Issue #13 March 2010

In This Issue

  1. News Flash!
  2. Our new Associates
  3. Tenders, tenders everywhere
  4. Long-term community planning for Councils
  5. Brand Townsville
  6. Can we help you?

News Flash!

Balfour Consulting has just been informed that as part of the Watpac team, we will be handling community consultation for the iconic Flinders Mall redevelopment project.

Our New Associates

We are delighted to have new Associates working with us to extend the range of skills and depth of experience available to our clients.

Balfour Consulting now offer the business analyst expertise of Lisa Lancuba, B.Com, CA. Lisa's key capabilities include:

  • Strategic Planning: financial feasibility of new business opportunities, evaluation of major company capital expenditure
  • Business Planning: budgeting, cash flow preparation
  • Research and Analysis: collating and analysing data for business development

A results-oriented and versatile business analyst with 13 years commercial accounting and analytical experience, Lisa has an exceptional track record of understanding business needs. She has provided meaningful and effective business analysis across diverse industries and multinational organisations (Australia and offshore) and has a proven ability to improve business processes and communicate powerfully at all levels of an organisation.

As Strategy Analyst at David Jones Limited, Lisa evaluated major company capital expenditure and presented the various possibilities and sensitivities to management. She was also a key contributor in the decision to close the David Jones Foodchain operation. This included working closely with key stakeholders to gain and ensure successful outcomes were achieved.

Lisa's experience in the corporate sector (Aevum Limited, David Jones Limited, Burger King Ltd, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, ICI Plc and BAA Plc) and track record of understanding business needs have provided her with a sound knowledge base with regard to business management and organisation, bringing to Balfour Consulting extensive expertise, particularly in the fields of retail, property development and consumables.

We're also pleased to announce our association with George Fenton, a North Queensland consulting firm specialising in indigenous engagement and project design, led by Melissa George and Jean Fenton.

Melissa has been actively involved in working with Traditional Owners to protect and manage land and sea through community natural resource management projects. She has also undertaken liaison and advisory roles with both the Queensland and Australian Governments. Melissa has been a member of the Indigenous Advisory Committee (EPBC Act 1999) since 2002 and Chair since 2006. She was also appointed to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Board in 2008 for a four-year term.

Jean is an anthropologist who for the past 10 years has worked with Indigenous communities in North Queensland, Cape York Peninsula, Western Australia and the Northern Territory in the fields of natural resource and environmental management. She has worked several organisations including the EPA, Kimberley Land Council, James Cook University, Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation and Rio Tinto Coal Australia. In that time Jean has developed extensive skills in Indigenous engagement and community development.

Jean has been actively involved in considering issues of climate change and carbon in the Indigenous community context, working as Carbon Project Coordinator with NAILSMA and participating in international forums. Jean has an active interest in researching the philosophies and politics that frame Indigenous approaches to community development and also current government service delivery frameworks.

"We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give."
– Winston Churchill

Tenders, tenders everywhere

Jobs Assist Business Support

Business development and the economy are recovering in North Queensland, if the number of tenders and submissions that we’ve been involved in is any measure. Balfour Consulting has also been working on community consultation, feasibility studies and business development planning and implementation – some of the latter projects coming under the Jobs Assist Business Support program developed by the Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation.

The program provides support of up to $8,000 for businesses with 10 or more full-time employees to obtain consultant input through a two-stage process. The objective of the program is to retain existing jobs and/or create new positions. If you would like advice or further information on this program, call Colin on 4771 4566.

"A goal without a plan is just a wish."
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900 – 1944)

Long-term community planning for Councils

Don't wait - start now in planning and implementing the community engagement required under the new Local Government Regulations for the development of a 10-year Community Plan.

There is an increasing demand from communities to be involved in the discussions and decisions that shape their future, and this is now set to become a legal requirement of Councils in the 2010-2011 financial year.

Some "consultation" undertaken by Councils is in fact only the sharing of information with a request for feedback. Often the major decisions are already made. Opinion is sought, for example, on whether to paint the church red or green, but not on whether there is a need to paint the church at all.

Full consultation is what some now call "participative" or "deliberative" democracy. Dr Janette Hertz-Karp, a widely respected Community Engagement consultant, argues that there are five key features required to build trust and to truly involve the community in decision making:

  • the participants are representative of the population,
  • the issues are understood,
  • differing views are welcomed,
  • common ground is sought, and
  • decisions can be influenced.

