Strategic & Operational Cost Management (SOCM)

With the change in the economic climate many enterprises - small, medium and large; will be faced with financing challenges – both strategic (debt financing) and operational (cashflow). But these challenges have been faced by enterprises in Ireland and overseas over many years and, based on proven experience of strategic and operational cost management. Taking from my corporate and consulting experience over the past 20 years, I have developed an accelerated approach to identifying and prioritise cost management opportunities. This “hypothesis-led” approach complements the other Enterprise Healthcheck tools and allows an enterprise to action the optimum cost management (reduction) opportunities based on both strategic and operational priorities. For want of a better name I will efer to this approach as SOCM.

Strategic (tomorrow) AND Operational (today) approach
The SOCM is an accelerated approach to cost management – where “best practices” have been embedded in the project methodology and tools. Then, using a hypothesis-led approach (identifying the most likely 20% of the enterprise where 80% of the costs/savings will lie), accelerates the review – ensuring speed of delivery and minimum project costs. The proven cornerstones for successful cost management reviews:
+ Creation of an integrated, hypothesis-led programme
+ Focus on realising benefits early
+ Achieving buy-in and sustaining the savings

Because “best practice” and past experience of cost management are directly incorporated into the project methodology, organization and tools (see the graphics), project quality is equally embedded, supported by proven project management techniques plus the experience of the consultants that will work with the enterprise.

Applying Best Practices
A critical element of any cost management review is to understand where costs are actually incurred during the ongoing operations of the enterprise. Based on “best practice” and past experience I have developed the SOCM Cost (Value) Chain – a way of looking at an enterprise from the five areas that both incur costs and generate value.


Hypothesis-led approach
Hypothesis-led approach involves working with senior management in the initial stage of the SOCM project, identifying priority areas – based on enterprise-specific insight & experience; where managers believe cost saving opportunities exist.

An SOCM question-based “ready-reckoner” has been developed, incorporating “best practice” & past experience, to facilitate hypothesis generation. Once identified, this approach ensures that the review focuses on areas that are known to be costly or where senior managers believe that costs could (or should) be managed better.


In addition to analyzing costs (as part of an SOCM review) there are also sound cost management disciplines and principles that are incorporated into an SOCM review:

SOCM Principles:
 Strategy
 Incentives & Controls
 Business Design
 Cost Management
 Continuous Improvement

SOCM Disciplines
 Strategic cost management
 Cost transparency
 Management tools
 Cost culture
 Continuous improvement

Business Mentoring – a group (peer) based approach

Drawing on my experience of business mentoring to a group of as part of the PLATO mentoring programme I identified seven phases of the mentoring process during the programme. The challenge for the mentor throughout the programme is to broaden the scope of issues to accommodate all participants, without losing the focus in specific issues that may benefit individuals.

The Mentoring Process incorporates the key aspects of proven mentoring programmes and also looks to incorporate a structure that allows for risks to be reduced and to successfully manage the learning transition from group to individual.

1.Meet, as PLATO engage in the participant selection in advance the first real encounter between participants and mentor is the first meeting.
2.Plan, brain-storming the types of issues and challenges that face the participants.
3.Credibility, continuously & consciously building credibility between the group leaders & the group and between the participants.
4.Share, the peer-to-peer dialogue around the issues, challenges and potential solutions - drawing on facilitation skills & guest speakers.
5.Accompany, encouraging participants to "take-away" things from each meeting that may help them in their personal &/or enterprise development.
6.Action, where commitment to the group and to each other is demonstrated over the course of the programme.
7.Network, encouraging the participants to continue the relationships that they have built with each other and to share potential contacts with each other beyond the programme.



Establish, build and maintain credibility:
Credibility is built during the initial stages of the mentoring process – when the participants first meet at the launch and the sponsor companies (Mazars in my case) are introduced as large, credible organisation whose staff (credible by association) have volunteered to support the programme. First impressions may or may not have a part to play, given the context (hotel, drinks, etc.) but the message from PLATO of matching & mentoring does set an expectation that establishes an initial level of credibility.

Planning the overall content of the programme at the launch and initial group meetings further builds credibility as it shows the group that their priorities are the focus of the programme. The difficulty is to ensure that the topics selected are broad enough for all participants so that none are left out (or behind).

