Page 14 - Sustainability and entrepreneurship for CSO's and CSO networks Cambodia 1 November 2018

CHAPTER 5: STRATEGY FOR FUTURE DIRECTION OF YOUR CSO
Starting a planned change process is rethinking your strategy: where are you at the moment, what does your external environment look like, what is your message, your story and what is your direction? Strategy is about beliefs, dreams, inspiration, setting goals, planning and decision-making, all needed for successful operations. Defining a strategy is instrumental; it helps you to focus, to be effective and to use (limited) resources. Organisations without a strategy are vulnerable and risk being blown away by the winds. If your CSO has no updated mid-term or long-term strategy, read the next quote and see whether you recognise yourself:
"Not designing a strategy may cause the bloated bureaucracy: it may have some hardworking parts, but as a whole, it's slowly moving and survives because of its mission legitimacy, not mission performance. Another cause could be the non-profit ever being so busy executing its day to day stuff, raising money, implementing programmes, that it never steps back to fully consider the implications of its actions” (Rangan, 2004).
Drafting a strategy takes time and is not easy. Take the opportunity, read, do the exercises and find out whether you are still in business or how you can improve your business.
A strategy includes:
• belief and promises
• position
• assets
• stakeholders and customers •
competition
• operational strategy
• strategic platform
Before we dive into these details we need to analyse the external factors that influence our organisation.
PEST - Political, Economic, Social and Technological Analysis
Every organisation deals with external opportunities and threats, related to (among others):
• changes in funders policies or their way of funding
changes in politics, technology, environment, social patterns
changes in the composition of your beneficiaries
• increase in competition among CSOs
The PEST Analysis tool can be used to assess opportunities and threats of trends and their impact on your organisation.
Political factors include government policy, funding structures, health and
safety regulations, environmental standards and political stability
• Economic factors relate to economic growth, price flexibility, interest rates,
exchange rates and inflation
• Social factors refer to population growth, demographic trends such as age
distribution, career behaviour, education and the importance of safety Technological factors include Internet, ICT, communications infrastructure, outsourcing and technology
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