Management Consultancy

Developing a Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas, or BMC, is a tool created in the last five years, based on work done by two Europeans Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur. It has been developed by Angela Cluff and Bernard Ross at =mc to make it useful for charities and NGOs keen to plot how their social business works – in […]

Case study: Engagement Strategy Development at Anthony Nolan

Anthony Nolan is the leading UK charity working in the areas of leukaemia and haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. It recruits individuals to a national donor register and carries out research to help make bone marrow transplants more effective. Their vision is to save and improve the lives of everyone who needs a stem cell transplant. To succeed in this ambition, […]

Case study: Delivering change at Into Film

Into Film is a national agency working throughout the UK to engage children and young people in film and cinema. Their focus is educational, supporting teachers and educators to achieve a wide range of learning outcomes using film. The programme includes a network of extra-curricular film clubs, resources to use in clubs and in the […]

Bernard Ross

Bernard is an internationally regarded expert in strategic thinking, organisational change and personal effectiveness. He works in Europe, USA, Africa and South America.

His assignments have involved a wide range of not-for-profit organisations over 25 years. Those in the UK include British Red Cross, NSPCC, Macmillan Cancer, and the Science Museum. He has also consulted for a number of universities including Oxford and the Sorbonne. International agencies on his assignment roster include ICRC, IFRC, Amnesty International, Greenpeace International, UNICEF, and MSF.

Change management: the 5Cs of change response

 Over the years =mc has carried out a significant body of research and change work with a wide range of not-for-profit organisations. And we’ve found there are five core reactions to change, that we call the 5Cs. To be an effective change manager you need to understand these five reactions in your colleagues and adopt […]

Barriers to a successful change process

What most holds back a successful change process? There’s lots of stuff published about organisational change and how to do it. But there’s less about why change processes don’t work or fail to gain traction. And this is a big problem both in business and in the world of charities. In a recent survey by […]

Quiz: how good are you at selling?

Take this quiz – just 5 questions – to see what sort of a sales person you are.

Strategy for an uncertain future: Scenario Planning

In a quickly changing and uncertain world, it often feels like traditional strategic planning with its emphasis on analysis and projection isn’t quite covering all the bases. In this article we explain how scenario planning can enable you to create flexible strategies for uncertain futures. You can also find out how Christian Aid and the […]

Too much yolk and not enough white – what’s your perceived added value?

 Economists from Adam Smith onwards argue that people will buy whatever is cheapest when offered a choice between similar options – so acting in their own best interest. But we know from experience that this is not what actually happens – people often buy products that are obviously not the cheapest or even the best […]

Earned Income – Seven Key Considerations Before You Start

 This article gives you 7 key considerations if you’re thinking about developing an earned income strategy. It draws on =mc’s commercial awareness consulting work with national and local charities – from the National Theatre to the RSPCA and from NSPCC to Crossroads Care. We have also carried out major programmes for local authority leisure and […]

Pivoting: What is it?

 In this download =mc Director Bernard Ross explains ‘What is a Pivot’ and why it is an important business tactic – as increasing numbers of organisations, commercial and non-commercial, are looking to change their business model by taking advantage of pivoting to improve results. He also offers 10 case studies that show how it can […]

The characteristics of successful change leaders

What qualities does a leader need to bring their team or organisation successfully through a change? =mc Director Bernard Ross shares 5 key characteristics and examples of his heroes in each area. Change – people can cope It’s a cliché that we live in times of enormous change. We do. But I also think there […]

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

Transforming results by changing beliefs and behaviours “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is a famous quote from legendary management consultant and writer Peter Drucker. To be clear he didn’t mean that strategy was unimportant – rather that a powerful and empowering culture was a surer route to organisational success. One of the key goals in […]

Defining your value proposition

 This download is one of a series on new ideas in strategy, based on the book by =mc directors, Bernard Ross and Clare Segal – The Strategy Workout, (Financial Times/Pearson, Autumn 2015). A couple of years ago we were delighted to be asked by UNICEF International to help them develop a case for support. The […]

Create a burning platform

Urgent and important In order for people to adopt a radical strategy change they need to feel it’s important and necessary. So you need to think about how you will generate that awareness – and convey that it’s urgent and important. Unfortunately this often involves creating a pain message. A burning platform is a very […]

