Simon Garlick's five year plan

[pK75]

I think it's also fair to say that having our AFLW side fall off a cliff two seasons ago has seriously undermined the targets because they were probably banking on one flag and a couple of top 4 finishes from the women's team as easy wins for the strategy (because that would have just left the mens team the need to get one top four finish and a flag).

The woman’s team ticked off one of the prelims in 2022, and we still have this year and next year for one of the teams (men’s or Woman’s) to win the flag. Literally still 4 seasons to get it done.

 

[BigRang]

Welcome to the world of strategic planning. Multiple studies have shown approximately 65-70% of strategic plans are not delivered in full and almost half fail to deliver any discernible change.

Strategic plans are not typically commitments, they are aspirations. CEOs are rarely removed if a strategic plan fails because there's always extenuating circumstances.

As the Exec Director for Strategy at a multi-billion $ organisation who has just launched a new strategic plan - I'd be delighted if we achieve half the things in our strategy (as would all key stakeholders).

That said, I would comment the Freo strat plan was well publicised and the targets were perhaps naively front and centre of all the announcements.

Also worth stating that the dates on strat plans are always inclusive - so this plan takes us to the end of 2025, not the start.

Replying from a few pages back but absolutely agree with this. My wife and I own our own multi million dollar business which was our goal to start with for years. We still set ourselves goals that we want to accomplish by X amount of time ‘some time’ in the future. When these goals don’t happen within the set time we don’t get our knickers in a twist and go full melt mode ‘F@(& this we’ve ruined it all we’re F$ing selling up there’s no point!’ Etc. We generally roll up our socks and carry on and reassess where we want to be and how we’re going to get there. Very rarely has throwing the bath water out and taking the bath to the tip got anyone anywhere.
However, If we’d never set the goals we did to start with we’d have never got to the point we’re at now. Make of that what you will.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

What’s the old saying?
Aim for the stars and you’ll land on the moon?

 

[summerthebat]

Congratulations to all the posters letting others on the football forum know that they run multi-million dollar businesses and how this applies to elitist skill of goal setting.

 

[summerthebat]

Obviously I am in the minority here and can certainly agree with the idea of optimism with stretch goals.

My point, is that Garlick (and advisors) clearly misread their influence in the marketplace, in both the front and back office that the entire organisation will fail to achieve anything that was set. To me, that is incompetent and arrogant organisational research and far from a personal virtue that everyone seems to be eluding to.

Ask yourself this, what's the next five year plan going to be?

 

[Cam Payne]

If the club were struggling financially due to club management, then Garlick would be in trouble. Cos he set some aims for the club that they haven't reached isn't the reason to sack him. The organisation looks stable and the financials are good. That's his job.

 

[FreoBraddles]

I think it's easy to focus on the big picture stuff, as that's the exciting stuff.

There's also a number of other areas included in that plan which will be achieved and in some cases these are the building blocks to reaching some of the bigger picture things like flags and membership.

 

[Schauermann]

Really don't get such objectives. Easy to say but the problem is 17 other clubs try the same. And in the end the objective should be to win a premiership (or 2-3 with AFLW) every year anyway...

 

[The Lobbster]

Obviously I am in the minority here and can certainly agree with the idea of optimism with stretch goals.

My point, is that Garlick (and advisors) clearly misread their influence in the marketplace, in both the front and back office that the entire organisation will fail to achieve anything that was set. To me, that is incompetent and arrogant organisational research and far from a personal virtue that everyone seems to be eluding to.

Ask yourself this, what's the next five year plan going to be?

I’m really struggling to understand what you are upset about. 5 year plans are fluff. It means almost nothing. The only reason people remember Gales Richmond plan is that it was one of the tiny proportion of these plans that are actually achieved.

As for the next 5 year plan, I’m pretty confident it will be very similar to the last one. We should always be aiming for sustained top 4 periods and increasing membership. But you’re divorced from reality if you think this is always going to be the case. Things happen that no one could predict. It’s not arrogant to aim for a flag every five years.

 

[MadMundy]

Every club makes these 5 year plans and what not, it's just a ploy to build hype within the fanbase.

 

[Freomaniac]

I remember seeing this. I thought even back then it was a massive ask.

