The Organisation & Challenge
Poplar HARCA is an award-winning Housing and Regeneration Community Association in East London. They focus on providing homes and support to residents old and new; helping to create a place where people, communities and businesses can grow and thrive. Poplar HARCA manage over 10,000 properties across East London.
Vantage were asked to support Poplar HARCAs new leadership group as part of their succession programme. The challenge set by the Executive team was to develop a new 5-year corporate strategic plan. This is a group of leaders currently managing separate business units within the organisation. The assignment required them to come together to develop the organisation’s strategic vision for the next 5 years.
The Outcomes
Vantage ran workshops that helped to explore the organisations core purpose, vision and values. The group came together as one unit thinking strategically, working both horizontally and vertically to explore what objectives and workstreams should take priority. It was an ideal opportunity to solidify the new leadership group and for them to get to know each other through the networking sessions.
Vantage demonstrated a range of tools and frameworks for the group to use in their planning, delivery and benefits realisation work. The group used the Vantage Value for Money peer reporting tool to understand the context of their business and their opportunities. Trello was demonstrated as a way to prioritise the strategic objectives and projects along with planning tools such as the Hoshin matrix to visualise objectives, targets and actions.
The Benefit
“Working with the Vantage team was great, they brought a lot of insight, knowledge and examples from across the sector to help us review our value proposition. We felt supported and were given lots of guidance, and advice along the way. The draft corporate plan focuses on our key themes of place making, services, people and our operating foundations. It promotes collaborative working and shared goals for each of our 6 departments and touches on key hot topics in the sector such as different way of working, equity, health and wellbeing, sustainability.”