Recently I’ve been reflecting on my experiences, and that of the Hodwell team, since we began our work together a little under a year ago for charities, social enterprise and other not-for-profit folk.
We’ve been asked to work with, and advise, some wonderful people and organisations doing some great things for people who really need a helping hand. Some clients are already successful, some are cranking up for future success and others know that they are in a place when some new, independent, and creative thinking-for-action could be just what they need to put a spring into their step.
But whatever the mission we’ve been assigned, success always seem to require three key ingredients. These are simple on the surface, and many hundreds of business books have been written about each one, and yet they seem to remain as elusive to get right – and keep right – as ever.
Those three magic elements are: Good, competent people who can communicate effectively with one another; a decent plan with some nice juicy-but-doable goals that include financial targets; and lastly an ability for Trustees, Chair and team to move with the times in their tools and approach, alter direction when needed and quickly identify and grab opportunities as they emerge.
I know that Hodwell won’t go far wrong if we continue to offer a reasonably priced and no-nonsense toolkit of help and support across all three of these areas – not least because the world in which we live continues to change and evolve at a dizzying pace and sometimes every charity needs a bit of outside thinking to keep on top.