A sophisticated Charity Reserves Policy is linked directly to the Charity Strategic Plan. To elaborate, if funders understand your strategic plan well, they shouldn’t have a problem with your Reserves policy having no upper financial limit. Astute funders also expect to partner for a considerable period of time, with a charity that will be resilientContinue Reading Charity Strategic Plans and Reserves Policies
What is an options portfolio? A good way to think of an options portfolio is as an investment in future business flexibility. Some examples of those options may be valued on the organisation’s balance sheet. For example, sizeable unrestricted reserves (that can be invested to earn income until needed). Many examples of those options aren’tContinue Reading Options Portfolio
Let’s start with a forecasting assumption – that for a variety of reasons, the AI age will increase the level of business uncertainty for private sector, public sector and charity sector organisations alike. Two big drivers of this uncertainty are likely to be: Wait. What is an interference pattern? Imagine filling a plastic bucket ofContinue Reading Business Flexibility in the AI age
In a constantly evolving world, arguably the only kind of tradition that matters is the tradition of flexibility. Monopolies, specialist expertise and economies of scale aside, sources of net value may be fleeting. But flexibility is there for the long haul. So why not make your business strategy and entity goals about not just buildingContinue Reading Investment Gains from Leveraging Business Flexibility
How fast should your organisation modernise? Four ways to view this are (1) through the eyes of your key customers – ideally modernise faster than their changing needs (2) relative to your competitors (3) relative to peers in your sector who aren’t your competitors and (4) fast enough to stay compliant with the regulator ofContinue Reading Business Modernisation Rate
Workforce resilience arguably includes three aspects; protection, durability and healing. This article examines the middle one, durability (wear and tear) in more detail. Emergency services teams and the military are great HR examples of team resiliency under a range of unexpected, or unplanned operating conditions. The team is tested, sometimes to breaking point. They relyContinue Reading Workplace Resiliency – Durability
Workforce resilience arguably includes three aspects; protection, durability and healing. This article examines the final one, healing in more detail. Health workers are experts in helping people heal after illness or accident. They may even have multiple healing options at their disposal. They adapt the treatments as needed. In the A&E/ER environment, medics handle multipleContinue Reading Workplace Resilience – Healing Rates
McKinsey & Co, World renown strategic consultants, in their article ‘Resilience for sustainable, inclusive growth’, publishing online in June 2022 state that ‘resilience should be seen as the ability to deal with adversity, withstand shocks and continuously adapt and accelerate as disruptions and crises arise over time.’ Meanwhile, sleicest-consulting.org.uk has developed a slightly different definition:Continue Reading Resilience defined
Post Covid, demand for office usage continues to be uncertain. Some ways that businesses, government organisations, education institutions and charities can use flexibility to hedge uncertainty are as follows: Install flexible wall partitions, so meetings rooms become variable in their capacity. Exploit demand for shorter term tenancy leases, including one year leases and one dayContinue Reading Business Facilities and Flexibility
Delivering customer or beneficiary benefits requires 4 ingredients; insight, strategic focus, expertise and business flexibility. Understanding customer or beneficiary needs is the insight. Choosing which of them to meet well involves both strategic focus and expertise. Building up and maintaining business flexibility ensures survival of the organisation in an uncertain world. Perennial business brands typicallyContinue Reading Business and Charity Success