And the peer-2-peer nature of the programme and the meetings, where individuals share their concerns and experiences with the other group members builds a degree of consolidation within the group – where they are confident to discuss topics and give advice to each other. The best example of this related to merchant payment services, where the group discusses the pros & cons of creditcard payments and how to approach merchant service providers to obtain the best rates.

Engagement, participation and progress of the group:
Drawing on the programme plan, the sharing of experience plus accompaniment of the individual group members together, through the PLATO meetings did allow for individuals to progress. Again, best explained by an example where Irish recruitment Partners, drawing on some of the insights and general personal support that he received from the group, progressed with his franchise plans – not as originally anticipated (where he would franchise his operations to others) but by becoming a franchisee for an international online recruitment service – where his Irish business remained, but was complemented by an international element.

Personal development (of the individual group members):
The engagement, participation and progress of the group, linked to the individual successes of participants within the group, reinforced for me the need to incorporate “action-planning” into the overall programme. Not what you must do for next month, but rather what must you do if you want to progress this idea, this initiative, resolve this problem – giving a tangible output to the meetings for those participants who needed to translate sharing & accompaniment into action.

Following on from this was also the opportunity to support the individuals in building their networks – bringing the programme beyond the monthly meetings (and the end of the programme). There were some opportunities for networking with the group, but more interesting was learning from some of the members about techniques such as “Contact Spheres”.

Encouraging the participants to engage in the various PLATO training programmes, so as to learn new things but also meet new people (potential clients or contacts) is a natural extension of the PLATO mentoring programme into the network (future) phase of my mentoring diagram above.

UNHCR in Sri Lanka

I have just retuirned from a 4 month placemengt with UNHCR (the UN's Refugee Agency) in Sri Lanka. This placement was as part of Irish Aid's Rapid Response Corp.

I travelled to Sri Lanka in May in response to the large scale displacement of people in the north of the country, resulting from the final phase of fighting between the government foirces and the LTTE (Tamil Tigers).

As a field officer for UNHCR my responsibilities were various and varied. As part of the visa process I had to prepare a brief ToR which is probably the best way to summarise my role:

1.Monitor the situation in IDP camps and Returned Divisions & GN Divisions and assess IDP/Return needs, specifically in the shelter sector and distribution of NFIs.
2.Monitor delivery of assistance to vulnerable groups.
3.Improve the mechanisms for identification of humanitarian gaps in the delivery of assistance and protection in the Return & IDP sites and liaise with the Head of Sub-Office and other clusters to ensure appropriate steps are taken to address gaps.
4.Provide guidance and support to Government representatives at District level and in Return Divisions & GN Divisions, governmental camp managers and NGO partners working in the IDP sites, which include participation of IDP communities (Returned & in Camps or Host locations) in issues of humanitarian services and protection provided in their sites.
5.Strengthen coordination mechanisms between local authorities (GA, DS and GS levels plus military authorities) and NGO partners, in the framework of the Shelter Coordination Cell and the Watsan Cluster.
6.Together with the Shelter Coordinator, act as focal point for negotiations with government & military authorities, UN agencies and NGO partners on the provision of assistance to return Divisions/GN Divisions and camps
7.Improve the mechanisms for information management, including age and gender demographic data, and ensure proper analysis of the collected information in order to maximize delivery of assistance.

During my time in Sri Lanka I kept a regular diary of the events and experiences, ranging from protection monitoring in the IDP camps, supporting the return proccess for families allowed to return to their original villages and homes, the difficulties of establishing & managing a supply & logistics function in a remote part of the country - and the challenge of elephants (from finding them, to dodging them).

The return process is continuing - based on a 180 day plan by the Sri Lankan governbment, so I anticipate that I will return to Sri Lanka later in the year to continue my contribution to the work of UNHCR and the assistance of Irish Aid.

Ireland & Uruguay - sharing economic development experiences (3)

On my recent trip to Uruguay I worked with a development programme (Uruguay Integra) whose focus is on building the capacity of the local government structures to identify, plan, fund and implement local development initiatives. As part of this I prepared a guide (drawing from several sources) to policy development and engaging public participation in policy. The basis of the guide was again two processes (value chains [Uruguay 2]):

Public policy design process


Public participation in policy design process

Ireland & Uruguay - sharing economic development experiences (2)

On my recent trip to Uruguay I met with a number of agencies where we discussed the Irish economic development structure (from policy to implementation to evaluation and the agencies responsible for this).

