Here at =mc we encourage every participant we meet on our programmes to get in touch if they have specific issues they want to follow up on. From this we hear some common problems, issues, challenges, and worries. In this regular feature we share some of those challenges, and our advice, for dealing with them. […]
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When Paul Amadi took up the reins as Executive Director of Fundraising at the MS Society, it was an exciting time of change. There was an ambitious, new organisation strategy. A 10 year, £100M research appeal had started. A new marketing strategy was in development… and a fundraising improvement programme was building on the outcomes of […]
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Is your organisation competing in a Red Ocean or Blue Ocean? Put simply, Red Ocean & Blue Ocean are two different ways of comparing the strategy of an organisation in relation to the territory they are competing in. Red Ocean Strategy sees an organisation fighting for a share of the demand in a market which […]
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The Boston Matrix is one of a series of analysis tools that help you decide the effectiveness of your current fundraising portfolio. It is normally used to assess the relative contribution of various fundraising activities or donor clusters at a particular point in time. But the matrix is enormously flexible and can be used to […]
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The Big Idea Defining strategic direction can be a major challenge for any organisation. Igor Ansoff, US strategy guru, developed a matrix which helps to focus your attention and resources. This matrix, commonly used in commercial settings, has been adapted by =mc to make it relevant to a wide range of not-for-profit organisations. For fundraisers […]
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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 […]
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Gateway Housing Association is the largest provider of sheltered housing in Tower Hamlets. Their name came about because of their unique role in supporting people in a borough which has, throughout history, been a ‘gateway’ for migrants coming to live and work in London. It also reflects their core belief that decent affordable housing is […]
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What makes us successful? Inside Concern Worldwide’s competency framework Concern Worldwide is an international non-governmental organisation “working for a world where no one lives in fear, poverty or oppression.” Established over 40 years ago it works in over 29 countries. As well as responding to humanitarian emergencies, Concern also provides longer-term assistance in the areas […]
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In 2007, the Uganda country office of Frontline AIDS (then known as The International HIV/AIDS Alliance) was a new and growing programme with great potential. In need of a country strategy, but with little time to spare on it, they called on =mc. Two years later, and the Uganda country office was ahead or […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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What’s the Big Idea? Blue Ocean Strategy is a radical approach to strategy captured in a book written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne – professors based at INSEAD, the leading European business school. The book summarises the thesis that organisations face two key choices: creating new customer demand in an uncontested market space […]
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UNICEF UK works in 190 countries and runs more projects than any other organisation in the world. They needed a case for support for a campaign that focused on a specific problem. Find out how =mc worked with staff across UNICEF to develop a draft proposition that they used extensively across their campaigning, with great […]
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