Welcome to the Inaugural Issue of the Journal of Practical Consulting

Bramwell Osula

Welcome to this, the inaugural issue of the Journal of Practical Consulting! The last few months have been a period of intelligence gathering and discovery. One of the major discoveries made is that there are many and varying interpretations of the word "consultant." More critically, especially from the point of view of a journal, not every consultant writes! Read more

Greg Stone & Timothy A. O. Redmer

Scenario planning is a strategic planning method that organizations use to develop flexible long-term plans. The authors, experienced in case study design, development, and method for teaching in an MBA program, used the case study approach to create a scenario planning strategy to analyze a company's product and move the company through its decision-making dilemmas. The case study is a technique well-suited for gathering and organizing the data and information required to construct the scenario. It can capture data and information related to past business performance, decisions, and dilemmas so the executive staff and other key employees can explore the future and the product/market options and possibilities using the scenario-planning process.

Gail J. Longbotham & C. Roger Longbotham

Organizations have used rigorous methodologies to identify the improvements necessary for remaining viable and competitive in today's turbulent business environment. However, they have rarely used the same level of rigor in the implementation of the identified improvements. One organization benefited by using design of experiments to determine the best approach for implementing a difficult organization-wide change.

Jan L. Ronchetti

Over a decade after Robert Kaplan and David Norton introduced the Balanced Scorecard as a strategic planning model in 1992, documented successes from the private sector can be found in much of today's business literature. However, little information is available on how to implement the Balanced Scorecard in a nonprofit organization so that exceptional ongoing results can be achieved. Unique from the private sector, nonprofits are often required to minimize administrative and operating costs under the watchful eyes of congregants or donors. Tight operating budgets, heavy workloads, and confusion about how to effectively perform strategic planning are all contributing factors which can cause leaders of nonprofits to shy away from strategic planning initiatives. However, without a mission and values-driven strategy in place to guide long and short-term decision-making, a nonprofit's ability to increase operational capacity, operate within budget allocation, enhance employees' skill base, and meet stakeholders' needs is compromised. This article discusses what the Balanced Scorecard is, describes implementation guidelines, and proposes practical scenarios of how to implement the Balanced Scorecard for a new outreach ministry within a nonprofit religious organization. Also, due to the widespread popularity of Rick Warren's (1995) Purpose-Driven Church model, a scenario is presented combining the Balanced Scorecard with the Purpose-Driven Church model to demonstrate the power and flexibility of the Balanced Scorecard as a strategic planning and performance measurement tool.