Permanent Endowments One exciting area to boost charity income on a sustainable annual basis is to set up one or more permanent endowments. For charities who are more interested in helping relatively few beneficiaries, but intensively over a long period of time, then being able to draw on investment income and permanent endowment income eachContinue Reading Innovative new sources of net income for charities
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
What do political parties have in common with charities? Both are voted out by their initial supporters when they fail in their impact. Impact can be diluted when they become less relevant to their supporter’s needs. But also, when it’s clear they are helping progressively fewer supporters over time, even if many needs per supporterContinue Reading Political Parties and Charities
Since the future is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA), as is the arrival of assorted black swan events, smart organisations build business resilience in the meantime. Building a significant level of financial reserves increases your ability to buy time or play for time, accelerate innovations or isolate threats. Automating key processes and investing inContinue Reading Business Resilience and Black Swans
Risk velocity (like risk mitigation) seems to be too much of a poor relation compared to risk probability and risk magnitude. Risk breadth is another aspect. For a given threat, if there is uncertainty on velocity, then having some broad mitigations like buying time and playing for time is helpful. Stepping out of the lineContinue Reading Risk Attributes
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
‘What if’, scenario planning can foster useful discussion on the kind of future can you expect. Such planning helps a organisation decide whether it should take actions now, in anticipation of various potential futures. Those actions might involve considering; innovation, efficiency and resource focus for greater impact. Unfortunately, in the not for profit sector, manyContinue Reading Scenario Planning, BCP, Risk Registers and Real Options Portfolios
The media frequently report on extreme weather events battering coastlines and causing flooding, whether storms in the UK, hurricanes in the Caribbean, typhoons in South East Asia or cyclones in the South Pacific. Such events cause huge problems for emergency services teams, insurance companies, government environmental agencies, tourism operators, utility companies, boat-run businesses andContinue Reading Business Flexibility, Resilience and Extreme Weather Threats