These features apply whether the issue is footpath repair or the future of the municipality.

Balfour Consulting is experienced in and recognised for undertaking community engagement and developing community plans. Broadly speaking, our approach is to work with Council officers and Councilors in developing a draft vision, which we then take to the public (through workshops, etc) for input and comment. For example, we could have a workshop day, where people are divided into groups to discuss particular areas of interest, eg. tourist product development, sustainability, etc.

We would prepare any required materials, organise and run workshops, collate materials to prepare a final vision and, most importantly, relate that vision back to the steps Council needs to take now. We will also work with smaller Councils to develop plans on a coordinated basis, in order to minimise costs.

The resulting community plan will:

  • provide the impetus to Council to really get going on developing their area's potential
  • divide the process into manageable "bites" (people can do things if they see where each step leads)
  • tie all the current - and required - programs together into a coherent future
  • motivate the community and give them some hope for the future (people believe in something they can see, like a plan with milestones or an actual picture that they have taken part in creating)
  • show the community that Council is really looking to the future, has definite plans for the development of new jobs and new income-generating businesses and is putting rates toward developing that future (people will pay if they believe the money is going to a definite community benefit such as jobs).

"Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now." - Alan Lakein

Brand Townsville

What is Brand Townsville really about? Is what we are selling what people are really buying when we consider Townsville as a destination, location and place?

brand-diagramAccording to British brand guru Leslie de Chernatony, a brand is a mix of rational, sensual and emotional rewards to the consumer. "A successful brand is an identifiable product, service, person or place, augmented in such a way that the buyer or user perceives relevant, unique added values which match their needs most closely. Furthermore, its success results from being able to sustain these added values in the face of competition." Brands exist in the minds of people, and they are not so much something that is sold as they are what the users of the brand perceive. Brands are the culmination of a user’s total experience with the product or service (or place) over many years. Although it is impossible to control every input to the development of the brand, it is critical that a company or organisation seeks to control effectively those things that it can.

Brands are built on core attributes that form the basis of the product, service or place but are derived from the benefits these attributes deliver to the consumer. People buy benefits, not attributes. For cities or places, these core attributes come from the quality of the community environment that makes the location liveable at a local level, the quality of the built environment and how the urban planning process feeds into and supports this, and the approach to economic development and how this integrates with ongoing social and urban development. None of this can be achieved without a clear long-term vision supported by proper planning discipline that continually enunciates the values that underpin this vision. Furthermore, the vision and the strategic planning that supports it must be developed with the widest possible input and support of the community.

Without vision and values, as any successful CEO will tell you, it is almost impossible to achieve any sort of alignment of people and resources and through this be able to maintain the focus needed to reach short-term milestones and achieve long-term goals.

In Townsville, I find little public enunciation of a clear vision for the type of city we will be in 20 to 30 years, when our population is projected to double from the current level. The approach to our future seems to be to just build lots of stuff, attract lots of business and hope for the best. Everyone is fighting the crocodiles and no-one is figuring out how to drain the swamp.

So, what is the Townsville brand and how do we want to be perceived as a city and destination? For quite a few years, the messages suggested we were heading toward being a tourism Mecca to rival Cairns and the Whitsundays, which was quite unrealistic. Now, it's all mining and minerals with downstream processing and export facilities that are dominating our future. How do we fit this with our excellent education and research facilities, our vibrant arts community, our heritage and natural assets, our sporting and recreational resources and our diverse agricultural hinterland? Where are next 100,000 new residents going to live, and how will this impact on the lifestyle we currently enjoy?

Sorry, I don't have the answers to these and many other questions about our future. However, I do know that as a city and a place, being able to answer these questions in a coherent and inclusive manner will impact on how we are perceived externally and the quality of people we will attract over time. That is, the Townsville brand is as much about whom we want to be as it is about whom we are now.

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… for support rather than illumination."- Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

Can we help you?

Balfour Consulting Pty Ltd has a proven track record in the following areas:

  • Strategic planning

  • Community engagement and consultation

  • Strategic management

  • Marketing & communications planning

  • Risk management

  • Feasibility planning

  • Facilitated planning workshops

  • Market and social research

  • Public relations

For further information, contact us on (07) 4771 4566 or e-mail us as at:

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