Client Testimonials
The Yorkshire Water vision which we developed four years ago is the foundation for everything we do. During a series of working sessions over a period of six months we re-drafted and refined it many times. It was a tough process but at the end of it we had a vision which everyone signed up for and which is still fresh in the minds of our senior managers. It's not a slogan and you won't see it on posters. It's just part of our language. The process of creating our vision re-energised us and helped us to develop our business plans and every other significant initiative in Yorkshire Water. Our business plans and our people have delivered some outstanding results for Yorkshire Water over the last four years and I'd strongly recommend this approach to strategic planning and Charles Hobson's guidance.
Kevin Whiteman, Managing Director, Yorkshire Water & Chief Executive, Kelda Group
I'm a great believer in strategic planning and top team involvement. The planning workshop provided an excellent framework for our senior managers to put forward new ideas, resolve differences and prioritise actions.
Through a structured agenda, Charles Hobson introduces different ways of analysing the business, allowing the management team to focus on how to improve performance into the future.
The great advantage of using a facilitator such as Charles, is that he helps to guide the team towards achieving a concrete set of agreed action points, owned by members of the management team, which can be put into action back at work. With detailed notes and plans, Charles helps to ensure that management planning sessions deliver best value for the time and effort put into them.
Neil Dobbs, Managing Director, Bunzl Cleaning and Hygiene Services
Although we have had a reasonably good strategic plan for a few years, we needed to look forward not just to the medium term but also further ahead. In addition to market changes, we also had predictable succession planning issues. To address this, we brought together a group of nearly thirty people from Davis Blank Furniss for a strategic planning conference in November 2005. The participants' strategic planning skills ranged from "very good" to "I wonder what I can do next weekend"! To guide us through the planning process, we needed an objective and skilled outsider; having seen Charles Hobson do exactly the same with another disparate group of people of whom I was one, I knew that he was the man for the job. On the day, Charles quickly gained control of the audience in his very calm way and earned their total respect. In the very meticulous process of planning for the day and on the day itself, Charles made many valuable suggestions and our strategic planning conference was enormously successful.
We have made good progress with our strategic plan since the conference and Charles is currently helping us with the implementation where we need additional focus.
Peter Heginbotham, Senior Partner - Davis Blank Furniss Solicitors
The strategic planning process is fundamental to the success of the GM Chamber and indeed every organisation. We designed and ran our planning process with Charles Hobson's guidance to meet the Board's needs. I think it's essential to have their full involvement and commitment. It's not a spectator sport! We've completed two strategic planning cycles now and our Board has a very clear and shared understanding of where we want the GM Chamber to be and how we're going to get there. The planning workshops which were part of the process delivered exactly what we wanted and the feedback from our Board members has been very positive indeed.
Angie Robinson, Chief Executive, Greater Manchester Chamber
A famous statesman once said 'it is wise to look ahead, but foolish to look further than you can see'. Working with Charles Hobson on strategic planning you quickly develop an uncanny sense of seeing just how precisely far ahead the game can be played. As the journey becomes apparent, the steps in getting there are conjured and contextualised in an almost seamless fit that leaves the CEO wiser beyond belief
Robert Bisset, Chief Executive, Chester Aid To The Homeless (CATH)