If you've stayed with us throughout this series of blog posts, you'll now have all the tools you need to develop effective strategy. To help you on your way, this final post shares our top tips - gathered from our experiences of working with clients over the past 5 years - for managing the process. Top tip 1: Time Effective strategy takes time. You need time to understand the context, identify challenges and opportunities, and share that understanding with colleagues. You nee

Exciting. Challenging. Full. There are lots of adjectives I could use to describe our 2017, the vast majority of which are positive! I thought I'd spend some time reflecting on the year that was... ​January started working with ARMA, the UK association for all staff working in research management. Providing chief operating officer services meant thinking across all aspects of the business - from financial modelling, cash flow monitoring and budget setting, to reviewing proces

Organisations of all sizes spend time planning their strategies. But - in a world that is changing so quickly - how effective are these strategies? Does the time spent really yield results? Being a strategist, I would say it does! And here are seven steps to make sure that your strategic planning is as useful as possible. 1. Context is important The first stage to any effective strategic thinking is to know as much as you can about the operating environment, and any potential