings Model (MMM), the team developed a strategic meetings model assessment that queried every industry aspect of a meetings programme. This was completed by local, regional, and global functions, which provided extraordinary insights from different perspectives. The same assessment was sent to suppliers to get their point of view, highlighting strengths and opportunities through multiple lenses and across multiple disciplines. Being able to compare regions and suppliers against the same criteria was insightful and set the scene for development.

The Result: Every aspect was scored and weighted. The analysis tool provided an immediate visualisation of Bayer’s performance against each element of the MMM as well as overlaying the supplier view and the global vs. local view. The tool highlighted any disconnect between respondents which in some cases was a simple fix and improvement, and in others a more fundamental issue to be addressed and resolved. Four major areas of focus were identified for the global meetings lead to prioritise, which will form the roadmap for the direction of the strategic meetings management programme for the next 3 – 5 years.

The Issue: Each of the key global regions currently operate with varying appointed suppliers, coupled with differing market and business requirements and set-ups. However, some regions already have an element of commonality in their supplier base that provides an opportunity to ‘road-test’ a lead agency operating model to leverage the capabilities of suppliers spanning whole regions and to further advance strategic partnerships.

The Solution: LATAM and APAC were identified as ideal regions to start with and use the depth of data analysis that had been gathered as part of the MMM assessment process to quickly identify areas of disconnect to focus on. The availability of such data clarity has immediately highlighted very specific activities that can be addressed to create harmony and efficiency across the M&E programme.

The Result: Both regions are currently in the process of implementing positive change at local and regional level. Once implemented, these regions can act as proof of concept for wider adoption of the programme improvement to deliver a truly strategic meetings and management programme within Bayer.