Executive Transitions Offer an Opportunity to Explore Strategic Partnerships
An executive transition is inevitably challenging for both staff and board members, but it also provides the organization an opportunity to openly consider the possibilities of a restructuring or strategic alliance. A change in leadership gives the board a chance to evaluate the organization’s impact and explore opportunities for different paths to means to serve the mission, without sensitivities about the implications for future organizational leadership.
There is also great value in understanding if and how a strategic alliance could expand the organization’s impact. In order to do so, the board should consider the range of possibilities:
A strategic alliance is a form of restructuring that can occur along a broad spectrum—from long-term organizational collaborations, to fully integrated mergers. And in-between there are different possibilities designed to leverage the strengths and capacities of two or more organizations. Those can include joint programs, parent-subsidiary structures, fiscal sponsorships, asset transfers, joint ventures, administrative or back office consolidations, and other intentional structures for collaboration.
Key Considerations for the Board
A. Get down to the existential basics. Ask the deep questions about your organization’s core purpose and goals to help clarify whether the organization is still meeting a unique need.
- What is our core purpose?
- What problem are we trying to solve or new reality are we trying to create?
- If we were to be founded today, would it be to address an unmet need? And why?
- If we were to close our doors today: who would respond? What would they say? And what needs would go unmet?
B. Identify the organization’s core strengths and the challenges it faces.
- How do you describe the organization’s unique value?
- What are we doing that no one else is doing as well as we are?
- What are our core challenges? Do we have the resources and skills that we need to expand – or even continue – the impact that we seek to have in the world?
- What other organizations are working in a space similar to ours?
- How do our results and reputation compare?
- Are there organizations that might be open to partnership in a new way?
- Are there new players that are making our work more (or less) relevant?
- Is it reasonable to think that a new executive could build on these strengths and overcome these challenges?
C. Consider the possibilities for making the greatest impact.
- Could coming together with another organization provide additional resources, programs, and expertise that would serve the core purpose?
- Are there programs and/or program leadership that could complement another organization’s offerings?
- Is there an organization with aligned values and purpose that has strong executive leadership?
An executive transition can present new opportunities to openly consider if a strategic partnership might make sense for our organization prior to launching an executive search.
Clarity about the organization’s core purpose and goals, along with an honest assessment of organizational strengths and challenges, will inform discussions about an executive search, and may lead to an alternative path.
Using an Interim Executive-–with experience in nonprofit mergers—can also give your organization the time needed to assess the prospect of a strategic partnership. A seasoned interim executive can help guide the board through this exploration of prospective opportunities with an anchor or propeller(!) based on the reality of the organization’s capacity.