Strategic Planning project
Strategic Planning Assistant, The Co-operative Group
Brief description of project:
There are two key aspects to the project:
- To work with the Strategic Planning team in delivering the Group’s 2010 Three Year Strategic Plan to the November Board and delivering the Post Investment Appraisals to the main board and to the Regional Boards.
- To work with the Strategic Intelligence team to deliver a new, tailored news service via RSS feeds* across the Procurement team in order to equip them with company and industry information that can be used to challenge suppliers and reduce risk in the tendering process.
*RSS basically means “news feed”. It is the format that syndicates content from blogs, news headlines, and podcasts into a subscription. RSS feeds bring information into one place and instantly update when new news is published. To use RSS feeds, you need a piece of software called an RSS reader – this is a simple piece of software that checks the feeds and lets you read new articles that have been added. No previous knowledge or specialist skills will be needed for this project – software has already been tested and selected by the team and the graduate will be fully trained in how to use it.
The major output of this project are:
Strategic Planning:
- Guidelines for the 2010 3-year plan including key economic indicators. Timely submission of the 2010 3 year plan which has been adequately challenged and agreed by the executive and main board
- Co-ordination and review of the July Post Investment appraisals to the main board and regional boards including resolving any concerns of the regional boards
Strategic Intelligence:
RSS news delivery service set up for each member of the Procurement team with tailored news alerts. Following implementation a recommendation report will be produced with recommendations on the viability of implementing RSS feeds to other teams across the business.
How this project contributes to the strategyof the department and business:
Strategic Planning:
The 3-year plan is one of the key financial deliverables for the group. This is the plan, which underpins the strategy of the business as a whole, and which then becomes the 2010 budget. This is the financial budget which performance will be measured in the next financial year.
It is key that this document is of appropriate quality to challenge the businesses and allow the board to take key strategic decisions. The graduate will provide a key role in ensuring that the board is presented with a robust strategic plan as whole.
Post investment appraisals provide management information to the board on how the acquisitions, refits and new branches are performing against expectations. This information is key to allow the board to take learning’s away so that corrective action can be taken and so that future investment decisions take consideration of these matters.
Strategic Intelligence:
The provision of strategic intelligence is a key function of the Strategic Planning & Change Team. Our strategy is to encourage and enable divisions to access and use business information to improve performance. The RSS project will introduce a new way for teams to ‘self service’ essential business information; within the procurement team the provision of up to date news about suppliers and procurement deals is essential for enabling the business to select low risk suppliers on the best possible terms.
The measurable benefits of this project are:
Strategic planning:
- Robust 3 Year plan
- Post investment appraisals provided on a timely basis to the board to allow actions to be taken on key learnings.
Strategic Intelligence:
The provision of personalised company and deal information will increase the level of commercial awareness amongst the procurement team (which can be measured through feedback), supporting their supplier negotiations.