City of Melbourne

Designing universal strategic direction & managing roll-out & alignment of partners.

Opportunity

City of Melbourne Arts was experiencing a common dilemma that many organistations face: they had multiple objectives that didn’t ladder up to one overall strategic goal or direction. When it came to delivering precious funding for the arts, their process for awarding funds were so amorphis that it was difficult to say ‘no’ to any one applicant. Decision makers were left confused and funding was often falling to groups purely because they had been funded before.

Partnership

Think were engaged to develop a strategic platform that was in harmony with COM’s solidified business agenda and Arts Strategy. Beyond that, Think was responsible for ensuring the organisational shifts were streamlined and adaptable, and guiding principles for implementation and facilitating a change program were established.

Results

Our initial steps revolved around insights and data collection. This happened through stakeholder interviews - with included peer funders and artist residents in the City of Melbourne - as well as deep dive research into the global arts funding landscape. Through this analysis we were able to gain an understanding of COMs priorities, strengths & vulnerabilities and a competitor overview. All of which was the basis for a new, clear strategic platform. Think also developed a tool to guide decision making that allowed the strategy to come to life; empowering all members of the business to make the right choices and ultimately ensuring alignment from their organisational top-line agenda through to artists and citizens.