Developing the strategic plan
What's in our engine to drive our mahi?
There are many different ways to create a strategic plan. We've found the "hedgehog concept", developed by Jim Collins, works well for a range of trusts, whether they're big or small.
This step is about working out what will drive your strategy forward, and how you will know you're succeeding.
There's usually an economic or money focus, as even non-financial aspirations often have costs associated with them, like training. This is about understanding how you will fund, or use funds, to drive your aspirations forward.
But, it could also be something non-financial like "recruiting hearts and minds".
Consider:
- How do we want to achieve our goals or vision?
- Do we need funding?
- Do we have equity within the trust or do we need to partner with an investor?
- What does success look like?
- Do we need to secure any assets, like cash assets or investments?
- Is there a minimum profit we need to make?
- How will we know if we're making progress?
- Who will be assessing our progress, and are they independent?
- How can we measure what we've achieved?
- Why is this important?
- What will we do with our results?
Understanding the economic drivers for your trust will help give trustees, owners and whānau clarity and direction as you move forward together into the future.