Tie Strategy to Execution – Balanced Scorecard Help

Balanced Scorecard, corporate strategy planning, strategic planning, performance management, performance reporting, results based management Magate Wildhorse Solution

Need help with strategy planning or performance reporting?

Excited about the Balanced Scorecard approach?

Ever thought about twinning Logical Framework Approach (LFA) and the Balanced Scorecard for that perfect solution, that meets your government or donor planning need, while satisfying your results-based performance and capacity management and measurement need?

Then you’ve come to the right place!

We come with expertise in government corporate strategy planning; planning for the private, NGO, as well as the international development sectors.  We will integrate the Balanced Scorecard approach with your choice of approaches for example― LFA, Civicus, Haines System Thinking, our 8-9 step planning approach, or other to deliver a results-based performance management solution that drives execution and strategy success.

But if you just want Balanced Scorecard across the board― from planning through to performance monitoring, measurement, and reporting we’ll be glad to help you develop the plan, or performance solution that is right for your organization.

Ask about our organizational assessment solution. Our assessment is comprehensive and designed to bring information to the planning process that powers up informed strategy development.

It drives commitment and learning through stakeholder engagement, research, and the management response process, not to mention the support it gives to resource mobilization.

Our solution is backed by MBA level training in Strategy, specialist training and experience in corporate strategy planning for government, international development programmes, balanced scorecard, result-based approaches, participatory planning, facilitation skills, research, organizational assessment, programme evaluation, programme design, project management, marketing, communication, LFA, planning for market systems development programmes, insurance, finance, accounts, and trade.

We can bring a team of experts or a single consultant to your solution.

One-on-one help and strategic executive coaching for new strategy planners, managers, and seasoned executives available.

At Magate Wildhorse Ltd value for money, comes at a price you can afford!

Made possible by our business model that was designed with you in mind.

Email: magatewildhorse@gmail.com | Message us via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

Let’s get the conversation going! Contact us today!

Available internationally!

A Day in The Life of an International Development Consultant

Churning Out a Complex Development Solution                                                          from an Off the Beaten Path Business Model

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Today is Day 2 designing a complex social solution.

It is 3:45 am and I’ve just torn myself away from the bathroom mirror.   It is the end of another quick check in on the cute things about my face; and that intense― get-ready-to- work hunt for invisible whiteheads.

You won’t find me reading the news, and checking Emails this morning.

Questions, outcomes, statistics, theories of change, assumptions, metrics, strategies, tactics, and partnerships for ensuring the intervention delivers the intended and desired change are running around in my head.

There goes the reason the bed cannot hold, even after a short visit.

Costing the solution, identifying traditional and creative funding sources are dragging, spinning, loading, rumbling, and pausing in my head like the computer left running last night and the night before.  A kind of abuse that happens to the computer once in a blue moon; but just another super bootcamp for my brain.

I’d set the clock for two, but can’t remember hearing it alarm.  Strange! I checked the alarm button― ahem, someone had turned if off.  And that someone is me!

None of my associates are engaged on this project, it is just my partnering-client and I.  Our last WhatsApp meeting ended after 11:00 last night.  Earlier that day we had a      2-hour marathon interrogating the results chain, and theory of change for the program that will be supported by eight complex projects. That session broke the new idea dam, leaving a rush of idea flow to follow me to bed.  The play for connecting all the dots, spotting the risks, and opportunities are flowing in both our heads. He can now see― how his idea could work.  It has exploded from three themes to eight, each with a supporting project, a multi-sector approach, desired partners, real-time change & benefits, gender lens, wealth generation, and environmental interventions―Whoa!

That is the beauty, reward, and tax for planning such interventions with the end in mind; with the intended beneficiaries at the center; with what success looks like and how it will be measured.  Day 2 is― Day 3 in reality. A group of us had done a virtual brainstorm and backcasting at the second genesis of it all.

