The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution

Question 1

What are the 3 levels at which strategies can be formed, according to the strategy pyramid

Answer 1

1. Organizational
2. Programatic
3. Operational

Question 2

What does programmatic strategy-making involve?

Answer 2

Deciding on approaches and offering programs and activities to achieve specific outcomes related to the target audience

Question 3

What is strategy at the operational level?

Answer 3

Administering and overseeing systems, policies and personnel in areas such as finance, Human Resources, communications, and information technology.

Question 4

Which of the 3 types of strategy comes first?

Answer 4

Organizational strategy

Question 5

What is strategy?

Answer 5

A co-ordinated set of actions towards an end

Question 6

What is the definition of strategy in a nonprofit context?

Answer 6

“A coordinated set of actions aimed at creating and sustaining a competitive advantage in carrying out the nonprofit mission”

Question 7

How can competitive advantage be defined in the nonprofit world, from the view of the customer?

Answer 7

“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.”

Question 8

Five frogs sat on a long. One decided to jump off, so how many are left?

Answer 8

5 because it hasn’t jumped yet.

Question 9

Who are the customers of your organization?

Answer 9

All people with whom your organization makes exchanges: retail customers, clients, donors, potential board members, staff members or the public at large.

Question 10

“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…

Answer 10

…who and what the nonprofit is in the larger world.”

Question 11

What alliterative maxim opens the chapter about Organizational Identity and Strategy Formation?

Answer 11

“Fail faster, succeed sooner.”

• David Kelley

Question 12

What are the 7 steps in the Real-Time Strategic Planning Cycle?

Answer 12

A. Business Model
B. Market Awareness
C. Competitive Advantage
D. Strategy Screen
E. Big questions
F. Develop and Test Potential Strategies
G. Implementation

Question 13

“Plans are useless…

Answer 13

…but planning is indispensable.”

Question 14

What are the 4 question areas associated with the Real-Time Strategic Planning Cycle?

Answer 14

1. Who are we?
2. Where are we? How did we get here?
3. Where do we go next?
4. How do we get there?

Question 15

What is perhaps the most revolutionary concept for nonprofits?

Answer 15

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)

Question 16

Your organization has a sound business model when it is clear about:

4

Answer 16

1. Who it is as an organization
2. What work it does
3. How it does the work
4. How it finances the work

Question 17

Market awareness includes four components. Your organization knows:

4

Answer 17

1. What its market is
2. Where it is in the market
3. How the organization got to its place in the market
4. Where it wants to go next

Question 18

What is the quintessential organizational strategy question?

Answer 18

Given the likely impacts of the market on our business model, how do we best pursue our mission?

Question 19

“Nonprofit competitive advantage is…

Answer 19

…a nonprofit’s ability to sustainably produce social value using a unique asset, outstanding execution, or both.”

Question 20

What are the two types of nonprofit competitive advantage?

Answer 20

1. Asset advantages

2. Execution advantages

Question 21

What is a strategy screen?

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently…

Answer 22

…that which should not be done at all.”

• Peter Drucker

Question 23

What is the really great thing about strategy screens?

Answer 23

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.

Question 24

What is the tool related to the Strategy Screen and how does it differ?

Answer 24

The Opportunity Matrix, rather than evaluating a single strategy, evaluated various.

Question 25

“There is always a better strategy than the one you have;

Answer 25

…you just haven’t thought of it yet,”

• Sir Brian Pitman

Question 26

What is a Big Question?

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

What are the 3 main types of Big Questions?

Answer 27

1. New opportunity
2. Competitive challenge
3. Business model challenge

Question 28

What is good practice in formulating big questions? Why?

Answer 28

Creating different versions of the same question. Because different questions will often lead to different strategy decisions.

Question 29

What are 3 basic approaches to testing strategies?

Answer 29

1. The reality check
2. The laugh test
3. The validity test

Question 30

How does the implementation of a strategy start?

Answer 30

Staff lists a series of linked actions the organization must now take

Question 31

“No matter how beautiful the strategy

Answer 31

…you should occasionally look at the results.”

• Winston Churchill

Question 32

What are the parts of the programmatic logic model?

Answer 32

Assumptions
Activities
Resources
Outputs
Short-term outcomes
Impact

Question 33

What are 5 essential questions for developing a successful programmatic strategy?

Answer 33

1. What programs should we offer?
2. Where should the programs be located?
3. Whom should the programs target?
4. What approaches are more likely to succeed?
5. What are we mandated to do and what are we prohibited from doing?

Question 34

“Excellence is doing ordinary things…

Answer 34

…extraordinarily well.”

• John W. Gardner

Question 35

“Leaders don’t create followers…

Answer 35

…they create more leaders”

• Tom Peters