From this we developed some enterprise development Value Chains to allow us to compare the Irish experience (policy process and agencies) with that of Uruguay:

Policy Research Value Chain: this is the approach that has been adopted by Forfas, the Irish agency responsible for economic policy research:


Enterprise Development (Agency) Value Chain: this is the approach to building on innovation and entrepreneurial capacity towards export-based growth:


Policy Development (Implementation & Evaluation) Value Chain: we designed a chain of events that tend to be followed when defining a policy, developing implementation strategies for it; the associated coordination, regulation and monitoring and ending with evaluation. The purpose was to create a comparable method that we could align both Irish and Uruguayan development agencies and see where the similarities and opportunities lie:

Ireland & Uruguay - sharing economic development experiences

I have just returned from an assignment in Uruguay, working with the Office of Planning and Budgeting (OPP: oficina de planteamiento y presupuesto). This followed on from a trip by the director of OPP to Ireland in 2007.

The primary deliverable from this trip (in addition to a report and recommendations) was a story-board “Tail [tale] of the Celtic Tiger” – in interactive presentation drawing on more than 40 sources of information describing the Irish economic experience from the 1980s onwards.



The presentation follows the tail of the celtic tiger:
1. What caused the Celtic Tiger? (What existed before & what we did)
2. How did the Tiger roar? (Basis of the Celtic Tiger)
3. How can the tiger keep roaring? (Key Messages for today…)
4. How did we train the tiger? (Enterprise Development Structures)
5. The owners of the tiger (Social Partnership)
6. Feeding the Tiger (National Development Plan)
7. The tiger’s circus (Public Sector Modernisation)

Grant Management Guiding Principles

“Best practice” can be an inappropriate term to use – as what suits one organisation may not suit another. But having assisted a number of grant providers over the past number of years, there are common themes – “guiding principles” - that impact a grant provider and its grant management processes. So, while I have not listed out these “guiding principles” here, I have gathered these common themes together.

Naturally, there will be certain assumptions that support grant management “guiding principles” (to try and close the gap between grant providers and the way that they work) so I have used the following grant management process as the basis (drawing on the practical experience that I encountered with grant providers):

Supporting this value chain are the following assumptions (which underpin the “guiding principles” which I have identified:

 Grant management is an end-to-end process that is initiate with the initial application for a grant through the final payment of that grant
 Compliance with all donor requirements can be met throughout the grant management processes (initial grant application, through to final payment), including compliance with sound financial management practice and controls.
 The actual payment (settlement of the financial responsibility) of a grant is a financial transaction within the accounts payable (AP) function and as such must meet the appropriate financial management standards of control, reconciliation and audit.

I have prepared 27 “guiding principles” (15 management principles and 12 process principles that, combined support the overall grant management) under the following headings
 Planning & Design (5)
 Operations Management (5)
 Performance Management (5)
 Technology Management & Enablement (6)
 Data Management (3)
 Financial Management (3 – not including corporate governance & compliance requirements)

Enterprise & Entrepreneurship in Development

I recently completed a research study on the opportunities and challenges facing development organisation (from donors & policy-makers; through NGOs and development agencies to micro & small enterprises): “Opportunities and management requirements for enterprise & entrepreneurship-based programmes in development!)

In addition to the resources that I have found very useful through the Business Figths Poverty network I also reviewed more that 50 sources including:
- Papers & Presentations from various development; corporate; philanthropic and institutional (e,g, World Bank; IOL) sources
- African & Asian Networks (e.g. LEDNA & SBC Network & Entrepreneurship Development)
- Government Donors (e.g. Irish Aid & DFID)
- UN General Assembly
- Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship,

I adopted the same research methodology as t used for ICT in Development (which supported a successful 7-figure funding application).



There were two objectives for this research:

1. Identifying the various elements that are required to design a successful enterprise development programme; ranging from Needs Analysis & Solution Design to Programme Management and Monitoring & Evaluation (Development Value Chain)

Within this I focused on the four stages of enterprise (business) development:
- Business Idea: the basic concept for initiating an enterprise
- Business model: how will this business idea actually generate revenues
- Business Case: is the potential return (profit) appropriate for the necessary expenditure (costs) to achieve this return
- Business Plan: hat actions will we take, what decisions will we make, what finance do we need in order to start the business (Note : the business plan is a combination of business idea, model, case plus plan)

In addition to a re-usable research log (where I have itemised all of the relevant aspects of the literature and categorised them for easy searching & sorting in the future) I designed an Enterprise Development Programme Design/Assessment tool – a question-based tool, with guidance notes, to assist in either designing a programme/proposal or in assessing an existing programme as part of ongoing management, monitoring & evaluation.



