nonprofit strategy development & execution

Nonprofit Boards Can Drive Organizational Innovation & New Strategic Directions

Nonprofit Boards Can Drive Organizational Innovation & New Strategic Directions

Recently, Marla Capoozzi, Senior innovation Expert at McKinsey Company, provided some guidelines to assist business directors to help drive organizational innovations and lead to new long term strategic planning.* Following are my suggestions how nonprofit boards can adapt her guidelines.

1. Have a Defined mission A mission statement guides most nonprofits. However, few if any, have innovation as an inherent part of that statement. For example, a counseling nonprofit will want its staff to work with the latest treatment modalities. But few boards will want their staffs to actively seek ways to improve on these modalities. Budget constraints, related to staff costs, interfere. However talented staff members may develop new innovative practices within the confines of regular contacts with clients. These can lead to new strategic directions. To drive innovation, boards will need to stay on message to management and staff that innovation is desired outcome to support the mission statement. (more…)

Nonprofits: To Which Group Do You Belong – The 5% Having Successful Strategies or the 70% Who Do Not?

Nonprofits: To Which Group Do You Belong – The 5% Having Successful Strategies or the 70% Who Do Not?

By: Eugene Fram

According to a recent Deloitte report, two Harvard Professors issued a recent study* that highlighted the above statistics, also showing the remaining 25% having “middling success.”
I recently attended a presentation by Cynthia Montgomery, also a Harvard strategy professor. Following are some major strategy guidelines she presented, with examples mainly relating to the business community, and how I see them applying to nonprofit and trustee boards. (more…)