Building an Effective Organizational Foundation

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Building an Effective Organizational Foundation

• Statewide Mobility Action Planning Conference
• November 1, 2006

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Discussion Facilitator

• Kent Sovern
• Executive Director
• Des Moines HIGHER Education Collaborative
• 1200 Grand Avenue
• Des Moines, IA 50309
•  
• 515-235-4602
• ksovern_at_dmhec.com
• 515-255-0776
• k.sovern_at_mchsi.com

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Todays Agenda

• Whats the Need Here?
• Strategic Plans and Business Plans
• Values Vision Mission
• Organizational Foundation
• Core Business Essentials

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Describe Current Environment

• Without the strength to endure the crisis, one
  will not see the opportunity within. It is within
  the process of endurance that opportunity reveals
  itself.Chin-Ning Chu

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Not For Profit

• Not-for-Profit is a tax status not a way of
  doing business. Mike Blouin

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Michael Gerber

• My experience has shown me that the people who
  are exceptionally good in business aren't so
  because of what they know but because of their
  insatiable need to know more. Michael Gerber

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Your Strategic Plan

• Determines where the organization is going over
  the next several years - how it's going to get
  there - and - how youll know if it got there or
  not.
• Create new visions to elevate your organization
  and advance its mission.

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Strategic Plan Importance

• The strategic planning process is for working out
  where you want to go
• the goals you can reasonably expect to reach,
• the objectives that will allow you to know when
  you have met those goals, and
• the broad strategies that will allow you to
  achieve those objectives.

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Strategic Plan Running the Business

• Key Constituencies
• Funders?
• Board?
• Management?
• Staff?
• Clients / Customers?
• Public?

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The Business Plan

• A business plan, on the other hand, is about the
  business, which is to say about money.
• Remember money doesn't know you're a
  not-for-profit. It works by its own rules, not
  yours.

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Business Foundation

• The business foundation supports the key areas of
  expertise and service delivery which are
  distinctive and unique to your organization.

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Core Business Essentials

• Your mastery of core business essentials is
  critical to the institutions sustainability,
  community support and long term growth.
• Leadership
• Management
• Money
• Marketing
• Client Fulfillment

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Business Plan

• Formalize your ideas
• Structure your priorities
• Test your project's viability
• Demonstrate to funders and partners that you know
  what you're doing
• Help identify responsibilities
• Help you work together with your partners
• Help you ask the right questions AND provide some
  of the answers
• Identify areas where you need to find out more
• Provide you with a map to guide your progress,
  and stops you from getting sidetracked

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Business Planning

• You can't overestimate the need to plan and
  prepare. In most of the mistakes I've made, there
  has been this common theme of inadequate planning
  beforehand. You really can't over-prepare in
  business!Chris Corrigan

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Building the Foundation

• So What Are the Basics?

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Mission Values Vision
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Mission

• is the True North for your organization - why
  it exists. The leaders intentions - what they
  want the organization to achieve for its clients
  - must be reexamined and refreshed periodically
  if the organization is to remain dynamic.

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Your Mission

• My organization ...

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Shared Values
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Shared Values

• are manifested in everything you do as an
  organization, not only your public programs, but
  also how you operate as a public body.
• Articulating values provides everyone with
  guiding lights, ways of choosing among competing
  priorities and guidelines about how people will
  work together.

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Shared Values

• In 2006, _______________ began a journey toward
  becoming a values-based service provider. To
  further this effort, our leadership cadre and
  staff embraces shared values that are evident in
  all that we do. These values are...

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Shared Values
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Vision

• is what keeps you moving forward, even against
  discouraging odds. Vision is the most powerful
  motivator in an organization. If it's vivid and
  meaningful enough, people will do astounding
  things to bring it to realization. But if it's
  lacking, no amount of resources will be able to
  get people off their butts.

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Vision

• In the year 2015

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Running the Business

• If your thinking is sloppy, your business will be
  sloppy. If you are disorganized, your business
  will be disorganized. If you are greedy, your
  employees will be greedy, giving you less and
  less of themselves and always asking for
  more.Michael Gerber

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Business Essentials
Management
Leadership
Values Vision Mission
Fulfillment
Money
Marketing
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Areas of Excellence

• Leadership
• Role, Engagement and Ethics of the Board of
  Directors
• Management
• Quality of administration and services provided
  by employees
• Finance
• Budget and spending priorities and policy

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Areas of Excellence

• Marketing
• Demographics of the Market
• Psychographics of the Market
• Client Attraction and Service Delivery
• Matching product to market
• Sales market penetration
• Service delivery quality control
• Evaluation Continuous Improvement

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New Iowa Business Plan

• Core Competencies
• Leadership
• Management
• Finances
• Marketing
• Client Fulfillment

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Service to Community
Kent Sovern Executive Director Des Moines
HIGHER Education Collaborative 1200 Grand Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50309   515-235-4602 ksovern_at_dmhec
.com 515-255-0776 k.sovern_at_mchsi.com