Business and Strategic Plan Development

Organisational success depends on strong planning over the short, medium and longer term, linking planned activities to financial outcomes. Although the level of detail will be weaker across a longer planning horizon, the core ingredients will be common across all time periods, and a consistent ‘line of sight’ will exist between the very detailed short tem plans and broader long term goals. This ensures that the organisation doesn’t easily get distracted by a lack of focus and an excess of opportunism, such that although there is always a plenty of hard work and activity, the business never in fact achieves its long term objectives, although it may enjoy some short term successes. All plans should be costed and the effect on the bottom line modelled, as well as the balance sheet and cash flow. We have extensive experience in generating these integrated plans and will be happy to undertake their development on your behalf.

Option Appraisals

Developing an objective methodology and evaluation for determining a preferred option from a range of options involving many competing factors and outcomes. This usually requires sophisticated spreadsheet models designed to compute across a range of scenarios (e.g. pessimistic, middling or optimistic external environments) in order to identify the best course of action. There will typically be a small number of headline options, beneath which sit a series of sub-options, leading to a high level of modelling complexity. Examples may include evaluating funding options for a new project or business, developing an investment strategy for a charity, combining quantitative and qualitative criteria in determining the right business application software, etc. We would develop, model and report options on your behalf in a structured, digestible and transparent way.

Critical Success Factors

In every organisation there are a small but critical set of factors that drive business performance and which can be influenced by the business; if focussed upon intensively by management, they will almost always ensure long term success. They need to be forward-looking, planned, measured and reported, and action taken when targets are missed, since actual business results will only reflect the behaviour of these measures further down the track. Examples may include monitoring long term access to working capital, customer/stakeholder satisfaction levels, or supply chain price and reliability, etc. We would help you indentify, model, report and manage these fundamental business indicators.

Key Performance Indicators

As well as Critical Success Factors, there is another level of performance indices that will heavily influence ultimate financial success, if managed effectively. Remember, by the time you report actual financial performance, it is too late too influence the outcome. Management focus on achieving these targets, which must be measurable and manageable, will reap long term business sustainability. Examples may include enquiries per month coupled with enquiry conversion rates for a service provider, footfall and average spend per customer for a retailer, project backlog and order book value for a project-based business, and customer or stakeholder satisfaction scores for charitable and not for profit bodies, etc. We can help you indentify, model, report and manage these performance indicators.

Strategy Papers

Many organisations, especially in the charitable and not for profit sectors, require well-structured and comprehensive written proposal assessments, usually containing rigorous cost-benefit evaluations, in order to justify adopting a particular course of action. We are vastly experienced in the structuring and preparation of these papers, and carrying out the underlying modelling necessary to provide full and credible accompanying cost-benefit analysis.

Financial Literacy Workshops

Business performance will always be strongest when all senior personnel and budget holders have developed a minimum level of financial management and basic accounting literacy, especially in budgeting techniques, understanding of accruals, relationship between a profit & loss/income & expenditure accounts and balance sheets, cash flow forecasting, etc. The strongest business performers are the ones in which these concepts are most widely understood. We will be more than happy to deliver tailored workshops and seminars in these or any other areas to groups of staff ranging from director/senior manager level downwards in order to help you strengthen your organisation’s management capability and performance.