It seems never-ending, planning-in opportunities for learning, curating lessons learnt, and plugging them back into strategy and execution for driving success and innovation. Finding creative ways to ensure rights, duties, and responsibilities can be upheld and are affordable in terms of cost related to behavior change and actions.

woman-2994536_research thinkIt’s clear―planning like this makes no bones about disrupting regular sleep and office time. Passion, and deep connections serve to wake you up, and keep you chained to the computer, library, or phone; and web meetings occur long past regular work hours. Research into similar interventions, stakeholder needs, national plans and strategy documents, newspaper articles, dialogue, questions, calls for additional organizational information, re-reading and checking for risks, ambitions, and opportunities― feels endless.

But I’ll complete the results chain by 5:45 am.  Well that’s what I thought!  I am still integrating the financial viability component, I developed after a meeting of minds with my fellow consultant in the Fintech Sector.  This is when the imagination can get wild dreaming up the glimmer and glam of gamified interventions plus real self-sufficiency, financing, stakeholders, and owners that can be brought to the intervention.

My mind pulls up a scene from FAME ( the American TV Show I love), Solid Gold, a Jamaican Festival Performance, an NDTC Production, then a Chorale by The University Singers (UWI, Mona), the Jamaican Folk Singers, and of course a Production at the Julliard School (New York) ―I can see the hook and entertainment unfold in the solution for a complex social problem.  It is now six thirty-seven, and I am still on the results chain. I am also watching the clock; I need to pounce on an opportunity in Stuttgart (6 hours ahead of Toronto).

This is gung-ho backed by strategic thinking and intimate knowledge of the problem. Ever heard of gung-ho backed by strategic thinking? Like multi-tasking we are on top of this one. Trick is― you have to know when and what you can take on together, in both cases.

Energy is high and I could grow the intervention even bigger, but I know that beast must be contained― before complex kills both productivity and the goose that will lay the golden eggs.

Big vision, big dream, big picture, BIG is how we think.  But there goes that voice with the cold splash of wisdom, whispering― SMART, doable, less pain Meegan!  “Too complex―what do you mean?” “It is very doable”.  Ah, no problem, as my client-partner and I go through the crucial questions, reflect, share feedback, and negotiate the programme scope I’ll be reined in somewhat―yes, only somewhat.  That is the trouble with partnering this way, versus a regular client-service provider partnership.

Goodness gracious me, it is minutes to eight, “Looks like exercise isn’t going to happen today”.  I have a sales pipeline to check in on, publication coordination to act on, other solutions to deliver. I make a somewhat shaky resolve to exercise if it is even midnight tonight―we’ll see. Results chain finally done, hurray.  But I’m getting a vibe to get deeper into the costing― “hold your horses, Mam, that is not on your agenda for today”.

It is almost 10:00 am. My eyes take their on-the-hour dart to the clock; first the one on the computer; then the one strategically positioned across the room from my desk. That is the one I trust, maybe because the numbers are bigger it seems to be more accurate in my mind―lol.  The excitement, and extra work on the brain leaves me peckish more often. I am very hungry at ten instead of at one or two in the afternoon.   I still have the executive summary for the project to write, so I am still chained to that deliverable.

Crunchy Chicken piece

Brain rebellion sets in―I want to do something fun, to eat my lunch, crunchy chicken at the top of mind and taste buds. Haven’t had that in a long time. The crave is the price I pay for not exercising, eating, or sleeping on time.  A cup of hot chocolate rescues me from the hauntings for a while.

I yield to hunger and a power nap at 11:00 am.   At 1:00 pm, I have a face-to-face work meeting.  Two hours later I settle down to check Emails, send a reminder about an overdue account, produce creatives for marketing, double check my sales pipeline, and things to do list― I want to make sure nothing important is being left behind.

6:00 pm: half-an-hour executive to executive give back.

7:00 pm:  supper and family chit chat.

8:00 pm:  quick meeting, followed by work on the proposal, and plan for tomorrow.

10:00 pm: Modified exercise, household chores, get ready for bed and tomorrow.

Some days, the flow is not orderly textbook style in this kind of operation, things can get productively messy, and healthy goes on pause―that is reality!

Thanks for having read.. Share your experience of the all but typical day.

