School of Business
Celebrate Our Similarities (COS)
Established: 2010, incorporated 2021
Legal structure: Community Interest Company
Who we are
COS encourages others to embrace a culture of peace through its work delivering positive action centred on our shared human priorities of ‘Personal Peace’ and ‘Climate’. Through research, events, grassroot projects, webinars and facilitation of the Personal Peace Education Programme, COS brings communities together to collaborate, share good practice and connect to the global movement for Personal Peace, in an inclusive and respectful way which avoids bias arising from politics, religion, culture, lifestyle or commercial interests.
The challenge
The ultimate vision for COS involves contributing to a culture of peace on a global scale. COS needed to put a tactical plan in place to step up the engagement of supporters across Leicester and beyond in the personal peace movement. Their main challenge was to find a clear and concise way of communicating their vision and purpose.
What was required
COS needed support to articulate their ambitious masterplan in a way that would advance their local positioning and increase engagement by experts and like-minded individuals as volunteers and supporters.
Tools used:
- Ansoff matrix (options for growth)
- Income mix
- Business planning tools
- Project proposal template
- Defining the ‘offer’
Using these tools took the organisation from relying heavily on personal trust in serendipity to determine the ways forward, to embracing tools, exercises and internal processes to provide a clearer focus on priorities and actions aligned to the mission.
Growth acceleration through:
Balanced scorecard: This exercise helped COS to map out its plans and focus in on top priorities for action. It also highlighted necessary new internal processes.
Options for growth: Exploring where growth and development could come from resulted in spotting ways to introduce new ideas for incremental development.
Income mix: The nature of the work COS carries out makes significant income from trading a challenge. By exploring a full funding mix, a realistic picture of funding sources was captured.
"The Growth Accelerator has been very timely for COS. Our 'why' and 'how' is ready to succinctly reach a wide audience. Our ambition to lead a collaborative to make Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland a 'global exemplar for social impact’ now has the potential to excite a wide range of local groups, organisations and individuals to get behind our ideas.”
Kamla Pattni, Founder Director, Celebrate Our Similarities CIC
