Entries by Jeff Schilling

Capital Part 5: Risk Assessment

The concept of a Risk Assessment is not new, however incorporating a few tools and concepts can strengthen the reliability of the assessment. With these tools, the assessment can be more thorough and consider circumstances that might otherwise be overlooked. The fourth criterion, Risk Assessment, is intentionally positioned last so useful data gained from examining […]

Capital Part 4: Organizational / System Impact

In an era of limited capital, and slowly recovering margins, organizations must exercise more caution and scrutiny than ever in deciding what will be funded.  The changing landscapes of competition and consumer expectations can further complicate these decisions.  In this series, we describe four types of criteria, and then some additional considerations, all designed to […]

Capital Part 3: Financial Feasibility

Many organizations are working through an era of tight capital, reducing the margin for error on investment decisions to just about zero.  And the current market volatility is only adding to the stress level surrounding these decisions.  In this series, we describe how leadership teams can select the “best” projects to fund with limited capital […]

Capital Part 2: Strategic Alignment

When capital is limited and the possible investment opportunities are numerous, how can organizations select the “best” ones for funding? This is the current environment for most health and human service organizations.  The starting point might seem obvious – apply selection criteria and see which projects “score” the best!  With tight capital and lower margins, […]

What I learned (again) at 151 MPH

Five years ago this month, I had a chance to do something I had always wanted to do, but never thought I would.  The previous Christmas, my family surprised me with a paid pass to the NASCAR Racing Experience: a chance to drive a real race car on one of the championship series tracks.  Having […]

Benchmarking: A “Better Way” Probably Already Exists

More Innovation - Yes Please!  In my last post, I talked about the resurgence of interest in innovation.  The Covid19 Pandemic, as well as some other factors, contributed to this interest as individuals and organizations who had never worked together before pooled their knowledge and skills to respond to some urgent needs.  This “next level” […]

Innovation: The Path to the Prize

As a Strategic Planning Consultant, I am definitely a “trend watcher”, and one of the reasons is to make sure clients are considering any relevance of what I call the “Strategy du Jour” to their Mission, Vision, and Goals.  It seems that there is always at least one strategy (sometimes more than one) that is […]

Minimizing Risk in Strategy Implementation

With Fall being such a popular time for developing a new Strategic Plan, it’s not surprising that after the holiday break, the focus begins to shift to implementation.  Most Strategic Plans include the development and deployment of new initiatives, expansion (or contraction) of services, or the execution of Tactics to help achieve one or more […]