Strategy & Business Planning

Organisational Strategy & Business Planning

We support organisations with figuring out where they want to go (Vision) and how they’re going to get there (Strategy).

Alignment: VISION, MISSION, VALUES, STRATEGY

Can you imagine everyone in your organisation working towards a common, clear mission? Can you imagine everyone being clear on how you’re going to get there? Can you imagine everyone aligned, like iron filings to a magnet, in the same direction? Can you imagine alignment between personal and organisational values and behaviours?

We support organisations with Strategy Development, Implementation & Review and Business Planning, resulting in strategic clarity and your people focusing on what’s important for organisational success.

AGILE STRATEGY

Strategic Planning boils down to making the best decisions possible with the information available, which is often incomplete &, as Covid-19 has reminded us, uncertain. Developing a mindset of strategy as an ongoing process, requiring agility in response to change, is important in the decision making and implementation planning processes. A clear and succinct strategy that is reviewed regularly will result in far better outcomes than a “perfect”, comprehensive document that remains largely unopened.

STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION

An important aspect of any strategy development process is the stakeholder consultation, to inform your analysis and to ensure buy-in and that all voices are heard. When we take the time to listen to what stakeholders have to say, the benefits are twofold – firstly, there are some great ideas floating around that have never been actioned and secondly, people feel that they have been heard and validated.

Analysis & CHOICES

Importantly, strategy development is just as much about defining what will not be pursued as it is about what will be pursued. This reduces wasted effort, ensures that people are not unreasonably stretched and increases the possibility that the strategic objectives defined will actually be achieved.

We support clients with contextual analysis to establish what dynamics are at play in the environment and the market and within their organisations, and financial analysis to ensure that the numbers stack up! It’s really important that challenges, opportunities, trends and assumptions are evaluated during the process.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES & ACTIONS

Once choices have been made regarding strategic priorities, strategic objectives, metrics and top level actions are defined.

It’s important that there’s no room for misinterpretation of objectives – it’s crucial that they are clear and measurable. For example, to “improve” or “grow” fundraising is meaningless, without defining the scale of the improvement or growth.

OUTCOMES

Clients have told us that they value us challenging them to move beyond their comfort zones, which has resulted in them defining and achieving strategic objectives that have sometimes been beyond their wildest dreams. When their people are clear about what’s important, it frees them up from working on unnecessary, diversionary tasks to focus on the actions that will lead to real results and this has been both invigorating and highly productive.