Strategic Solutions helps organizations assess and respond to
organizational change, economic trends and competitive demands likely to
have a significant impact over the next 5-10 years by creating a strategic plan that
supports the achievement of organizational goals. ______________________________________________________________________
Creating a Strategic
Plan for your Organization
First, SSI conducts one or more in a series of comprehensive Organizational Assessments to help determine
an organization's strengths and weakness, target markets, threats to success, ability to adapt to
change, and policy or program challenges, as well as to clarify organizational
mission and vision.
See Organizational Assessments below.
Second, SSI develops strategic goal statements consistent with your mission statement and organizational lifecycle (see Lifecycles below).
Strategic goals are broad statements of what the organization hopes to achieve
in the next three to five years. Goals focus on outcomes or results and are
qualitative in nature.
We
then develop strategies for each goal. Strategies are statements of major
approach or method for attaining goals and resolving specific issues.
Strategies
emerge from the earlier assessments: change, needs, issues and market assessments; particularly
strengths and weaknesses identified in the needs assessment as well as
implication statements developed as part of the market and issues
assessments. ______________________________________________________________________
Effective Strategies
An effective
strategy does one or more of the following:
1. Exploits environmental opportunities
2. Defends against environmental threats
3. Leverages organizational competencies
4. Corrects organizational deficiencies
5. Offers some basis for future competitive
advantage
6. Combats forces eroding current competitive
position
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Organizational Assessments
SSI offers six interconnected Organizational Assessments:
1. Change Assessment: SSI examines political, economic, technological, cultural, demographic, competitive and philanthropic trends that may
affect your organization over the next five years. We then determine which changes are opportunities
to grow and which could be threats to success. This assessment also includes identifying implications of changes and trends—the ways in which an organization might respond to the
opportunities and threats.
2. Market Assessment: SSI examines changes in the needs and
perceptions of markets, market position and constituencies. For most organizations, these include clients or consumers, sponsors, donors, volunteers,
staff, board members, collaborators and competitors.
Market
Assessment consists of the following determinations:
* Key markets and constituents
* Needs, perceptions and service expectations of
each market * Emerging market trends
* Implications for an organization
* Response to changes and trends in your market(s)
Also see Marketing services under Communications Consulting.
3. Needs
Assessment: SSI assesses the internal structures, processes and operations
of an organization, and identifies strengths and weaknesses. Areas assessed include leadership, board
governance, personnel (paid and volunteer), fundraising operations, physical
facilities, resources (including financial and technology), programs, services
and/or products.
4. Issues Assessment: SSI examines fundamental
policy or program challenges that define significant obstacles and
opportunities of an organization. SSI
also identifies critical issues that reflect major shifts in thinking that can challenge
the business as usual mentality.
5. Mission Assessment. A mission statement should suggest general purpose and illustrate, in
the broadest sense, what an organization does, with and for whom, and why (your
ultimate end), as well as distinct competence. SSI helps organizations clearly
define their mission; or if one exists, revise their statement in light of
changing or emerging goals and vision.
6. Vision Assessment. A vision statement suggests future direction
and an organizational ideal—what it should be in the future. SSI helps organizations determine what they
want to accomplish and what they will need to change or achieve to bring about desired
results.
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Five Cycles of Organization Life
SSI
creates strategic plans for organizations consistent with their lifecycle
1. Start-up * Management: founder-driven
* Staff: small and nonhierarchical; communication
is informal
* Board: ED-selected, small, homogenous; emotionally tied to mission and intimately involved in operations
2. Juvenile * Management: strategic division of labor
begins
* Staff: grows and broadens
* Board: members add professional
expertise; begin to focus on planning and oversight
3.
Mature * Management: professional, hierarchical;
increased authority/accountability
* Staff: increase further in size and
capacity
* Board: increase in size, heterogeneity; focus on planning, oversight and fundraising; forms committees
4. Stagnant * Management: focus is on specific programs,
not broader organizational goals
* Staff: fiefdoms, low morale and high
turnover
* Board: low turnover, sluggish, less
involved
