Sometimes just understanding where you can enhance your business is the hardest part. The Planning Collective hired Tactical.ly to dive deep and to develop a roadmap of improvements. This recently-formed partnership was being led by Burnette O’Connor, a planning expert with over 20 years experience in the planning industry, and was at the time a small team of 10, serving a range of clients from private home owners to large-scale developers.

The Planning Collective engaged Tactical.ly to help them understand how the business was performing and how they could improve their profitability, efficiency, and team motivation. They understood they needed some change to excel as they moved the business forward. The intent of the engagement was to understand how they could effect the correct change and to gain a detailed roadmap of strategies and tactics to do so.

In-depth discovery

Tactical.ly’s work with The Planning Collective was primarily focused on conducting an in-depth discovery phase. This included interviews with the business owners, key staff, and customers, as well as an analysis of the company’s financials, organisational structure, and existing processes.

The discovery phase helped Tactical.ly to identify the key areas of opportunity for The Planning Collective. It was determined that the company was not operating at maximum efficiency, as there were a number of redundant processes and inefficiencies in their workflow. Additionally, the team was not fully motivated, and customer service was not as strong as it could be.

Tactical.ly then developed an action plan to address the areas of opportunity. This plan included the development of new processes, the introduction of new systems, and the implementation of team-building activities.

Ready for action

Tactical.ly’s end delivery comprised a robust roadmap, backlog of performance initiatives, and support in some final restructuring. With these actionable tools to hand, The The Planning Collective was set up to increase their performance as a leading planning company in NZ.

Following our investigation with, and recommendations for, The Planning Collective, they completed the company restructure, appointed an outstanding new leader within the business, and have had a stellar year.

Lessons for success

Sometimes it’s not apparent to its people exactly where a business needs help – yet it’s clear that it does, especially following major change such as a restructure, acquisition, or the departure of a key team member. Bringing in an outside observer can give you an alternative perspective and show that you recognise, and are prepared to deal with, the impact of change.

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