Copyright © 2019 Meegan Scott, Magate Wildhorse.  All rights reserved

The Big Question of the Week ― What is a Corporate Strategy Plan?

On Thursday, February 28th we’ll be hosting a free Corporate Strategy Planning  webinar at Magate Wildhorse.

Many curious about the event had the following questions.

What is a corporate strategy plan?
Is it the same as a business plan?

Here are the differences between them.

While both plans are used for guiding organizations, they differ in scope, who, when, and how they are used.

Let’s start with the business plan.

The business plan is typically what a small or micro-business uses during its start-up phase. A large organization might also use a business plan for getting a new line of business or initiative off the ground. It supports the period of executing, testing and adjusting for viability at the start.

In a small nutshell, start-ups use their business plans to articulate, help them organize, and guide them in relation to why, how, who, and what they will do to produce their solution, market it, sell it, and make a profit.

 How they put the business plan to use:
  • To say what business, they are in;                                                                              The business you are in does not necessarily wear the same name as the products or services that you produce and sell.
  • To articulate how they will bring their solution from concept to a profit-making product or service, as well as the resources and actions that are needed to make that happen;
  • To define their customers, and say how they’ll reach them;
  • To say how they differ from the competition;
  • To highlight barriers, challenges, constraints and how they will work around them or remove them;
  • To help convince funders to invest in their businesses;
  • To tie a budget to delivering the planned solutions to the market and customers identified in that plan;
  • To highlight their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats;
  • To say what success should like including― the amount of money they intend to earn that year; and projections for another year or two; and
  • To say how they will wrap up the business in the most painless and beneficial if not profitable manner should there be the need to do so.

Now, let’s look at the corporate strategy plan.

The Corporate Strategy Plan is used by larger organizations with multiply programs and business units, or both. It is also used by entrepreneurs who have exited or is preparing to exit the start-up stage. Typical examples of such organizations are government departments, non-profit organizations, development programs, and larger private sector entities.

Big difference 1: The corporate strategy plan is used by organizations who are already in existence and who are looking to grow and improve.

How they use the Corporate Strategy Plan:     

  • To articulate the organizational strategy, the strategic direction, and for allocating resources in order to deliver the strategy.
  • To focus on agility, gaining the competitive edge over time, and incrementally, or completely within the plan period depending on how that edge is to be achieved.    It focuses on new capabilities and positioning to seize future opportunities.
  • To answer the question “where are we today?”                                                          The answer to which includes a focus on the organization’s results (including the financials), position in the market, etc.
  • To answer the question “where do we want to be?”                                             Here the answer focuses on the ambitions of the organization, the big problem(s) to be solved and for whom, objectives, and goals etc. It is in answer to this question that organizations arrive at what Jim Collins call BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals —pronounced Bee Hags). 
  • To answer the question, “What could prevent us from getting there?”
  • To answer the question, “How will we get there?”,                                              here is where priorities must be made and guide for tactics comes into play.
  • To answer the questions, “What should success look like?”, and “Are we on the same page?”, “Who is responsible for what?”
  • To guide execution.
  • To schedule time to step back analyze and reflect on the results, gather, and share learning (monitor, evaluate, assess), adjust the strategy, and improve.
  • It is also used is securing funding by government departments, development programs, and negotiating deals.

The Corporate Strategy Plan is usually elaborated into a 1-year Strategic Operational Plan asl known as the SOP or Operations Plan. The SOP contains details of what and how the first, second, third, fourth, or fifth year of the Corporate Strategy Plan is to be executed (Some entities use a 3-yr, 5-yr, and less frequently a 10-yr Corporate Strategy Plan)..

Corporate Strategy Planning, also known as long range planning should not start at the Board Retreat or the Strategic planning workshop.

Register here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2162653983818368/

To learn more you are invited to join us this Thursday, February 28, 2019 for a webinar on Corporate Strategy Planning.   Please visit the following link for details as well as to complete the registration form in order to receive a link to the webinar.

top question of the week strategy feb 26 smart

 

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Corporate Strategy Planning Solution ― Preview Webinar

 

presenter Meegan Scott, Corporate Strategy Solution Preview Webinar

Corporate Strategy Planning at Magate Wildhorse Ltd., find out what it all means.

