THE CASE FOR A STRATEGY REFRESH

This founder group reflected similar upbringings and formative experiences that united them beyond simply religious affiliation. They were each the children of first-generation migrants who had moved to Australia in the 1990s. Products of a combined Sikh-Australian religious, cultural and educational upbringing, which valued academic achievement and excellence.

Having translated this upbringing into prestigious careers the group began to receive numerous queries from younger Sikhs asking about the academic and career choices that led to them to being in their positions. This frequent contact from younger Sikhs led to the hypothesis that there was an implicit gap in the community’s organisation, leaving a vacuum of information, and direction for the younger generations, that ought to be plugged with the formation of a volunteer not-for-profit organisation.

After the formation of YSPN, this background and context came to be summarised in the genesis conditions as follows:

1. That we have a legacy worth preserving
2. That we have more that unites than separates us
3. That we are the first mass-generation of professional Sikh migrants
4. That we bear the collective burden of that responsibility, and we bear it now.

to validate the hypothesis that a gap existed and that an organisation like YSPN could solve the problems that it had led to.

As a core priority since inception over seven years ago, with a track record of over 90 events held till date, YSPN has developed a strong capability in conceiving, designing and delivering events. Through this experience, the original goodwill that was present in all chapter launches has slowly declined over time, resulting in lower average attendance across events. This maturation of the events format and service has resulted in a critical reflection of the purpose of hosting events, and whether they will continue to serve this purpose, and in what form.

Since the original Summit In 2015, YSPN has undergone a digital transformation which has resulted in increased collaboration across our five chapters, and a stronger capability in conceiving, planning, co-ordinating and delivering complicated, cross-border events and initiatives such as the Elevate Conference, and grant applications. Furthermore, through this deepened digital capability, we have transformed our mentoring program which began as a group program requiring over 100 hours of effort by an on the ground team, into a systemised and scalable program that can be delivered to anyone, anywhere in the world.

• Nominated for 5 awards
  • 2x Finalists for the Community Services Excellence award at the India Australia Business and Community Awards (IABCA)
  • 1x Finalist for the Western Sydney Awards for Business Excellence (WSABE)
  • Karan Anand and Gursimrat Bawa have both been finalists at the IABCA awards
• Awarded Community Services Achievement Award by GOPIO Sydney
• Established 5 permanent chapters (and 2 popup chapters)
• Mentored over 100 young Sikhs
• Held 92 events with 4,134 attendees
• ~$30,000 raised in donations through crowdfunding
• 585,152 people reached over the past 2 years

In early 2019 a YSPN team was formed to conduct analysis on the Australian census to learn more about the Sikh community in Australia. This was motivated as an underpinning, and seminal contribution to the theme for the inaugural Elevate conference.

The research identified the following important findings: that Sikhs were the fastest growing religious minority in Australia, comprised primarily of student migration; that there is a lingering underemployment problem of these students based on skills mismatch and other factors; that these migrants also work in structurally challenged industries (ie. Those expected to decline through technological, market and cultural forces).

The result of these findings was to catalyse the YSPN team into action to address this challenge. The challenge was addressed through a new initiative called CV Checks. Leaning on our ability to rapidly design and deliver events, a roster of YSPN Executives was engaged to work with Gurdwaras that we had relationships with, and served as a meeting place for migrants. This team, piloted an event at Parklea Gurdwara in March 2019 by hosting a stall during the weekend, promoted on social media to positive results.

Following validation from this pilot, the team has gone on to host CV check stalls every month since. Positive results from the stalls have included migrants going on to receive job applications after having their CV reviewed, and many progressing through stages of the recruitment process beyond the application.

The process began with a series of workshops conducted with all our geographic chapters across Australia and New-Zealand. The workshops were facilitated exercises in empathy and strategic envisioning led by Karan Anand and Ramneek
Singh. Instead of asking participants for the typical five year projection, these workshops started with the premise that there are two types of not-for-profit organisations:

1. Institutions: organisations that must exist because they serve a fundamental human need, and will therefore continue to exist for the foreseeable future
2. Finite scope organisations: organisations who seek to remedy an injustice or other problem in the world, and once they have done so they are no-longer required to exist.

And that YSPN ought to consider itself in the second category of not-for-profits, in order to maintain its pace of growth and execution, and to prevent a state of complacency from creeping in. This is especially important given our
founding conditions, notably, the privilege of our organisation as being stewards of the legacy of first-generation professional migrants.

As a result, the workshops sought to answer the following question:

What does the world look like in five year’s time, when YSPN is no longer needed to exist? And what must YSPN do in order to create that world?

The responses to these questions surfaced a vision for the future that was important to our audience, from which we extracted underlying themes. These themes were translated into ‘problem spaces’ as provocation questions, designed
to stimulate creative thinking, which our Executive group explored using design principles as part of our 2019 Summit.

The Executive Team was asked the following four questions, which were key thematic areas that were identified through the workshops held across the organisation.

1. How might we create the conditions for our community to develop into broad positions of Leadership?​
2. How might we help migrants secure their economic foundations?​
3. How might we better help other organisations in our community?​
4. How might we better help our community connect with one another?

These questions were explored and the strategic pillars (detailed in the next section: The Strategy) were extracted and framed from a position of strength for both the
community and organisation.