2. The second objective was to help me in development an Enterprise & Entrepreneurship Development Programme, based on work that I have been doing over the past year with a number of development organisations here in Ireland.



Based on a proven enterprise & entrepreneurship development model here in Ireland; the County Enterprise Boards (CEBs), I was able to design a 3 year programme, using the Logical Framework. In addition to the “end-2-end” Development management processes I have also incorporated a policy-based (macro) set of objectives as wells as enterprise-led (micro) objectives

Enterprise Healthcheck Update

Drawing on the work that I have done with small and medium enterprises in capitalising on the opportunities of the internet (see eCommerce for Success) I have updated the Enterprise Healthcheck tool to include an eReadiness assessment that covers the following:

- Company Commitment to the internet
- Competitive Environment
- Distribution Chain (website/internet)
- Product Database
- Product Photos
- Online Sales fulfillment
- Legacy Computer Systems
- Internal (IT & Website) Maintenance Staff
- Development/Developer Readiness

Managing NGO/Programme finances

This Financial Management approach is supported by a full set of procedures and is linked to the Development Value Chain; the Logical Framework and sound Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) processes & controls


Underpinning the day-to-day financial management responsibilities of the Board, Executive Director, staff, partners and service providers are a series of Financial Management (FM) processes. These are based on a “Grant Recipient” approach as follows:

Purpose and objectives of the accounting system: The objectives of the grant recipient’s accounting system are:
# To record and classify all transactions accurately and completely
# To maintain a complete record of all:
- Revenue received
- Expenditure incurred
- Assets owned
- Liabilities due to third parties
# To report to donors on all required financial information

Enterprise Healthcheck

Over the years I have worked with a number of companies and organisations in the areas of organisation, people, performance and cost management. In today’s economic environment I looked back at these past experiences and took the lessons that I learnt and the techniques that I used and I have brought them together into a single “Enterprise Healthcheck” tool.

Depending on the priorities of your organisation and the challenges that face it, you can chose to spend between 2 hours and two days on the “Enterprise Healthcheck”. A question-based approach that can be conducted via one-2-one interview of group facilitation, the healthcheck provides a scored assessment of your organisation across a set of areas that are proven – through research and experience; to have a major impact on the ability of an organisation to maintain its focus, optimise its resources and achieve its objectives.



These proven areas )in addition to revenue management & resource management) include:
# Human Resource Management: HR Budget; HR Staff; Organisation mission & goals; HR Planning; Staff Data; Computerisation of Data; Personnel Files; Job Classification; Compensation & Benefits system; Recruitment, Transfer & Promotion; Orientation Programme; Policy Manual; Discipline, Termination and Grievance procedures; Industrial Relations (Unions); Labour & Employment law compliance; Job Descriptions; Staff Supervision; Evaluation; Staff Training; Management & Leadership Development
# Performance Management: Service; Strategy; Objectives; Alignment; Performance; Management; Development; Competency; Training; Communications; Mutual Agreement
# Cost Management: Work unit right-sizing; Deduplication; Roles and Responsibilities; Product Review; Poject Review (IT, capital and other); Employee overheads; Connectivity; Sans of control and levels; People, skills and capabilities; Pay rates, allowances and premiums; Demand Challenge – Non Core Processes; Operating Model; Ativity and Process Efficiency; Process Benchmarking; Process Effectiveness (Core Processes)

And supporting these three areas are a set of simple, insightful organisation assessment tools:

- 7-Cs quick assessment tool: Coordination; Commitment; Competence; Communication; Conflict Management; Creativity; Capacity Management
- McKinsey’s 7-S organisation assessment tool: Strategy; Structure; Systems; Style; Staff; Skills; Shared Values
- Organisation Culture assessment tool: Vision; Strategic Direction; Goals & Objectives; Core Values; Creating Change; Customer Focus; Organisation Learning; Empowerment; Team Orientation; Capacity Development; Agreement; Coordination & Integration

These tools will allow you to understand the most relevant aspects of your organisation for today’s challenging environment; identify the most appropriate opportunities that you should focus on in order to consolidate your current position and to prioritise these opportunities so as to maximise your resources in order to achieve your objectives

What is Stakeholder management

Stakeholder: One who holds the bets in s game or contest; one who hasa share or an an interest, as in an enterprise

Management: "Management" (from Old French ménagement "the art of conducting, directing", from Latin manu agere "to lead by the hand")
- characterises the process of leading and directing all or part of an organisation through
- the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible).

