FRU management team plot 2 year work plan

FRU Leadership Team with FRU Board Chairman, Mr Filimoni Waqabaca

The FRU management team went back to the drawing board early last month to review their work plans and the lessons learnt over the last 12 months. It was an opportune time for FRU CEO Mr Radrodro Tabualevu to provide direct feedback to his leadership team as well for the various business units to asses and compare their activities and outputs.

The 2-day Work-Plan Retreat, held at the TFL Corporate Booth at the ANZ Stadium was aimed at reviewing last year’s unit work plans, discussing the strategic focus for 2015-16 and developing new work plans and performance indicators for 2015-16. “We may have our vision, mission and goals but it is what we will do and how we will contribute or add value to achieve them that is important,” said Ms Vilisi Raikoti, FRU’s Human Resources Officer.

“It was an opportunity to reflect on the previous strategic plan and the direction that CEO wants to take the union towards, and to develop a consolidated work plan to help us achieve that,” said Mr William Koong FRU’s Medical Coordinator.

Discussions were also centered on the FRU’s sponsorship program and the development of a Marketing Strategy and Work Plan as well as a Media and Communications Strategy for FRU going forward. The team reviewed the FRU suite of products (elite teams and domestic tournaments), discussing ways to enhance their commercial viability. “We now have strong commercial backing and now that we are into the second year of the consortium partnership with our new sponsors it will only get bigger and better,” said Ms Talei Mow, FRU’s Media Officer. Ms Mow said there were lessons learnt from 2014 and our collective aim is to do things better and smarter this year.

FRU’s recently appointed Finance Manager Ms Veronica Manoa said that with everyone’s combined commitment, more open communication, and honest coordinated efforts FRU can achieve its corporate goals. “Our units have worked too long in isolation without an adequately defined focus and a common articulated vision,” Ms Manoa added.

FRU’s Development Manager Sale Sorovaki said that at times we (departments) forget where we belong in the FRU puzzle and how we relate to each other. Mr Sorovaki said while every department has been working diligently to achieve their own departmental goals over the years, the 2-day workshop has given him a snapshot of what FRU is currently doing; and moving forward, how we (Development Unit) connect to other departments and our overall impact on Fiji Rugby.

A key feature of the 2-day retreat was the Work Plan Alignment Exercise where all team leaders presented their priorities for 2015 and then compared them against each other’s plans. “The 2-day exercise has been valuable from an operations perspective, especially understanding the outputs of each unit, management’s responsibilities and where we overlap,” FRU Senior Operations Officer Mr Aseri Tabuawaiwai told FRU Media.

On the lighter side Mr Tabuawaiwai said the process was simple and easy to understand. “The word “Strategic Planning” brought up the assumption of long brainstorming and sophisticated grammar however the 2-day process was simple and easy to understand,” Mr Tabuawaiwai

“This was clearly an eye-opener for me;  no one unit is a power unto itself but that it needs the other units to come up with the ultimate goal which is to produce a ‘complete’ player,” said FRU Operations Officer, Ms Louisa O’Connor. She said it was an encouragement to see the alignment of internal processes and polices to ensure that accountability and proper governance is always maintained.

As a result of the retreat the FRU management team now has a high-level combined work plan and dashboard to monitor each other’s activities and outputs. The team are now working to complete their individual Logframe of Activities as well as their department and staff performance indicators. They have planned quarterly review meetings as well a Quarterly CEO’s Forum to ensure the full complement of FRU staff are updated on progress.

“This is the 3rd Strategic Planning I have been involved in with FRU, what I have learned is that the foundation that we build should be strong enough to take FRU to where it should be and to be able to compete with the Tier 1 Countries,” said Ms Sophia Tuibua, FRU’s HPU (High Performance Unit) Administrator. “These foundations and platform have already been in place in the previous FRU Strategic Plans or even way before, however the lesson here has been the need to drive and monitors these plans consistently,” Ms Tuibua added.

Business aside the team also used the occasion for team building and joined the Telecom Fijiana Team who were in training at Bidesi Park just behind the retreat venue.