Driven by rapidly changing internal and external environments, universities are transforming the ways in which they operate. Monash University’s Buildings and Property Division (BPD) is one of the largest such divisions in the country, managing a multi-billion-dollar portfolio. The organisation has already won a slew of awards, the most recent example of which being the 2017 National Award for Planning Excellence awarded by the Planning Institute of Australia.
With its 3-year developmental strategy coming to a close, the organisation required a new long-term developmental strategy to ensure their large property portfolio was adequately developed and nurtured, and their wide range of customers (including faculty and students – among many others) were provided with world-class, cutting edge facilities and services. The directors of the division thus identified the need for a new innovative strategy, to challenge and overcome pre-existing paradigms.
The organisation reached out to Orange Squid, and we subsequently commenced a modern, best-practice and highly collaborative strategy development process. We first worked with the directors and executive team in a rigorous hands-on process to develop clarity and alignment on the crux of the business challenges before broadening our scope by conducting exploratory research with stakeholders outside of the division. These stakeholders consisted of everyone involved in the university on a daily basis, including faculty, chancellery and students.
With this process completed, Orange Squid facilitated a process through which the leadership team developed their own strategy, with the expert guidance of the Orange Squid team, using innovative, cutting edge frameworks and methods. This process included developing specific strategic objectives and implementation plans achieving the organisation’s identified core challenges and developing overarching guiding principles and core values.
Action plans were developed for each objective along with measurable metrics, creating a strategy that did away with simply articulating a list of goals and instead, cleverly incorporated the means to succeed. The combination of Mark’s strong strategy and innovation background, and Chris’s strong strategy and customer-centricity background, together with Astrid’s background in organisation psychology ensured expert knowledge was leveraged every step of the way to positively influence the strategy. Astrid’s approach to psychology in the strategy effectively ensured that implementation of the strategy included the ‘people piece’, ensuring a holistic, rather than traditional, approach to this kind of strategy execution.
After the development of the strategy was completed, Orange Squid provided the organisation with a comprehensive ‘First 100-days’ guide to assure success of strategy implementation.
The Directors were thoroughly delighted with the strategy and signed off immediately! Orange Squid continues to work with this world-class organisation, offering support and guidance if and where it is needed to ensure that the value of the strategy is maximised.
"*" indicates required fields