Stakeholder + Management = organisation-wide change cannot be implemented unless individuals change, and for this buy-in and consensus to change is required from certain stakeholders to change successfully. For example:
- Powerful and supportive change champions can be leveraged
- Fearful or negative reactions can derail the change
- Failure to lay the groundwork early creates problems
- Different stakeholders see the same changes in different ways

Identifying & prioritising stakeholders:

What is Change Management?

Change: The following are some interesting perspectives on what “change” is
- The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. [George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950, Irish playwright and critic#
- If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change. [Giuseppe di Lampedusa 1896-1957, Italian writer in The Leopard]
- The real problem is what to do with problem solvers after the problem is solved. ‘Gay Talese 1932-, American (Italian-born) journalist]
- "Bury me on my face," said Diogenes; and when he was asked why, he replied, "Because in a little while everything will be turned upside down." [Diogenes 412BC-323BC, Greek philosopher ]

Management: "Management" (from Old French ménagement "the art of conducting, directing", from Latin manu agere "to lead by the hand")
solved. ‘Gay Talese 1932-, American (Italian-born) journalist]
- characterises the process of leading and directing all or part of an organisation through
- the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible).

Change + Management = is the managerial processes and tasks that are undertaken to support the development of an organisation and its staff from one state in time to another.

When ever we introduce the word “manage” we move away from the uncertainty of change to a more structured, coordinated [managed] initiative that is to move us from one defined state to another, defined state. It is only be defining where we are and where we want to be that we can “manage” this transition.

There are a number of tools that we can use to help us define where we are, where we want to be (change) and how we are going to get there (manage). These include:

- Project Management techniques that would complement the organisation in defining the scope for change (the actual starting point and the desired ending point), support the planning process and facilitate the monitoring of tasks and achievement of milestones
- Operations & Process Design Techniques, such as IDEF or the Organisation Development Models for providing a structured method for defining the organisation and mapping responsibilities, values and performance to the various units or roles
- Role Profile templates that map to performance management techniques including development needs analysis
- Dynamic RAID logs (Risk, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies) that provide enhanced support to the change management coordinator and project reporting.
- Stakeholder management techniques that support the appropriate participation of both internal and external parties that may have an influence of the pace and success of change
- Management training experience (content and delivery) – ranging across the three C formula (Competency + Capability = Capacity)
Competency (re-usable/transferable skills) +
Capability (experience & personal abilities) =
Capacity (overall breath & depth to achieve organisation objectives)

Risk, Issue & Opportunity Management

What is the difference between Risk & Assumption "in a sentence".
A Risk is a definable, but unknowable event that we presume WILL occur where as an Assumption is a definable, unknowable event that we presume will NOT occur.

The distinction between "WILL" and "will NOT occur" is the extent that we need to increase our project activities and budget to put in place the monitoring & mitigating resources & responsibilities associated with the risks (WILL occur). A comprehensive Risk management approach - linking risks to opportunity, activity, resource & responsibility is to use a RAID log.

The RAID log is a key programme & project management tool that allows the organisation (& if appropriate it’s external stakeholders) to see the progress of the project and issues impacting on the successful implementation from a practical “action and resolution” perspective. It is a structured, consistent tool that facilitates daily programme & project management decisions and sets the agenda for the management/stakeholder meetings that will provide oversight for the programme/project



Risks: Any external element that may influence the success or failure of the programme or project and element within it. Each risk must have mitigating action(s) set against it – that action that will reduce or pre-empt the risk should it materialise

Assumptions: Understandings of aspects of the programme, organisation or situation at a point in time that are understood to be fact or finite at that point in time. As with risks, assumptions must have mitigating action(s) set against it should the assumption prove to be incorrect.

Issues: Changes in the day-to-day activities of the programme/project that must be tracked and addressed to ensure the continued progress of the programme. Every issue should be assigned an action, owner and completion date to ensure that it is addressed so that it does not escalate to being a risk to the success of the overall programme

Dependencies: These must be identified and tracked as they impact on people’s ability to undertake tasks and address issues. Dependencies form a key part of workload prioritisation during the programme and are a basic agenda item for any meetings and decision-points and as such must be consistent with all other aspects of the plans, projects and programmes.

