Corporate Away Days
Corporate Away Days
The objectives of an Away Day might include:
◼ Regrouping as a team away from the hustle and bustle of every day
◼ Respond to changes in the market, customers, technologies
◼ Develop or enhance the strategic direction of the business
◼ Review the year to strengthen plans and policies
◼ Recalibrate priorities
◼ Make some big investment decisions such as acquisitions, new product and service developments, new branches or offices
◼ Work through differences of view that may have been holding the Board back
How Do Facilitated Away Days Work?
A facilitated Away Day or Strategic Offsite allows the senior people to fully immerse themselves in the content rather than worry about running the meeting.
A facilitated session has a different tone and feel to normal Board Meetings. Depth of consideration and more exploratory conversations are encouraged.
Design Of An Away Day
Methods we use in Away Days include:
◼ Collaborative performance review – where participants rate performance of functions and discuss constructive suggestions for improvement
◼ Identify key growth projects
◼ Priorities – getting aligned and injecting urgency in issues as required
◼ Sales improvement planning
◼ Product Roadmap Planning
◼ Customer Service improvement
◼ Resource allocation – we have an interesting way to help you prioritise these
◼ Innovating in The Future – a session to think about fundamental developments in the business’ operating context – the market(s) and the macro environment
◼ Scenario Planning – thinking through some potential scenarios and planning how you will make the most of them
◼ SWOT analysis – a very useful summary tool enabling the Board to define impact, mitigations and exploitations
◼ Risk review – we ask questions in a provocative way to help the Board identify likely risks and work out how to manage them
◼ Innovations – a brainstorming session to identify opportunities for innovation and set expectations for the organisation to progress them
◼ Governance Review – how well have you as a Board fulfilled your Governance Role
Examples Of Away Days We Have Run
Here are some of the Management Away Days we have provided:
◼ Long, Medium and Short Term planning
◼ Strategy setting
◼ Preparing for an IPO
◼ 100 Day Planning Sessions (for post VC investment)
◼ Pulling Together – improving inter-departmental teamwork
◼ Annual Business Plan direction and agreement of key deliverables and targets
◼ Post merger teamworking
◼ Resetting a relationship between Directors in a merged company
◼ Development of a new governance process and structure
◼ Development of a new structure for large not-for-profit group with multiple Boards
◼ Evaluation of a Board through observation, one-to-one reviews
◼ Negotiation of a demerger to Heads of Terms level
◼ Evaluation of strategic options