360º strategy for the 21st Century

For a large, international NGO that’s 60 years old, re-focussing the organisational strategy and creating genuine change is a huge challenge. How do you engage staff and stakeholders from all over the world, and persuade them to embrace change? Caroline Harper, CEO of Sightsavers International, shares the 4 Secrets of Success she used to transform […]

Scenario planning

 In a quickly changing and uncertain world, it often feels like traditional strategic planning with its emphasis on analysis and projection isn’t quite covering all the bases. In this article we explain how scenario planning can enable you to create flexible strategies for uncertain futures. This article explains what scenario planning is, how it differs […]

Change management: the 5Cs of change response

Over the years =mc has carried out a significant body of research and change work with a wide range of not-for-profit organisations. And we’ve found there are five core reactions to change, that we call the 5Cs. To be an effective change manager you need to understand these five reactions in your colleagues and adopt […]

Good to Great

“Good is the enemy of Great” is the opening of one of the most influential books in contemporary management thinking. As an opening it’s pretty arresting – maybe not up there alongside “A spectre is haunting Europe” or “In the beginning was the word” – but nonetheless powerful. And although originally written about businesses, the […]

An Introduction to Strategy Maps and the BSC in Charities

Synopsis: Organisations need to find a way to express their strategy simply and understandably – but also in a way that reflects the complexity of their relationships and activities. One increasingly popular framework to combine these qualities is the balanced scorecard (BSC), and specifically the more recent incarnation, the strategy map. At its simplest the […]

Case Study: Developing Earned Income at the RSPCA

The RSPCA is the largest animal welfare organisation in Europe. It rescues, rehabilitates and rehomes hundreds of thousands of animals each year in England and Wales. The RSPCA also offers advice on caring for all animals, and campaigns to change laws that will protect them, which it enforces through prosecution. But they face the challenge […]

Case study: Evaluation of the tsunami hardship fund for the British Red Cross

The British Red Cross is a neutral and impartial humanitarian organisation, working both in the UK and overseas, whose mission is to help people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. They have an officially recognised support function to the UK Government in humanitarian matters. They are part of a global voluntary network – the […]

Case Study: Developing Commercial Awareness with Hackney Learning Trust

As winner of the prestigious ‘Outsourced Provider of the Year’ award at the 2011 Education Investor Awards, Hackney Learning Trust (HLT) was recognised for transforming education in Hackney. But they face the opportunity and challenge that funding has been transferred directly to schools to buy the services they want from whoever they want. This has […]

Case study: Law Centres Federation (LCF)

Envisioning the future to test your strategy In a quickly changing world, it often feels like traditional strategic planning isn’t quite covering all the bases. With an uncertain and shifting external environment, the UK’s federation of not-for-profit legal practices wanted to test whether their new strategy would be robust enough to handle these changes. Find […]

Case study: Transforming and aligning organisational strategy at Sightsavers International

Sight Savers International needed a clearer strategic direction, but any successful strategy would have to truly engage staff across the organisation. In this case study we reveal how =mc worked with Sight Savers over two years to develop a new global strategic direction that achieved record levels of understanding and engagement across the organisation. The […]

Case study: Change management at Amnesty International

  Amnesty International is the international non-governmental organisation whose mission is to defend human rights worldwide. Established over 40 years it has worldwide reputation for investigating and exposing human right abuses from Rwanda to the former Soviet Union. This article explains how =mc helped them organize a transformational change programme to help re-energise the organization […]

Case study: Developing a values-led culture at the National Trust for Scotland

The National Trust for Scotland is the conservation charity that protects and promotes Scotland’s natural and cultural heritage for present and future generations to enjoy. With over 270,000 members it is the largest conservation charity in Scotland. It depends for its support on donations, legacies, grants and membership subscriptions. Established in 1931 the Trust acts […]

Case study: RNIB

Growing a culture of innovation at RNIB Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is the UK’s leading charity offering support, advice and information to over two million people with sight loss. The fundraising department wanted to foster a culture of innovation to boost their income. RNIB worked with The Management Centre (=mc) to design […]

Behavioural economics: why we think much less than we think we think… and why it’s important

Behavioural economics says we are sometimes rational, but most of the time our rationality is limited by our ability to work things out, the large amount of information available, the limited relevant knowledge we have, and our own lack of time and energy. In these cases – and whether we are deciding on donating to […]