The only multi-disciplinary coaching programme for all technologists

Focus on the skills that employers look for

Advance your career and focus on those competencies that employers look for when interviewing - Relationships, Value, Strategy and Innovation, Portfolio and Organisational Change.

Transition to a new role

Practice the techniques that make you an indispensable contributor in roles such as Customer Success Manager, Service Manager, Product Manager, Account Manager, Business Partner, Business Analyst and Project Manager

Gain recognition with our SDBP® Foundation certificate

Discuss previous and current work challenges live with the coach. Take the online exams to demonstrate your expertise in carefully crafted real-life scenarios. Share your experience in online forums.

Brought to you by Baxter Thompson Associates

"My objective is to help you be successful in your career. I can do this best by sharing my corporate enterprise experience and the lessons I have learnt in working across teams and planning for the future. These courses and exams represent what I needed to know at the start of my career. You don't have to wait 20 years to find out. You can change now and start with our SDBP® Foundation Coaching Programme. I wish you every success with your future!"

Jon Baxter, Founder and Director Digital Products - Strategic Partnering.

Courses needed to gain the SDBP® Foundation certificate

Earn respect
Deal with politics
Get your voice heard
Understand the real agenda
Plan your influence and persuasion activity

Focus on customers
Identify value (outcome vs output)
Measure Value
Troubleshoot poor performance
Deliver improvement

Define a strategy
Communicate a strategy
Populate ideas on your roadmap with innovation tools
Build a roadmap
Discuss the impact of change with capability maps

Why be a passenger when you can be the driver?

These three courses are your personal development plan for the year. If you demonstrate the skills that the SDBP® Foundation certificate represents, then you can:

Gain agreement on challenges, projects, and roles with colleagues and peers so you can make the biggest impact possible in your organisation.
Become a credible authority who makes things happen in your organisation.
Identify the most valuable activities in your organisation and start achieving your goals easier and quicker.
Help executives understand what technology can do for their organisations in a meaningful and insightful way.

These three courses that make up the SDBP® Foundation certificate lay the foundation for your career advancement. This is your opportunity to acquire new skills, boost your chances of promotion and salary increase, and have more options on the job market.

And the best part is, all it takes is 1-2 hours a week to complete each course over four months.

How to Navigate Office Politics and Develop Relationships That Allow YOU to Make the Biggest Impact!

Your ability to be respected by your colleagues and stakeholders, influence and get them to take onboard your ideas, and manage them so you can work together effectively is the defining factor in achieving your goals. An inability to do this will result in your work being undervalued, a hostile working environment, and an unfulfilling career.

The course will ensure you can cultivate and manage relationships so you can make the biggest impact possible and grow your organisation and career. Here’s what you will discover in the course:

How to define your value proposition in the organisation so you can position yourself as a key player.
4 questions you must ask yourself to uncover your value proposition.
The tools and techniques, approaches, behaviours, and traits you need to influence people.
How to find out if people in your company support or resist your message.
How to be and come across authentic and credible to your co-workers.
How to lead the political discussion instead of being subject to it.
How to avoid making the typical mistakes which instantly break rapport.
A template to help you elicit information like facts, emotions, opinions, values, how they feel.
How to engage your colleagues in ways which make them respond positively and give you key information.
How to demonstrate empathy and create more engagement in your relationships with colleagues and people in senior positions.
How to identify people’s pain points so you can offer the right solutions.
The 3 pillars of influence you need to communicate with people to make them take action.
How to get people excited about your ideas so then want to implement them.
How to persuade by understanding the needs of your audience and matching your communications approach.
How to adapt the words you use to influence different personality types.
How to get people to commit to your ideas and make faster progress.
A 7-step formula about how to deal with difficult people and difficult conversations.
How to stop hidden assumptions derailing your ability to influence.
How to motivate people who are disinterested.
How to instill trust in people so they reveal their thinking and become receptive to our ideas.
How to go from not being listened to to being sought out for your expertise and advice.
4 areas you must get alignment in for your value proposition to be a success.
2 proven ways to manage relationships most effectively.
How to manage customer expectations so you can avoid misunderstandings and nurture long term relationships.
How to develop a long-term strategy to achieve the outcome of your value proposition.

Relationships are the key to your career success!

Did you know?....

A study showed that those Linkedin candidates job profile’s who were getting hired at the fastest rate had the soft skill persuasion as the second highest sought after skill listed on their profile.

https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/trends-and-research/2020/most-in-demand-hard-and-soft-skills

Demonstrate Credibility by Not Just Measuring Progress but MAKING Progress to Gain a Seat at the Decision Maker's Table!

