Testimonials

Listed in alphabetical order by last name.

“By understanding the plays we could make (or have made on us) we were able to better analyze what was happening in the external world and anticipate how that might affect us. The clinics are fun and instructive….applying a rational approach to what otherwise might be just intuitive.” — Jan Botz, former Executive Director, Chief Communications Officer, Dow Corning Corporation

“The Playmaker ontology is a knothole into the war room of every politician on the planet. Read it, and you won’t need leaked strategy memos to dope out the plays they’re running.” — Michael Cornfield, Professor of Political Management, The George Washington University

“The Playmaker system is the gold standard. In my two decades at the Pentagon, it’s the only model I’ve used that incorporates all the human plays of strategic decision making. It does so in a way that they can be measured and it’s ideal for wargames and simulations.” — George Capen, Senior Military Assistant, Office of Net Assessment, U.S. Secretary of Defense

“Politics is a game everyone can understand. Alan Kelly’s system exposes the precise plays of partisans and the strategies of candidates – especially those in The White House, or those who hope to be.” — Tim Farley, Host, The Morning Briefing, SiriusXM, POTUS 124

“Playmaker is a breakthrough for information warriors: It combines grand strategy with tactically usability – an indispensable system for countering and winning wars of words.” — James Farwell, Author, Persuasion and Power, and Information Warfare

“I’ve used Playmaker at two Fortune 100 companies with very good market and revenue share results. Alan Kelly’s innovative taxonomy and decision system help my teams plan, analyze, anticipate, rapidly respond to, and win tight contests in the commercial, enterprise and public sectors.” — Jim Ganthier, SVP, Customer Solutions Strategy and Advocacy, Dell Technologies, and former VP, Global Servers Marketing, Hewlett-Packard

“Playmaker offers new techniques that make my communications–both written and verbal–more impactful and more compelling. Now I know the plays of my market, what they’re called, how they work, and how I can use them to win hearts and minds in the ‘battlefield’ which is sometimes the social media.” — Mark Grindle, Accenture

“Alan Kelly’s Playmaker system is an elegant theory, carefully conceptualized and tested over many years. Few match its sophistication and no comparable practitioner models exist. While most of the strategies are asymmetrical, the combination of the Playmaker and Excellence theories provide complementary and contrasting explanations of how public relations is–and should be–practiced.” — James Grunig, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus at University of Maryland

“The Playmaker system is a breakthrough for strategic communication management. It offers for global communications a common lexicon and a proven method that helps us develop and drive our agenda in a hyper-competitive marketplace.” — Herbert Heitmann, former Chief Communications Officer at SAP AG, Royal Dutch Shell and Bayer

“The Playmaker system standardizes and distills virtually any communications move that a company can make, along with frameworks for how to react to competitive moves and change the game by driving your own strategy.” — Dave Kellogg, former CEO, Host Analytics, and former SVP and GM of Service Cloud, Salesforce.com

“The Taxonomy of Influence reminds me that there’s more to communicating than just simple declarations of information. I am a visual person and I now have a straight-forward way to access the range of options at my disposal – from being coy via the Ping to saying it my own way via the Recast. Since adopting the system, my company-sponsored blog posts have been more fun to write and more entertaining to read, evidenced by the higher traffic count.”  — Bill Kosik, Principal Data Center Energy Technologist, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise

“If you’re in the business of running plays – and who isn’t – the Playmaker decision system is an essential decision tool for holding back competitors and driving message.  In the world of point-counter-point marketing, Alan Kelly’s system is a Rosetta Stone for decoding the plays of your marketplace and flipping them to your advantage.  I’ve used it, and it works.” — Andy Lark, former Chief Marketing & Online Officer, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and former VP & General Manager, Large Enterprise Marketing & Online at Dell

“Ever wonder how marketing campaigns get built? How messages are spun? How public opinion is managed?  Here are the answers – in a clear, enjoyable, and eye-opening system that even the black belts of influence will find surprising.” — Jay Conrad Levinson, Author, Guerrilla Marketing book series

“Alan Kelly’s playbook reads like an insider’s field guide to the ins and outs of positioning warfare.  Master it, and you can play with pros anytime.” — Geoffrey A. Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm, Dealing with Darwin and other marketing classics

“The Playmakers have devised a set of uniquely efficient tools that accelerate understanding and build consensus for action in fast-paced, highly competitive environments.  Add to that good judgment and sound advice and you’ve got yourself a decision system.” — Bill Nielsen, Corporate Communications Counsel, Johnson & Johnson (ret.)

“The Elements of Influence is a remarkable and timely book.  It’s also a good read, not only for those in the professions of influence, but for those of us subject to their maneuverings.  No one in marketing, sales, public relations, lobbying, and other forms of psychological influence can call their understanding complete without first examining what Alan Kelly has written.” — James S. O’Rourke, IV, Ph.D., Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame

“In the  Elements of Influence, Alan Kelly emerges as one of the most original theorists in years. Shrewd practitioners will use his system, while scholars scientifically test it, far into the future.”  — Frank E. Ovaitt, Jr., former President and CEO, Institute for Public Relations

“This is the ultimate playbook for communicators and campaigners of all stripes.” — Dan Schnur, former director, Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, University of Southern California

“The Playmaker framework has allowed HP Technology Services to drive our value proposition in the social media. Our bloggers now know when to compete and when to collaborate. The result is relevant content that builds buzz and enables customer connections.” — Aimee Schoaf,  Marketing Director, Technology Services, Hewlett-Packard

“Since taking The Elements of Influence course at George Washington University, the Playmaker system has become my go-to strategic public affairs guide. The system is an essential resource for anyone in the political arena.” — Rob Shrum, Vice President of External Affairs at National Taxpayers Union

“The Playmaker System is the new definitive ontology for influence operations and all the more remarkable because it transcends cultures, politics and military deception in both business and civil arenas.” — Allan Steinhardt, Ph.D., Chief Engineer, AEye and former Chief Scientist, Booz Allen Hamilton

“The Playmaker system is a much-needed framework for codifying the far too subjective discipline of strategy. It replaces aspirational thinking with objective analysis.  We built a frontier graduate class around it and found that our students could systematically dissect complex strategies in timely cases and anticipate opposing actions.  That’s quite a breakthrough from a teaching standpoint, and it has enormous implications for the professions of communication and influence” — Jerry Swerling, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California