,Join us on Thursday, February 28, 2019, at 1:00 PM for a lunch hour preview webinar on Corporate Strategy Planning at Magate Wildhorse Ltd.

Format:

  • The Connect & Clarify Session ― Questions & Answers (Case of an Architecture Firm)
  • Journey of a typical solution
  • Answers to your pre-submitted questions
  • Session Q & A

Presenter: Meegan Scott

Duration: 45 mins.

Please submit your registration form at the link below to receive link to webinar.

https://goo.gl/forms/1e09iPSqYYH2IAU83

Registration deadline: Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Looking forward to sharing with you!

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Corporate Strategy Planning ― with Heart & Fun

Corporate Strategy Planning Solution Magate Wildhorse Ltd Serious Business with heart

Corporate Strategy Planning at Magate Wildhorse Ltd., means
serious business with heart.

The journey

  1.  connect and clarify meeting
  2. a strategic organizational assessment
  3. organizational assessment & development proposal
  4. strategic review w Board & ED/CEO
  5. facilitated strategic planning meeting(s) & training workshop
  6. strategy communication session (s)

Every step is sandwiched by stakeholder engagement

Plus

  • We’ll help translate your Corporate Plan to a 1 yr. Operational Plan.
  • We’ll help develop your Performance Management tools.

Serious business with heart and care for your pocket!

Available internationally: face-to-face, virtual, remote, blended face-to-face & online!

Request your connect & clarify meeting now!

Or send a request for proposal (RFP).
Click here.

Preview Webinar

Of interest to government departments, entrepreneurs, non-profit leaders, leaders of international development projects, cluster managers, leaders of private sector development agencies, economic development agencies, & other third sector managers & leaders.

Join us on Thursday, February 28, 2019, at 1:00 PM for a lunch hour preview webinar on Corporate Strategy Planning at Magate Wildhorse Ltd.

 

Please submit your registration form at the link below to receive link to webinar.

https://goo.gl/forms/1e09iPSqYYH2IAU83

Registration deadline: Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Looking forward to sharing with you!

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Join Us in Celebrating IDW2019

International development week 2019 celebrating #IDW2019 IDW2019 gender equality

Celebrating International Development Week 2019

We’ll be joining you in celebration this week.

And we’ve got a thing or two for helping you to achieve your development objectives.

Gender equality, gender equity, rights-based, gender-focused― we’ll help you get it right.

Improve your results. Advance progress towards gender equity with effective behavior change marketing, gender-focused planning, webinars, stakeholder engagements, or evaluation.

Let’s talk!  Contact us to schedule a meeting today!


 

Hi Meet Meegan & Magate Wildhorse Ltd

Who Is Your Ideal Customer?

Who Is Your Ideal Customer?
 
We get asked the question ―What do you do, and who are your ideal customers so often?
And we are glad to answer it no matter how many times we are asked. After all we are here to understand your needs and to help you to better understand how we can help  or work together.
But, just in case you want to have a better idea before picking up the phone, or sending us a message,
I’m leaving a few quick answers at the link below.
 
CLIENTS, SERVICE DELIVERY PARTNERS, AND ASSOCIATES THAT WE SEEK
https://goo.gl/T4UyTg
 
Want to know how we can help you the professional or young manager? Want to know how we can help your organization, programme, or project? Your best chance ―hold that one-on-one conversation with us.
 
You’re welcome to message me, or call me up to learn more about the team, our service offer, and our wider service delivery capability.
 
But, if you’d still like to take a quick browse, visit our service catalogue on Facebook (No need to log in or to have a Facebook account, just click “not now” when prompted to sign in) https://goo.gl/t5iPzK.
 
Don’t fall in the trap of the inexperienced who believe it all lies in a CV, web site, or LinkedIn profile.
 
You might be surprised at some of the little gems of solutions that we offer.
 
Get in touch! Let’s start a conversation today!
contact us, let's talk remote strategic planning, request remote long-range planning, submit your virtual planning needs, schedule remote corporate strategy planning

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