Do you ever feel like you’re stuck in Groundhog day where you face the same problems over and over? Do you try your best yet still get criticised for late delivery or for a failing service?

Unless you are contributing to the activities that create the most value you’re going to be distracted by bureaucracy and quite often become part of the problem rather than part of the solution. This causes friction between different departments as flow of information, delivery of projects and services become constrained, stuck in a queue or waiting approval.

Sometimes the ONLY way to get something done is to bypass the process or system that actually implemented to make the organisation more effective! This is where Value Management comes into play.

Value Management is the process that you and your colleagues take to make sure you understand what the goal is, identify where the obstacles are that prevent your team from reaching it, figuring out a plan and making it happen. - Not just measuring progress, but MAKING progress!

This way you you can start to unblock the choke-points, straighten the kinks in the process, remove unnecessary steps and start to see improvements in the way services, products and projects are delivered. This also means departments can cooperate better and be more likely to deliver projects on time and with more regular consistent ‘flow’.

Having set expectations in Relationship Management, Value Management effectively closes the gap in expectations between provider and customer. This is why Value Management builds you a reputation of excellence as it shows stakeholders you can get them results. They see you as someone who gets things done and makes an impact which makes them take notice of the value you add to the organisation.

Here’s what you will discover in the Value Management course:

How to gain clarity on what your goals are and how they relate to the customer.
How to identify and focus on activities which add the most value to the the customer and organisation.
How to define value and measure your progress towards your goals
How to avoid wasting time treating the symptoms that cause you to work overtime and get to the root cause of the issue.
How to improve the way you and your team work in ANY activity.
The simple secrets that can free up the time for you to focus on more strategic activities.
How to find the rationale to say no to low value activities.
How to overcome bureaucracy and make your team and organisation more effective.

Lay the foundations and plan for the future. Inspire Change Through Understanding Trends and Applying Them to your Organisation!

How would you like to help decision-makers understand what technology can do for them in the next three to five years? How would you do that?

This is why you first need to understand what the company is about, the service it provides its customers, its values, how it operates, and what its principles are to help focus on what technology applications add value or not.Then you can come up with ideas and give decision-makers options on what will give them a competitive advantage.

Seeking alignment and direction with your business peers on the opportunity that Technology can bring means a fundamental shift in mindset and approach. This is why in my strategy management course you will discover:

How to research what new kinds of competition is on the horizon.
How to consider the technology opportunities available to your organisation
How to understand the application of that technology to your company context.
How to inspire colleagues with new ideas so you can prepare for change and be one step ahead of your competitors.
How to clearly show what your colleagues are trying to achieve and how through their teams.
How to work out whether there is duplication of effort, gaps in key strategic areas and opportunities to leverage existing assets.
How to check whether different teams are aligned and working towards the same big strategic themes.
How to provide a timeline for the major assets that plug the gap in skills, processes and technology.
How to communicate your ideas to everyone in the organisation so they can understand how their role fits in with the overall strategy.

Did you know?...

“Only 23% of executive level stakeholders believe their CIO has developed an IT strategy that is effectively aligned with their corporate strategy and desired capabilities”

Source: Info-Tech’s CIO-CXO Alignment Program survey results 2015

What course delegates say....

Osman Ismail, Director, Business Partnership and Digital Transformation

"Jon's expertise, experience and passion is distilled into this course. It really is well structured offering important insights into the often neglected domain of strategic business partnering. I learnt new thinking, took away templates and enjoyed the delivery of the course as well as the practice exercises with my fellow attendees."

Thierry Ackermann, Interim CTO, CIO and Transformation Leader

I've participated in all of Jon's 5 courses. They are fantastically accessible and immediately applicable. You'll walk away encouraged that these tried and tested techniques can give you the confidence to make the difference in your day to day work. Thoroughly recommended!

Diksha Vyas, IT Business Partner

"Jon shares his experience throughout this intensive course and gave fantastic insight into how we work in organisations - it has inspired an exciting to-do list! I can't recommend the course enough - it gets 10 out of 10!"

Sarah Fogg, Head of IT BRM, Royal Hollaway University

"Our stakeholders have started to trust us more based on better expectation management and small incremental improvements through the application of principles and approaches taught on the workshops by Baxter Thompson Associates. Fantastic insight!"

Get Certified!

