The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution Flashcards
What are the 3 levels at which strategies can be formed, according to the strategy pyramid
- Organizational
- Programatic
- Operational
What does programmatic strategy-making involve?
Deciding on approaches and offering programs and activities to achieve specific outcomes related to the target audience
What is strategy at the operational level?
Administering and overseeing systems, policies and personnel in areas such as finance, Human Resources, communications, and information technology.
Which of the 3 types of strategy comes first?
Organizational strategy
What is strategy?
A co-ordinated set of actions towards an end
What is the definition of strategy in a nonprofit context?
“A coordinated set of actions aimed at creating and sustaining a competitive advantage in carrying out the nonprofit mission”
How can competitive advantage be defined in the nonprofit world, from the view of the customer?
“Competitive advantage can be defined, from the view of the customer, as the presence of visible, obvious, and measurable ways in which your organization differs from and is better than its peers.”
Five frogs sat on a long. One decided to jump off, so how many are left?
5 because it hasn’t jumped yet.
Who are the customers of your organization?
All people with whom your organization makes exchanges: retail customers, clients, donors, potential board members, staff members or the public at large.
“If operational strategy is concerned with how the nonprofit is run on a daily basis, and programmatic strategy with how the nonprofit’s programmatic will meet real needs in the most effective way, organizational strategy is about…
…who and what the nonprofit is in the larger world.”
What alliterative maxim opens the chapter about Organizational Identity and Strategy Formation?
“Fail faster, succeed sooner.”
- David Kelley
What are the 7 steps in the Real-Time Strategic Planning Cycle?
A. Business Model B. Market Awareness C. Competitive Advantage D. Strategy Screen E. Big questions F. Develop and Test Potential Strategies G. Implementation
“Plans are useless…
…but planning is indispensable.”
What are the 4 question areas associated with the Real-Time Strategic Planning Cycle?
- Who are we?
- Where are we? How did we get here?
- Where do we go next?
- How do we get there?
What is perhaps the most revolutionary concept for nonprofits?
That the way to succeed in this market is differentiation; identifying and constantly strengthening a competitive advantage relative to others in the market.
(Ours is that our kids really play)
Your organization has a sound business model when it is clear about:
4
- Who it is as an organization
- What work it does
- How it does the work
- How it finances the work
Market awareness includes four components. Your organization knows:
4
- What its market is
- Where it is in the market
- How the organization got to its place in the market
- Where it wants to go next
What is the quintessential organizational strategy question?
Given the likely impacts of the market on our business model, how do we best pursue our mission?
“Nonprofit competitive advantage is…
…a nonprofit’s ability to sustainably produce social value using a unique asset, outstanding execution, or both.”
What are the two types of nonprofit competitive advantage?
- Asset advantages
2. Execution advantages
What is a strategy screen?
A strategy screen is a set of criteria that your organization uses to choose whether or not a particular strategy is consistent with its identity.
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently…
…that which should not be done at all.”
- Peter Drucker
What is the really great thing about strategy screens?
Articulating your values and priorities outside of the process of responding to an opportunity or challenge gives your organization a chance to think through its priorities without the pressure of needing to respond immediately.
What is the tool related to the Strategy Screen and how does it differ?
The Opportunity Matrix, rather than evaluating a single strategy, evaluated various.
“There is always a better strategy than the one you have;
…you just haven’t thought of it yet,”
- Sir Brian Pitman
What is a Big Question?
A big question is an opportunity or threat to which the organization must respond. Usually, it is beyond the scope of the organization’s current strategies, thus requiring a new strategy.
What are the 3 main types of Big Questions?
- New opportunity
- Competitive challenge
- Business model challenge
What is good practice in formulating big questions? Why?
Creating different versions of the same question. Because different questions will often lead to different strategy decisions.
What are 3 basic approaches to testing strategies?
- The reality check
- The laugh test
- The validity test
How does the implementation of a strategy start?
Staff lists a series of linked actions the organization must now take
“No matter how beautiful the strategy
…you should occasionally look at the results.”
- Winston Churchill
What are the parts of the programmatic logic model?
Assumptions Activities Resources Outputs Short-term outcomes Impact
What are 5 essential questions for developing a successful programmatic strategy?
- What programs should we offer?
- Where should the programs be located?
- Whom should the programs target?
- What approaches are more likely to succeed?
- What are we mandated to do and what are we prohibited from doing?
“Excellence is doing ordinary things…
…extraordinarily well.”
- John W. Gardner
“Leaders don’t create followers…
…they create more leaders”
- Tom Peters