So by the end of 2025, we had to have won the flag at least once and make the preliminary final twice. Again..... A very difficult task.

Even at the end of 2022 when we finished 5th and won a final, a flag by 2025 with how badly our club was and still is run, that would be a miracle for us, but possible for others.

We dropped badly in 2023. We are a chance to make finals in 2024.


Even if you told me if Freo made Elim finals in 2022-24 then flag in 2025, yeah I wouldn't believe that

 

[BigRang]

Congratulations to all the posters letting others on the football forum know that they run multi-million dollar businesses and how this applies to elitist skill of goal setting.

Thanks for the congrats! Means the world to me.
My post was more about how setting goals in search of success is a good thing. Like I said if we hadn't done exactly that we wouldn't be where we are now.
We had people tell us that we'd never be able to accomplish what we have (Exactly the way people are saying FFC setting the goals looks terrible now and it's been a complete failure).
If the club doesn't set goals like they did they'll end up in no-man's land.
I think the club actually seems quite well run at the moment, they're quite clearly sticking to the plan, have clear recruitment policies, have locked away the vast majority of the core of the group, are making money, and are backing in stability over making stupid decisions.
Everything seems well thought out with the long term in mind.
It doesn't mater that the goals they set were ambitious, what matters is that they're not deviating because of things that are out of their control. (Like the form of all the other clubs in one of the tightest seasons in recent memory)

 

[clivenator26]

Personally I’d rather the club just got to work and kept this stuff out of the media or fans. It doesn’t really serve a purpose, a lot of clubs have done this sort of thing and only Richmond ever got it done.

No one deserves to be sacked if we don’t but I’ll say one thing, this club has achieved nothing and has had the underachieving seasons of 2023/24 (let’s assume we at best play 1 final) BUT has 60k members and crowds closing in on 50k despite generally shitty time-slots. IF we achieve the ultimate can you imagine what we could look like? No we won’t ever be as powerful as wce but let’s say we won a flag or two in the next 5 years and wce stayed out of the finals I reckon there is 10,000 WA kids choosing us or switching over to us as fans.

 

[The Feeder Club]

Well done to the mum and dad family businesses now turning over millions, but quite frankly unless you're a publicly listed mum and dad business with thousands of shareholders aka members, your strategic plan bears zero relevance to the situation.

The problems with the thread are 1) it's premature, it's theoretically possible we still win a flag before end 2025 and 2) it lays the blame for any failure at the feet of Garlick rather than the board that should bear ultimate responsibility.

But the fundamental premise of the thread is correct if, as seems more likely than not, every component of the strategic plan ends up miles off reality. That's not some benign, "oh it doesn't matter it's just words", outcome as some on here are suggesting. That's a **** up.

 

[WilloTree]

This just in... Club CEO wants to win games and sign lots of members.

More at 6.

 

[WilloTree]

Well done to the mum and dad family businesses now turning over millions, but quite frankly unless you're a publicly listed mum and dad business with thousands of shareholders aka members, your strategic plan bears zero relevance to the situation.

The problems with the thread are 1) it's premature, it's theoretically possible we still win a flag before end 2025 and 2) it lays the blame for any failure at the feet of Garlick rather than the board that should bear ultimate responsibility.

But the fundamental premise of the thread is correct if, as seems more likely than not, every component of the strategic plan ends up miles off reality. That's not some benign, "oh it doesn't matter it's just words", outcome as some on here are suggesting. That's a **** up.

It's a **** up to aim for success and members? What would you prefer we aim for?

Good grief.

 

[The Feeder Club]

It's a **** up to aim for success and members? What would you prefer we aim for?

Good grief.

No the **** up will be falling three prelims and a premiership short of a three prelims and a premiership goal. If it turns out that way.

 

[BigRang]

Well done to the mum and dad family businesses now turning over millions, but quite frankly unless you're a publicly listed mum and dad business with thousands of shareholders aka members, your strategic plan bears zero relevance to the situation.

The problems with the thread are 1) it's premature, it's theoretically possible we still win a flag before end 2025 and 2) it lays the blame for any failure at the feet of Garlick rather than the board that should bear ultimate responsibility.