Gain recognition with your peer group with the Strategic Digital Business Partner (SDBP®) Foundation Certificate and present it to potential employers on LinkedIn.

Join the growing ranks of qualified strategic partners!

Demonstrate value to customers by show-casing your ability to overcome the challenges of bureaucracy, politics, communication through gaining the SDBP® certificate

Gain confidence in applying the most impactful established best practices from three foundational competencies in your day to day work experience through achieving the SDBP® certificate.

Accelerate and enhance your career prospects in your current role and open up opportunities longer term when you apply the techniques consistently and demonstrate progress in gaining the SDBP® certificate.

See a common link to a variety of different roles in your organisation and complement existing role-based qualifications through having the SDBP® certificate.

Gain the SDBP® Foundation certificate through our scenario based exams and participating online with the course tutor and other delegates

No more learning by rote! The SDBP® exam applies a unique approach to validating your traits and behaviours in addition to the competencies required through an online role-play story-based exam, where you take on the role of various employees in a fictional organisation, drawn from a synthesis of the creator’s experiences.

Explore how Sophie, the IT Portfolio Director helps New Frontier Bank delivers a digital transformation. Each of the fourteen exams build on the previous, creating an engaging real-world story where context and application meet to give you a real sense of how practical our techniques are.

What would you do in their shoes? In the exam, you will have to choose which is the best outcome from a multiple-choice question. There are typically 20 questions to answer per exam. Exam rationales are provided to help understand the application and are presented once the exam is complete. There is no time limit but a 100% pass rate is required after 3 attempts.

We believe that learning is in the doing. The more practice you have, the more insight you gain and the more valuable you become to an organisation. So we do things differently. Part of your certification reflects a contribution to the debate and an engagement with people on the course.

You get private access to recorded webinars where other delegates share their experiences of applying the techniques in the workplace. As part of gaining the certification, you will be expected to participate in a minimum of two online coaching sessions per course.

As part of your subscription, you get access to a private Online Forum where you can post and answer questions. To complete each course, you will need to share three times your experiences - such as asking the group to reflect on a work challenge you have or responding to another. Your questions will also be answered by the course tutor.

6 Nationwide Forums @ 95 Delegates

20 Public Workshops

60 European Corporate Clients

300 Course Attendees

10 Partners

Join our coaching programme

We restart our online live coaching sessions three semesters a year. You can join at any time and take advantage of the recorded coaching sessions, but you are more likely to meet your peers at the same time and share your journey as part of an online learning group at the start of the season.

Reserve your place now!

Choose from one of the options below

One Course At A Time

Start in the area that most interests you

You can take one course at a time when you are ready. Purchase each course separately and join the Spring, Summer or Autumn courses for four months. When you have completed the exams in all three courses, you gain the SDBP® foundation certificate

Buy Relationship Management

Buy Value for Products and Services

Buy Strategy and Innovation

SDBP® Foundation Certificate

Gain the SDBP® Foundation certificate

Fast-track your career progress with the bundle of three courses for a total of 12 months validity. Pay upfront and join either the Spring, Summer or Autumn cohort in that year and do the courses one at a time or simultaneously, depending on how quickly you want to achieve the Foundation Certificate.

Buy year-long subscription

Starter Pack

Not sure about the certificate?

Gain access to the course material only for a small monthly fee where you can watch video explainers, read the hints and tips and do the exercises. When you are ready to engage in our interactive forum and learning groups with live coaching, complete the exams, and upgrade to a certificate, we will refund your starter pack subscription.

Buy Starter Pack subscription

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the syllabus?

The syllabus is embodied in the SDBP® framework, which consists of five core units for collaborating across teams, - Relationship, Value for Products and Services, Strategy and Innovation, Portfolio and Organisational Change. Each units has a list of modules that contain easily referenceable and applicable insight. Click below for each unit:

What are the entry requirements for the course?

There are no entry requirements for any of the courses.
However, to gain the SDBP® Practitioner certificate you will need to have passed the SDBP® Foundation certificate first and have five years of work experience.

Who would benefit most from these courses and the SDBP® Foundation Certificate?

The context of the courses is taken from the author's experience of managing information technology. So, if you are a person "outside looking in" and involved in the decision making process for technology or someone who is trying to answer questions such as:

How can I be sure that I am getting value for money from my technology services?
What framework do I apply to ensure the best technology platform for my department?
What could our technology landscape look like in five years time?
How do I prioritise work, features or projects?
How can I ensure the best chance of success for my business case?
How can I make sure that technology delivers the benefits we committed to?