Strategy Road Map

Vision & Mission: It is vital for any organisation to be able to demonstrate the strategic opportunities available over a three to five year cycle. A projection of the future state of the organisation with supporting rationale should be prepared, validated and quantified as accurately as possible so that the various stakeholders can see how the organisation will meet its statutory objectives

Strategy & Objectives: Once the Vision and Mission are documented and agreed the next step is to explicitly identify the strategy that would be pursued. Supporting this strategy must be specific objectives that support the ongoing decision-making process (prioritisation of actions, allocation of resources, delegation of responsibility, monitoring of performance, etc.).

There must be a direct alignment between the Vision and Mission and the strategic objectives as it will be through achieving these objectives that the vision will be realised.

Organisation: The areas of strategic importance that are identified in step two and the associated objectives for these areas must be aligned to the recommended staff (roles and responsibilities) to help make the case for approving the budget for each recommendation.

Supporting these resources will be reporting and process requirements which in turn will be determined by the extent to which tasks are retained internally (service delivery) or managed via third party suppliers (contract management).

Operations: Operations focus primarily on the business, financial and governance model that would be adopted. The Operations structure answers the questions of “What is required to achieve performance targets, manage working capital and revenue streams, ensure seamless service delivery, invest in market access and retention, etc?”

Accurate recording of financial performance and monitoring of this performance against the business plan is vital to prevent, pre-empt or mitigate challenges in a manner that minimises any negative impact on the achievement of the mission and objectives (steps one and two above)

Business Plan: The business plan (or Business Case) is the key strategic management tool that incorporates the key performance indicators for the year-on-year progress against the strategic objectives.

The Dynamic Planning Circle (DPC)

The Dynamic Planning Circle (DPC) has four axes, or the 4 “M’s”;
- Mapping and Markets – the external influences and
- Mechanism and Motivations – the internal factors.

Around these four axes the Basic Business Elements – specific to an organisation, are identified. These basic elements are what make the planning circle dynamic. Each element is interrelated with the others, allowing the small enterprise-person to quantify specific goals and ensure that all elements of the business plan (goals and objectives) are appropriate and achievable.


The DPC has been used as a planning and a facilitation tool to allow SMEs; NGOs and other organisations affected by both internal and external stakeholders, to identify the particular sources of influence on their enterprises/organisations and how these influences have, or could, manifest themselves. The DPC can then be used as an operational tool to aid project definition; partner (donor) selection; proposal preparation and project management & delivery

What is Project Management

Project: A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.
- Temporary means that the project has an end date.
- Unique means that the project's end result is different than the results of other (business-as-usual) functions of the organisation

Management: "Management" (from Old French ménagement "the art of conducting, directing", from Latin manu agere "to lead by the hand")
- characterises the process of leading and directing all or part of an organisation through
- the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible).



Project + Management
Both a process and set of tools and techniques concerned with defining the project's goal, planning all the work to reach the goal, leading the project and support teams, monitoring progress, and seeing to it that the project is completed in a satisfactory way.

The application of modern management techniques and systems to the execution of a project from start to finish, to achieve predetermined objectives of scope, quality, time and cost, to the equal satisfaction of those involved.

PLATO & Business Mentoring

Plato Ireland is dedicated to the successful development of Ireland's indigenous small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. Plato offers owner managers a business support forum where they can tackle the challenges and issues of today's business world.

Having competed the comprehensive PLATO training programme I was a group leader for the Dublin programme, supporting a group of 10 business owners/ manager via monthly meetings, sourcing materials based on the groups needs; facilitating introductions to appropriate advisers and/or networks; and providing ad hoc accompaniement and support over the two tear period of the programme.

I am currently completing my “Learning Log” for a qualification in Business Mentoring. The log is based on my experience as a mentor to both individual organisations and, via PLATO to groups.

Business Mentoring Theory: Focusing on current challenges and issues facing the self-employed and how the business facilitator/mentor can support those involved to overcome the barriers and inhibitors encountered.

Business Mentoring Process: Drawing on organizational theory and practice this module should identify perspectives on the group process, group dynamics and individual behaviour

Business Mentoring in Context: the core components of the effective management of organizational principals and in the context of the Plato Network the entrepreneurial personality

Sustaining the Mentoring Relationship: building an understanding of strategic planning including analytical skills to formulate, explain, implement and evaluate the strategies that create, maintain and sustain the Mentoring relationship

Based on my review of academic & professional research into the area, aligned to my own experience – both with PLATO and working with individual organisations; I prepared a model of what Group-based mentoring would require:

What is the Logical Framework (LogFrame)?

