SVPMA Workshop - So You Think You Want To Be A Consultant? with Niti Agrawal, Stage 4 Solutions, Inc

Presentation:

Many Product Marketing and Management professionals have at one
time considered leaving their full time position for work as a
consultant. The potential benefits are attractive: High pay; be
your own boss; work part-time; work with many companies on
different projects. But, what about the risks and how do you get
started?

This half-day seminar provides an introduction to various
approaches and opportunities for getting a start in consulting
and will help participants develop a plan to become a successful
Product Marketing and Management consultant.

Niti Agrawal, of management consultancy Stage 4 Solutions, Inc.
will lead this half day workshop including a panel of local
consultants containing Brain Lawley, of the 280 Group, Deborah
Siegle of Marketing Solutions, and Kathleen Gilligan of Array
Partners. These experts will share their experience and practical
knowedge- helping participants decide if consulting is right for
them and offering how-to to get started.


Agenda topics:
" Consulting Pros/Cons
" Types and Approaches to Consulting
" Consultant Panel
" Getting Started
--> Covering the basics
--> What are you selling?
--> Getting clients
--> Tax/legal implications
" Developing Your Plan


Moderator:

Niti Agrawal, is President and founder of Stage 4 Solutions, Inc.
Stage 4 Solutions is a product marketing firm with four
consecutive years of double-digit growth. The firm specializes in
maximizing marketing investments for Fortune 500 high-techs and
emerging high-tech leaders by providing strategic business and
product plans, focused sales tools, competitive analyses, new
product launches, and interim marketing staffing solutions. Stage
4 Solutions is staffed by senior-level consultants in the Silicon
Valley and India.

Since founding the company in 2001, Niti and the team of senior
marketing professionals have achieved 100% referenceability with
market leading clients such as HP, Symantec, SAP, HP, Sun
Microsystems, Yahoo!, Symantec, Nokia, Wind River, and a host of
start-up companies.

Prior to founding Stage 4 Solutions, Niti was the Director of
Product Marketing for Agile Software, a leading provider of
Product Lifecycle Management solutions. Previously Niti led the
team at HP responsible for a $400M PC server product line.

Niti holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BS in Accounting
and Finance with highest honors from The Wharton School of Business.


Panelists:

Brian Lawley, CEO, 280 Group
Brian is the CEO and founder of the 280 Group, which provides
consulting, contractors, training and templates. During the last
twenty years of his career he has focused on Product Management
and Product Marketing and has shipped more than fifty successful
products. He is the former President of the Silicon Valley
Product Management Association, won the 2008 AIPMM award for
Excellence in Thought Leadership for Product Management and is
the author of the best-selling book, Expert Product Management.
Mr. Lawley has been featured on CNBC's World Business Review and
the Silicon Valley Business Report and writes articles for a
variety of publications including the Product Management 2.0
newsletter and Blog.

Deb Siegle, Principal, Strategic Marketing Solutions
Deb Siegle assists clients in the areas of strategic research,
market and product development, technology industry analysis, and
customer loyalty and experience. She quickly identifies and
solves core issues, and develops actionable strategies and
tactics that make a difference to her clients.

Deb has an impressive high technology, healthcare, and services
background with over 25 years of marketing, customer service and
sales experience in public and privately held companies. Deb is a
popular speaker and has been featured in podcasts for executives
on "Building Customer Loyalty, "The Power of Retention
Marketing and The Market & Customer Voice: How Research Can
Reveal New Insights into Your Customers, Your Product, & Your Brand.

Deb is currently President of Women in Telecommunications (WiT) a
San Francisco based non-profit providing networking and education
opportunities. She also is a member of Society for Advancement of
Consulting (SAIC). In addition, she also held leadership
positions in city, state and national industry associations.

Deb has a MBA from the University of California - Berkeley and a
BBA from the University of Michigan.

Kathleen Gilligan, Array Partners
For over 25 years, Kathleen's leadership approach has built
successful organizations in enterprise and channel sales,
marketing, communications, training, and executive management.
Kathleen focuses on helping companies accelerate revenue through
improvement in sales processes, and by shaping the sales force to
meet customer needs. Among Kathleen's consulting clients are PGP
Corporation, BD BioSciences, CollabNet, Ramco Systems, and Design
Power. Kathleen spent ten years at Symantec Corporation as the
company grew from $64M to $750M. She held a variety of management
roles at Symantec, encompassing sales, training, and finally, the
leadership of a shared services organization that provided
training, communications, and marketing services to a worldwide
customer base.

Kathleen served as vice president of sales for AMR Research, a
research firm advising Fortune 500 clients on supply chain and
manufacturing strategies, and prior to that as Vice President of
Sales for OnDemand, later acquired by Chordiant.

Kathleen has worked as an executive coach and mentor through the
Growth and Leadership Center and Small Business Incubator, and as
an advisor to pre-revenue technology startups on revenue
generation and sales force development. She served as a member of
the board of directors for Kurant Corporation from 1999-2001.


SVPMA Workshop Series:

The Silicon Valley Product Management Association (SVPMA) was
founded to address the needs of Product Managers, Product
Marketing Managers and other professionals working within the
Product Management field.

The goal of the SVPMA Workshop Series is to provide our members
hands-on, interactive product management training delivered by
leading consulting and professional services companies, lecturers
and trainers.