.... then look no further, as we provide the answers!

In addition, people who have been on these courses come from a variety of roles, including: IT Business Partners, Project Managers, Business Analysts, Enterprise Architects, Customer Success Managers, Product Managers and Service Delivery Managers.

What do I get as part of the course subscription?

For the starter pack subscription, y ou only get access to our online learning platform, videos of workshops where the expert explains the theory and discussion notes for each lesson.

For all other subscriptions and purchases, you get in addition:

Exercises and downloadable copies of the course content.
Access to our exclusive online forum where you can ask and answer questions relating to the course and specific work challenges. Videos of past group online discussion are also stored here.
Access to our exams that cover the story of New Frontier bank undergoing a Digital Transformation, broken down into scenarios that reflect the syllabus of the course, where you apply your judgement in answering multiple choice questions.
An invitation to participate in our online group and individual discussions every couple of weeks to discuss the application of the course, its exercises or current work challenges.

Can I subscribe just to a part of the package?

Apart from the Starter Pack, No. This is an interactive course and the sum of the course components taken together is greater than the components consumed individually. This way you get the most benefit!

How do I meet other people on the course?

You can meet other members by:

Joining the online group coaching sessions,
Creating your profile on the Online Forum and posting questions and answers.
Asking the expert to reach out in their network and connect you directly with people who have similar profiles.

One and a half hours per week per course. That's alot! Why?

Think of it this way. Other qualifications that are typically class based last three days at the "foundation" level. Then there is the exam and the preparation for the exam. In total you may spend one week in order to gain the certificate. Now spread that week's effort across 16 weeks. You have the advantage of pacing your workload when and where you desire. In addition, you are not cramming for an exam at the end, learning a vocabulary and theoretical framework for an exam; you are considering how to apply the techniques in a real life context - and you get feedback when there are better alternative answers. In contrast to a class based course, where you listen to the tutor walk through the content, that's already done for you with the pre-recorded video content. This means you get the equivalent time to talk instead, discussing application, context, your work challenges and what other people experience.

For the same effort of another certificate, you complete the course sufficiently confident to implement the techniques in your workplace!

What is the schedule for next season's coaching sessions?

You can check here: https://academy.baxterthompson.com/event

How long does the course subscription last for?

Unless you buy monthly starter pack, the initial subscription for each course is set at four months.

Can I extend the course subscription?

Once the initial subscription has expired, then you are invited to subscribe on a rolling monthly, reduced rate basis.

Can I pause the course subscription?

Once you have started your subscription, you cannot unfortunately.

Can I delay the start of my course subscription?

Yes, you can delay the start of the subscription to align with the seasonal schedule of coaching sessions. You need to select either Spring, Summer or Autumn at checkout.

Can I pay for the course in monthly instalments?

For the starter pack, you can pay monthly, otherwise we ask you pay by credit card in full.

Successful course completion and the SDBP® Foundation certificate

These are interactive courses. Successful individual course completion is when you have:

Attended and contributed to two online group / individual coaching sessions.
Asked or replied to three questions in the online forum.
Successfully passed all the exams in the course.

For each course, you can request a course completion certificate. However, you will only receive the digitally signed SDBP® Foundation certificate that can be published on LinkedIn once you have completed the above requirements for Relationship, Value and Strategy Management courses together.

The SDBP® Practitioner Certificate

To gain the SDBP® Practitioner certificate, candidates will be required to have:

Obtained the SDBP® Foundation Certificate
Met the three course completion requirements above for the Portfolio and Organisational Change Management courses.
Have written a case study that demonstrates the application of at least one technique from each of the five courses and shown the consequential benefit that is signed by a business sponsor, your line manager and approved by a Baxter Thompson Associate.
Have five years work experience.

This is currently offered only as a class to corporate clients and you can be informed of the latest developments by subscribing to our newsletter below.

Bespoke Services or In-Person Workshops

For further information on how we can help you and your team, please contact us or book an initial 15 minute meeting

Becoming a Baxter Thompson Associate

If you are passionate about Strategic Digital Business Partnerships, there are opportunities for working with us. Please contact us to discuss how we could work together.

15 Day Money Back Satisfaction Guarantee

In the unlikely event you’re not absolutely thrilled with our courses, then any time before the end of the first 15 days of your subscription you can ask for a full refund. You won’t have to give a reason why. There are no obligations. No questions asked. No hassle.

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