Having worked with a number of NGOs & project-based organisations during 2008, I have designed an MSExcel-based integrated planning tool - based on the LogFrame:


The main concept of the LogFrame is “means & ends”. The better the means and end linkages between each level of aims (the matrix), the better the programme design. By definition, each programme has an “if-then” or “means-&-end” logic embedded in it.
o If we produce certain results under certain conditions,
o Then we can expect to achieve certain other outcomes

The LogFrame has the following advantages:
- It brings together in one place a statement of all the key components of a project (this is particularly helpful when there is a change of staff)
- It presents them in a systematic, concise and coherent way, thus clarifying and exposing the logic of how the project is expected to work
- It separates out the various levels in the hierarchy of objectives, helping to ensure that inputs and outputs are not confused with each other or with objectives and that wider ranging objectives are not overlooked
- It clarifies the relationships which underlie judgments about likely efficiency and effectiveness of projects
- It identifies the main factors related to the success of the project
- It provides a basis for monitoring and evaluation by identifying indicators of success, and means of quantification or assessment
- It encourages a multidisciplinary approach to project preparation and supervision.


The MSExcel tool allows for all aspects of the LogFrame planning process, that is to say good-decisions around objectives, activities and resource (time, money & things) optimisation, to be captured in a sinlge, integrated tool.


Advantages of the Integrated LogFrame tool include:
1. Defining the objectives in the most concise, manageable way – SMART


2. Directly linking the objectives to outputs (results); inputs (resources), ensuring that the activities (who) are Measurable & Achievable

3. Activity & resource-based planning to better define the Relevant, Time-bound responsibilities of participants & partners in the programme – and the resources (that, combined, make up the budget) available to the programme


5. An integrated Project Plan – aligning objectives to results (outcomes) to activities to responsibilities (who) and to resources (time-money-things).


6. It also integrates the LogRisk register into the same tool – reflection risks & assumptions:
• A Risk is a definable, but unknowable event that we presume WILL occur. – as a result additional activities and resources will be required in the programme to monitor &/or mitigate these risks
• An Assumption is a definable, unknowable event that we presume will NOT occur, and so additional resources are not immediately required in the programme, although these assumptions should be monitored as part of Monitoring Indicators


7. And finally the tool allows you to “link” the programme LogFrame to the MDGs and, inn this case the Irish Aid donor priorities – aligning programmes to both strategic goals and donor priorities

What is “programme”?

Programme is the term used to describe the consolidated approach to an NGOs projects, partners and participants (a project being “a planned endeavour, usually with a specific goal and accomplished in several steps or stages”). From a practical perspective there are two types of Programmatic approach:

Ways of working: this is where the approach draws on and shares appropriate management practices & policies that enable the efficient delivery of the NGO’s supports & services

Type of intervention: is where a shared understanding of the beneficiaries requirements allows suitable, sustainable, successful development interventions to be designed and implemented where the challenges of poverty alleviation are similar

The focus of a programmatic planning process is based on a participative engagement with partners & participants, where possible, facilitating a bottom-up approach to planning that maximises reflection, research & discussion – which provides the basis for good decision-making.

Planning is the processes of reflection, research and discussion that allow the organisation to make “good decisions”.


Good decisions are those decision made with the best information available at the time. It is only with hindsight that the organisation can determine if “good decisions” were the right decisions.

Good decisions can be made around resource requirements & optimisation over longer & shorter time periods plus key activities, risks & dependencies that will impact on the progress towards meeting the identified objectives.

Good decisions made at the outset here will allow for good plans to be prepared and these plans will form the basis of project funding (dispersals & accounting), monitoring (progress), evaluation (achieving objectives) and impact (success of projects, programmatic lesson learning, etc.).

Plans are the documented outputs and actions associated with “good decisions”. As a result it is better for an organisation to have good planning (reflection, research & discussion) that achieves “good decisions” than to have Plans based on poor decision-making. It is these good-decisions that build the organisation's & programme's (projects, partners & participants) capacity

Capacity is the optimisation of the three primary resources available to any organisation – Time; Money & Things. Capacity is built through improving the quality of decision-making within the organisation so as to better optimise these three resources towards the achievement of the organisations objectives {Plans})