Aligning Corporate and Business Strategy
CONTEXT
YMCA of Singapore is one of the country’s longest-standing social service organizations, and runs social businesses and programmes spanning a wide range of industries, including hospitality, education, community service, and healthy living. YMCA strives to be among the most progressive organizations in Singapore’s social enterprise sector, engaging with its members, beneficiaries, and the community to constantly innovate, launch new programmes, and reinvent itself. Based on the Christian faith, it has an aim to develop the body, mind, and spirit of youths in Singapore.
The organization was facing a climate of constant change, with new entrants in the social enterprise landscape; increasing demands on governance in the non-profit sector; changing policies and regulations driving competitiveness in the education sector; as well as the emergence of new business models such as the sharing economy that could affect its hospitality business. YMCA engaged Eden to conduct their strategic review and planning exercise for the next three to five years, in order to address these challenges.
APPROACH
Eden started with an intensive engagement with internal stakeholders, including the board of directors and management team. We conducted a workshop to align stakeholders’ core principles and to articulate the long-term vision and mission of the organization, and surfaced developmental opportunities to further professionalise the organisation. This gave rise to a leadership contract which allowed for the greater empowerment of the management team, as well as better articulated board duties and responsibilities.
IMPACT
The vision of impact articulated helped guide subsequent sessions to deepen YMCA’s impact across its portfolio of social businesses. We helped craft a final strategic roadmap, programmes, and investments in line with the desired social and commercial impact as expressed by the organisation, to ensure that the organization will continue to thrive in the long-term.
“I am grateful to Eden for assisting in the strategy review of the YMCA. The team was instrumental in helping us articulate a strategy that will keep us at the cutting edge in these uncertain times. Their personable approach, sector experience and actionable research data aided fruitful conversations with both our board members and staff.”Steve Loh
CEO
YMCA Singapore
- YMCA Singapore
