Originally published as "Special six-article report: A Corporate Manager's Guide to Taking a Leadership Role in Nonprofits and Applying Strategic Management Tools and Technique", Strategy & Leadership Volume 33 Number 2, 2005
ISBN: 1 84544 108 7
Guest edited by: Robert Randall.
From a strategic manager’s perspective, the nonprofit sector can be an alternate universe – normal accounting systems may not exist, leadership behavior norms are different, and access to financial and talent resources are severely limited.
But in the past few years the nonprofit sector has undergone a sea of change. To the great surprise of corporate executives who are familiar only with nonprofits that rely on philanthropy, many nonprofits have begun operating earned-income business units or are planning to start them. Nonprofits experimenting with this new challenge now seek sophisticated coaching in strategic management practices such as innovating, developing, and marketing new products and services.
Contents:
A corporate executive's short guide to leading nonprofits
By introducing business people to the frustrations of leadership roles in nonprofits and showing how executives with corporate experience have dealt with these challenges, the authors provide a guide for volunteers who serve as board members, executives, donors, consultants or partners in the nonprofit sector.
M&A in the nonprofit sector: managing merger negotiations and integration
This article alerts volunteer board members from the for-profit sector to the essential differences they face facilitating mergers in the nonprofit sector and provides them with a step-by-step guide to success.
VolunteerMatch.org: balancing mission and earned-revenue potential
This case investigates how a nonprofit can analyze its earned revenue potential. What changes would be required for the organization's current business units to start making a positive financial contribution? What other opportunities to expand its earned-income efforts exist, and how should they be prioritized?
The power of vision
Most effective visions comprise a compelling, easy-to-understand description of how the nonprofit would like the world to change in the next three-to-five years, what role the organization will play in that change, and how the nonprofit will measure the success of its role.
The strategic value of a shared understanding of costs
This article shows how to make resource-related decisions in a way that maximizes an organization's effectiveness and promotes its mission. To do this, nonprofit leaders need to have a clear picture of the full costs of operating their programs and services.
Scenario analysis and a logic model of public education in Ohio
This case recounts how an expert scenario consultant and a team of managers at a government agency used proprietary technology to define a set of alternate futures; it describes how this scenario analysis provided a framework for understanding the existence of interlocking relationships – the logic model – among factors that determine desirable future outcomes.
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