But the fundamental premise of the thread is correct if, as seems more likely than not, every component of the strategic plan ends up miles off reality. That's not some benign, "oh it doesn't matter it's just words", outcome as some on here are suggesting. That's a **** up.

I mean yeah sure it would be better if the club does/had achieved the goals they set, and we'd all to like to have a premiership cup in the trophy cabinet, that's not what I'm saying.
What I'm saying is that there's nothing wrong with the club setting ambitious goals.
The more ambitious the goal, the less likely you accomplish it, but it doesn't mean you chuck in the towel if it doesn't come off.
Let's say we don't win a premiership by end of next year, but we've played finals this year and at least made a prelim next year, that means the club has still 'failed' according to some on this forum, do we then sack the CEO and the coach? Or do we accept that the trajectory of the club is in-line with the goal but we're just not quite there yet and we stick to the plan and extend it out?

 

[The Feeder Club]

I mean yeah sure it would be better if the club does/had achieved the goals they set, and we'd all to like to have a premiership cup in the trophy cabinet, that's not what I'm saying.
What I'm saying is that there's nothing wrong with the club setting ambitious goals.
The more ambitious the goal, the less likely you accomplish it, but it doesn't mean you chuck in the towel if it doesn't come off.
Let's say we don't win a premiership by end of next year, but we've played finals this year and at least made a prelim next year, that means the club has still 'failed' according to some on this forum, do we then sack the CEO and the coach? Or do we accept that the trajectory of the club is in-line with the goal but we're just not quite there yet and we stick to the plan and extend it out?

It depends how much it falls short. If you're a publicly listed company and the board come s out and says we aim to grow revenue by 25% and acquire this new asset, and you do none of it, legitimate questions are asked. The board bears responsibility.

The club itself said as much when it launched this plan and in the years since. At the launch Garlick said we know there are risk by releasing an ambitious plan but we want to be upfront with members about our enormous upside and be held accountable by them. Subsequently Garlick said at the launch of the 2023 season if we hadn't impoved on the 2022 result of a semi final something has seriously gone wrong.

Now when someone makes a thread that is really just reflecting Garlick's own words, the bovver boys are out after the OP.

 

[oldgoat]

Haha fk off. Someone makes bold objectives and doesn't meet them = they should be sacked. GTFO.

Have I sleepwalked into the vent thread?

 

[Gekko71]

The goals you set are merely the logical end result of the system, resources, efforts, steps and initiatives you set in place within an organisation.

The outcomes described in those goals were the ideal end result of the initiatives Freo put in place.

We may not have achieved those goals, but that's not biggie. What's relevant is how close you get to those goals via the changes and initiatives you've made. The difference between your desired results and your actual results is part of the learning process, and informs your decision making going forwards.

Furthermore, strategy development and implementation is always an iterative, recursive process, regardless of the organisation, or its aims.

Show me the organisation that always meets all the goals it sets, and I'll show you either a bunch of revisionist liars in management, or an organisation that is happy to consistently underperform.

Nobody hits every goal, every time. To believe otherwise is delusional.

 

[WilloTree]

No the **** up will be falling three prelims and a premiership short of a three prelims and a premiership goal. If it turns out that way.

What should we aim for?

 

[FreoMonocle]

The point of an organisational plan like this is to get ready all the things that you can control.

Compared to when we were in the rebuild, the marketing, membership and PR departments are given warning so they can be prepared. Need to be capable of servicing 10k extra welcome packs for example, be ready for an extra couple of weeks of footy (spare clothes printed for the players coz they get constantly ripped etc), extra budgeting and materials prepared for PR and marketing specifically in September. Etc.

We can't control the fact that, for example, our spine is out injured (Pearce, Darcy Treacey). The impact of that on our ladder positioning is huge, and on our chances in the finals. Garlick wouldn't have a read on who is in the team in 2-5 years, though it was clear our youngsters start coming of age and are impressive. The AFLW were robbed of a chance to compete in a GF in the year they were dominant because of COVID.

 

[Randomizor]

Haha fk off. Someone makes bold objectives and doesn't meet them = they should be sacked. GTFO.

Or perhaps conversely if you make bold objectives you need to be prepared to take responsibility if they don’t pan out?