What We Do

Avant-garde Thinking offers a unique blend of facilitation skills, strategic insight and challenging the status quo. We jointly develop plans with you that incorporate innovation, give you a competitive advantage in the market and will engage your staff.

We cover areas such as strategic direction, leadership, business development, operation, culture, organisation structure and processes.

Our methodology includes a mixture of one on one sessions, workshop facilitation, training, mentoring, project and change managing.

We:

  • Help solve problems and issues

  • Assist in the generation of creative solutions for the problems and issues, challenge the norm and status quo and then help paint the 'to be environment'

  • Assist setting and implementing innovative new directions

 

Strategic and Business Planning

Industry and Competitive Dynamics

  • Industry trends – now, future

  • Customer expectations – now, future

  • Competitors – now and future

  • Supplier dynamics

The Business

  • Structure

  • Systems

  • Culture (performance, communication, trust, innovation, rewards)

  • Processes

  • Leadership

  • Organization capability

  • Competitive advantage

  • Key competencies (including assets, funding, operational, customer, market)

  • Current Projects

  • Capacity for change

Current Vision

  • MD/GM’s vision

  • Shareholders vision

  • Staffs vision

  • Business growth strategies

  • Profitability and RONAM

KPI's

What are in place, who uses them, are they meaningful, do they underpin the vision?

 

Action Plan

We will then structure the strategic plan and actions around these main areas:

  • The future vision, strategic direction

  • Financial

  • Marketing

  • Business development

  • Operations

  • Systems

  • Human Resources

  • KPI’s

  • Risks mitigation

  • Change management requirements

 

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Business Development Initiatives

We focus on delivering key outcomes to improve performance, increase market share and identify new products and services. Our 2 keys areas of focus are marketing plans and selling strategies.

Marketing and Sales plans will incorporate:

  • Industry dynamics

  • Competitors

  • Marketing plans

  • Selling activities

  • New product and service innovations

  • Branding strategies

  • Customer targets

Tendering

We can also provide major project and tender negotiation assistance in the areas of tender strategy, submission and post tender negotiations.

 

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Organisation Reviews and Restructuring

Once the strategic action plans and business development plans are fully formulated and understood it is critical that a review of the organisation structure takes place. We can analyse the requirements and then formulate plans to implement the new or modified structures within organisations. We can facilitate this process or alternatively project manage them for you.

Indicative of our approach we would:

  • Produce any new position descriptions and KPI’s for new or modified roles

  • Analyse staff capability in light of new directions

  • Determine staff training and coaching needs, explore potential new or modified roles, identify outplacement options

  • Produce an operational, communication and change management plan

  • Consider the timing and magnitude of the changes, risks and business impacts in continuing operationally

  • Formulate and manage project

  • Monitor success and fine tune as required

  • Liaise as necessary with HR professionals for Industrial Relations advise, Recruiting services and Outplacement assistance

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Process Re-engineering

We have had extensive experience facilitating and project managing improvements to business processes across all business disciplines. These include sales, operations and administration along with large and small IT project implementations.

Our understanding of the strategic planning process, business development requirements and organisation restructuring, assist us to see the whole picture and maximise efficiencies in business processes.

We will:

  • Define the project, objectives and outcome requirements

  • Have a communication plan

  • Conduct extensive interviews and workshops with staff to understand the issues and root causes for those issues

  • Map the current process

  • Conduct workshops to define and map the “to be” process

  • Determine the gaps analysis

  • Define the changes required – processes and the organisation structure

  • Undertake implementation planning

  • Undertake implementation project management

  • Conduct implementation reviews and fine tuning requirements

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Change Management

Avant-garde Thinking offers a range of services to assist the smooth introduction of new strategies, systems and organisation structures. We empower client, staff and teams to understand the change, why the changes need to occur and to manage staff expectations. This assists to minimize the potential disruption and benefit faster from the new direction.

We can provide change management services in the areas of:

  • Developing and implementing change programs

  • Change facilitation through workshops and awareness sessions

  • Job and work redesign

  • Behavioural analysis to help understand key people and organizational culture

  • Identify training programs

  • Define appropriate rewards and recognition

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Motivational Speaking

Angus Rayner witnessed the Pt. Arthur Massacre while in the Broad Arrow Café on the 28th April 1996. Since that time he has gone on a journey to better utilise his creative instincts and along the way found his release and recovery through painting.

View Raynart website

Angus talks about his direct experience in the shootings, his journey since that day and discusses concepts of creativity, innovation and discovery in relation to business.

Along with these concepts Angus explores why business should have an innovation process, why many don’t and what their wake up calls could look like. In the new world as he calls the “Conceptual Era” it is not only critical to protect the core business but just as important to be designers and have new innovations being commercialized. What are your future innovations and profit generators of the future? Angus poses this question.

Angus relates his experiences in pursuing his artistic passion and discusses methodologies and processes businesses could adopt from his learnings.

Imagine setting new industry standards, influencing rules of the game, forcing rivals to follow, being on a winning team, being different and discovering something new?

Angus will inspire you to go on a journey of discovery, do justice to innovation and not wait for a wake up call.

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Accounting Services

Avant-garde Thinking can provide the following accounting services:

  • Monthly, Quarterly, Annual accounts

  • KPI and management reporting, variance analysis

  • Administration process implementation and improvement

  • Setup and training of MYOB and QuickBooks data files and other accounting packages

  • Training in data entry and procedures

  • Monthly and year end reconciliations

  • GST compliance — BAS and IAS

  • Payroll compliance — work cover and superannuation

  • FBT compliance

  • Extraction of GST and Financial reporting

  • Liaison with your external taxation accountant

Computer services provided:

  • Hardware advice

  • Setup, installation and software upgrades

  • Establishment of systems and procedures

  • Automation of business and online transactions

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