STRATEGIC PLAN
OUR PLAN - the COMPASS
Charger Robotics has continued to develop and improve upon its strategic action plan to transform our culture, ensure excellence, and sustain success.
Why create the COMPASS when we had the PULSE?
Charger Robotics regularly earns high praise for our modern and successful Business Plan, with FRC Team #537 winning 7 Chairman's/Impact Awards and 11 Entrepreneurship Awards (sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers) on the back of the Charger "Pulse".
However, we're not an organization that rests on our laurels.
After a detailed assessment of the Charger Pulse, we noticed several gaps and improvement opportunities. Risk assessments and mitigation plans existed, but were often reactionary and generally determined to be "weak"; failing to put in place engineering controls to prevent failures from happening and instead instructed what actions would be taken after a failure had already occurred. Additionally, financial statements were overly high-level tables that summarized activity that had occurred, without providing a long-term budgetary tool to plan for the future.
The Charger Pulse addressed "This is who we are. This is what we've been doing.". But it was not a comprehensive business plan, and it did not help us plan for our future.
COMPASS
What will the Compass help us do differently?
Consider our organizational structure; then imagine what would happen if everyone:
-
Is clear and buys into the core ideology.
-
Focused on the top strategic objectives that must be achieved.
-
Understands and tracks key targets and performance indicators.
-
Is aware of our program’s threats and opportunities
-
Knows which operational functions must be improved first
Reflect on the execution speed of our organization; then envision:
-
An organizational design that actually reflects the chosen strategy
-
The leadership team understands what they are accountable for and how they’re being measured
-
We are clear on talent gaps.
-
We understand who is mismatched into the wrong role.
-
We know who to recruit next, why, and who NOT to recruit.
-
Good decisions get made and implemented quickly.
-
…without advisors having to manage unnecessary details.
If this was true, how would we improve?
The Compass helps us align the organization with opportunities.
The compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation; usually consisting of a magnetized needle which aligns itself with magnetic north.
Our compass shows our cardinal rules, contains our core values, and allows the leadership team to create organizational alignment while creating the roadmaps needed to achieve our long-term goals.
The compass is intended to help leadership look ahead at least 8 years (two full student high school groups) to make sure we understand where we’re taking our teams, what the journey will look like, and what resources need to be aligned along the way.
This is where we're going.
This is why we're going there.
This is how we'll get there.
This gives us Business Plan and Cycle alignment from strategic planning...
... to individual performance ownership!
OUR VISION
OUR PLAN
Before outlining specific goals and objectives for direct action, the COMPASS begins with a shared vision of a bright future that includes and involves our entire community.