Business planning at Mill Cat Trust (part 1)

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Jan, the new Chair of the Board of Trustees, was determined that this year, the Mill Cat Trust was going to go through a proper strategic planning process and end up with a proper written business plan! In past years, the previous Chair had half-heartedly attempted to generate discussion about “strategy” but despite an away day last year, nothing had happened and the paperwork generated from the work – which admittedly wasn’t much - was very far down a large pile of papers on the Director’s desk.

A good use of time?

Several of the longer standing Trustees had recently been over-heard grumbling over Jan’s insistence that the Trust needed “a business plan”. Ron, who was one of the longest standing trustees, had been heard to say “what’s the point of wasting what little time we have together on this nonsense. We’re not a business - why do we need a business plan?”.

What really motivated Ron and another Trustee, Maureen, was international work. Maureen had recently returned from a holiday in Greece and couldn't get out of her mind the sight of those thin, sad cats circling the table at their favourite tavena, begging for scraps of food. She wanted to devote some funding to start a cat rescue and neutering centre in the local Greek town. Ron wanted to talk more about the proposals for the refurbished veterinary theatre. He said to Maureen, "I don't want to waste time talking about “business plans” and why do we have to  meet on a Saturday – and even worse - spend money on renting a room when we've got a perfectly good meeting room at the Cat Trust?".

“Things look pretty good to me” Maureen had said at the end of the last Trustees' meeting “why complicate it when it’s all going smoothly?”.  Jan, the Chair, with some impatience, said: "our charity could be even better with some proper planning.  This is about making sure we're heading in the right direction and have some awareness of what's likely to affect us in the future, particularly in the current economic climate.  I know that if we can show we have a clear direction we're much more likely to get grant funding.  The Cat Trust must stop just relying on legacies and get some new income from different sources".    

Privately, Jan is worried about the away day. She knows that the Director, Chris, isn’t totally on board with the planning process either. At a recent one-to-one meeting, Chris admitted that it felt as if this was just one more thing (for her) to do and she really wasn’t convinced of the benefits. Jan just hopes that it will be alright on the day.

The away day arrives

Jan is relieved and encouraged to see that everyone has turned up - even Maureen and Ron! Jan has engaged a Development Worker from Voluntary Action Millcaster to guide them through and facilitate the planning process and is looking forward to the results of the day.

The day starts well with Jan reminding the team how much they’ve achieved in the past three years: legacy income is up; they had attracted more volunteers; more cats had been re-homed and they were on track for a reasonable surplus. Chris spoke about the recent rescue and rehabilitation of a family of kittens and their emaciated mother from a squatted flat used as a local crack den.  It had generated a lot of publicity – even an item on the local television news!  There had been a terrific amount of interest in the Trust as a result – at least 20 people had signed up to be “Cat Friends” and some significant donations had come in.    

PESTLE?

The Development Worker facilitating the day starts to explain the first exercise – the “PESTLE” analysis. Ron’s ears prick up in irritation at the acronym. The facilitator explains that a PESTLE analysis helps an organisation identify major environmental influences or trends that might affect their future success.

She asks them to work in groups and identify the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental influences that might impact on the Trust and asks them to write up their findings on a series of flip charts.  

Mutiny in the ranks 

Just before the exercise began, Ron goes out for a cigarette and is joined by Maureen. “What are we doing, giving up a Saturday for this nonsense” says Ron to Maureen who was also thinking about what else she could be doing. “You’re right - we spent all that time last year on “planning” and I’ve never heard another word about it” agrees Maureen.

They go back in and join a group working on the PESTLE analysis. Ron and Maureen contribute very little. They mutter a few jokes about “pestle and mortar” and giggle about what they might be grinding up.  

At lunchtime, Ron tells Jan he has to leave because “something’s come up at home”.  Jan is really annoyed but tries to keep the irritation from her voice. The groups are now unbalanced, it looks bad that one of the Trustees has left, especially Ron, who is respected by several of the other Trustees. The rest of the group look up and there are some whisperings about what could have happened.    

“Right” says the facilitator brightly “let’s get on…..”

Have your say

• Was Jan too ambitious thinking the team would engage with this task?
• Does Mill Cat Trust really need a business plan?
• Have you been in a similar situation? How did you handle it?

Have your say on the Millcaster Tales forum.

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Read what happens next in Business Planning at Mill Cat Trust part 2.

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