When I am assisting a nonprofit with the development of a business or program plan, the final section I complete in a business plan, prior to the appendices, is called the risk analysis. In the risk analysis I like to run the business planning team through a series of questions that identify all the possible "issues", some neglible but some huge, that could affect the prospective business' success.
The most frequent risks like: the economy could sink, there's no demand, there's not enough cash.
But the exercise doesn't end with identification. Once completed, a question must be asked: are there mitigating steps that can be taken to reduce or avert the identified risks? And if no, the team must answer the question, is this project really a "go"?
For some time now, I have questioned the plan of one nonprofit social venture, and have maintained it should be much further along than it has ever progressed, suggesting that maybe this effort would be better accomplished by the government or the private sector. The nonprofit is "one laptop for all". Please note that I am not against the idea that every kid everywhere should have or have access to a computer no matter the socio-economic conditions. I just question both the capacity and planning of "one laptop for all".
That said, the New York Times had a great review of this organization's effort just assessed in Peru. The verdict: the organization has failed due to ill-prepared rural teachers and administrators who were too often unable to fathom much less teach with the machines, compounded by, software bugs, poor internet access and cultural disconnects.
Now, back to business planning. My question: were these issues uncovered through a risk analysis exercise and what did the plan for addressing look like?
To see the article, go here.