Every engagement starts with a free discovery session. What follows depends on what the analysis finds. Here is how the process works and what each stage delivers.
After the discovery session, the intake data is run through four purpose-built analytical agents simultaneously — each analysing the same organisation through a different lens. The results are reviewed, completed, and compiled into a single structured report.
Strategic position summary, key blind spots and flawed assumptions, root causes of the presenting problem, top three priorities with rationale, and risks if no action is taken.
Workforce structure and key dependencies, leadership capability assessment, culture indicators from the data, key workforce risks, and recommended workforce priorities.
Governance structure summary, board effectiveness indicators, accountability and decision-making gaps, structural risks, and recommended governance priorities.
Current funding mix and concentration risk, grant readiness assessment, funding diversification opportunities, key funding risks, and recommended funding priorities.
Financial modelling of the true cost of service delivery per billable hour across your funded streams. Incorporates non-billable administration time, care coordinator overhead, travel and geographic cost, and margin contribution by stream. Analysis drawn from your existing platforms with a structured data collection session.
Recommended before any growth decision, geographic expansion, or funding stream investment. Without this analysis, those decisions are made on incomplete financial information.
Structured assessment and redesign of the board structure, skills composition, subcommittee model, and delegations framework. Includes a 12-month strategic plan framework for board endorsement. Designed to bring governance to the standard required under the Aged Care Act 2024 and ACNC obligations.
A retainer is not required to start. It is offered after at least one workstream has been completed and both parties understand what the relationship looks like in practice.
For organisations facing sustained strategic challenge across the reform period — Support at Home transition, NDIS changes, workforce restructuring — an ongoing advisory relationship provides continuity, accountability, and a named person to call before a decision becomes a crisis.
Retainers are structured around defined monthly scope, not open-ended availability. Three-month minimum, monthly renewal after that.
This section exists because most consulting engagements fail to deliver on the things that matter most to a time-poor CEO or volunteer board. These are not aspirations. They are operating standards.
Every recommendation is specific, actionable, and grounded in the findings. "Improve governance" is not a recommendation. A board charter, a skills audit, and a subcommittee structure is.
Every workstream has a defined scope and a fixed fee. If the scope changes, it is agreed in writing before any additional work begins. No surprises on the invoice.
If the board structure is inadequate or the CEO is the ceiling on the organisation's development, the report says so plainly. You are better served by a clear picture than a comfortable one.
Mallee Strategic advises and analyses. Implementation of recommendations is yours to own — or to engage us to support through a separately scoped workstream.
45 minutes. No obligation. We listen to what you are dealing with and tell you whether we can help and how.
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