Iwm corporate Plan 2017–20 Introduction

In 2017, IWM reaches its centenary. Over the 100 years since our foundation, we have continued to lead on our mission of developing and communicating a deeper understanding of the causes, course and consequences of war. This plan reflects our response to the opportunity and challenge for IWM in terms of the impact we have on people’s lives.

Our vision is to help people, as global citizens, make sense of an increasingly unpredictable world. We do this, in part, by helping people have a deeper understanding of the connections between past conflict and the contemporary world. This is about exploring the way war has shaped the local and the global, about appreciating diverse views, and about challenging our audiences to become ready to engage in difficult decisions for themselves, their communities and their world.

‘The museum was not conceived as a monument of military glory, but rather as a record of toil and sacrifice . . . of the immeasurable sacrifices and supreme national effort which . . . as we all hope, laid firm and deep the foundations of a new and better world’.^[1]

It is now as we enter our second century that IWM also needs to develop its own voice, providing a forum, enabling questions to be asked and answered, leading and enhancing contemporary debate and speaking with a confident and authoritative voice about the world around us and the conflict it inherently creates. This will largely manifest itself through the delivery of a new, innovative and outward facing learning and engagement programme that uses the lens of global citizenship to invite debate, develop critical thinking and deep engagement with our subject matter. The launch of IWM’s Institute for War and Conflict Studies in 2017 will maximise the impact of our global citizenship learning programme and research activities by creating and nurturing sustainable partners and audiences for IWM.

People connect with us in a wide variety of ways; through visiting one of our branches, through online engagement, through volunteering, through becoming a member, in supporting us by making a donation or perhaps by participating in a learning session. Critical to us building on and sustaining these connections will be IWM’s capacity to innovate, to continue to reach beyond the boundaries of our museum and our website through partnerships and collaboration, to embed change with ambition and to build a resilient organisational culture that is increasingly confident and dynamic. These are the ways in which IWM will remain relevant and impactful. And the bedrock of this work will be our teams; making sure that they are skilled and confident – proud of our work in the knowledge that what IWM does is making a difference to people’s lives now and for generations to come.

Imperial War Museums is a global authority on conflict and its impact on people’s lives. We collect objects and stories that give an insight into people’s experiences of war, we preserve them for future generations, and we bring them to today’s audiences in the most powerful way possible at our five branches (IWM London, IWM Duxford, IWM North, Churchill War Rooms and HMS Belfast) and across our digital channels. By giving a platform to these stories, we aim to help people understand why we go to war and the effect that conflict has on people’s lives. Our vision is to be a leader in developing and communicating a deeper understanding of the causes, course and consequences of war. Using the personal stories and experiences in our unique collections, our objective is to challenge people of all ages to look at war and conflict from different perspectives.

Our three strategic aims are to:

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  Prioritise our audiences – we create excellent, inspiring and relevant visitor and learning experiences. As a result, people have a deeper understanding of the causes, course and consequences of war and its impact on all of our lives. We pride ourselves on the excellent customer service we provide across all of our work
  

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  Increase our financial sustainability – we will secure our long-term financial viability and create an entrepreneurial and dynamic working culture. As a result, we will build our income and financial flexibility so that we can continue to invest in our offer. We will improve our financial performance, build our resilience and strengthen IWM as a result
  

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  Deliver effective stewardship of our collection – we will develop and care for our collection through effective management, building expertise, maximising access and improving storage. As a result we will ensure our collections and knowledge remain relevant and accessible for audiences now and for generations to come, not least, by maintaining the momentum around reviewing and developing our collection
  

We are one IWM – a single organisation made up of five unique branches and underpinned by our core values to be courageous, authoritative, relevant and empathetic. Our collections are vast and rich. We look after them in perpetuity on behalf of the nation. We aim to make them, together with our branches (some of which are historic sites), accessible to the widest possible audience through exhibitions, research, digital activity, learning programmes, tours, handling sessions, filming, lectures and many other different activities. Whilst much of our public offer is free of charge, some of what we do is charged for. The revenue we generate is essential to our ongoing operation, particularly in the context of reducing government funding in real terms. The profit that we make is re-invested into our programmes and activities to ensure that we continue to deliver our vision and mission.

There is no admission charge to visit IWM London and IWM North. At these branches, which both cover the full IWM remit (looking at conflict from 1900 to the present day), we offer permanent exhibitions, updated on a periodic basis, together with an exciting programme of changing temporary exhibitions. At IWM London, we also offer a separate programme of temporary exhibitions, some of which are charged for. At Churchill War Rooms, HMS Belfast and IWM Duxford, we charge for admission. Our ticket prices are regularly benchmarked with similar organisations and we offer concessionary rates (for example, for booked groups). We regularly undertake market research to inform our programming and to ensure that we are meeting visitor needs and expectations.

We offer a wide range of public engagement and learning services and programmes as well as exciting opportunities for people to get further behind the scenes. These range from hosting an event with us at one of our unique venues, to booking a private tour, or even a flight in a historic aircraft at IWM Duxford. We have an active volunteering programme, where people get directly involved in our work and a membership scheme for those who want to regularly support us, engage with us, and enjoy the fantastic benefits we can offer.

The First World War Centenary Partnership Programme has continued to build in strength and through our network of member organisations we delivered hundreds of screenings of IWM’s The Battle of the Somme film. This allowed us to open up our collections to new and diverse audiences nationally and internationally. Evaluation showed that the screenings were popular and well-received, encouraged debate and conversation amongst audiences, and helped people learn more about the Battle of the Somme, the First World War, propaganda and conflict. We worked with Laura Rossi to present a short version of The Battle of the Somme film screened with a live orchestra as part of the official Somme commemorations at Thiepval memorial on 1 July. To mark the Centenary of the end of the Battle of the Somme, we held a special live screening of The Battle of the Somme film accompanied by Laura Rossi’s score performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall on 18 November 2016.

Our collections continue to inspire and engage audiences across the globe. We made a significant contribution (lending some 90 items) to the National Museum of the Royal Navy’s major exhibition 36 Hours: Jutland 1916, The Battle That Won The War, which opened in May 2016. In March 2016, Truth and Memory opened at York Art Gallery. The largest exhibition of First World War art for 100 years, this exhibition was toured nationally having first been shown at IWM London. John Singer Sargent’s masterpiece, Gassed, left the IWM in 2016 for a five-venue tour of the United States and Canada. We also made several high profile collection loans to cultural organisations across Ireland in the lead-up to the centenary of the Easter Rising, all the time strengthening our brand and reputation as a nationally and internationally renowned museum.

Across our branches we have run a vibrant and diverse programme of excellent exhibitions and programmes. Our major exhibition, Real to Reel: A Century of War Movies, opened as part of the Night Before the Somme event – a major evening opening at IWM London with theatre, music and poetry which attracted thousands of visitors. The illumination of the façade of IWM North on the same evening generated a high volume of social media activity for IWM. At IWM North, Fashion on the Ration: 1940s Street Style opened on 27 May following its successful run at IWM London. At Churchill War Rooms, Undercover: Life in Churchill’s Bunker reopened on 20 July following a refresh of the exhibition design and content. Our smaller, temporary exhibitions at IWM London received strong critical acclaim. The IWM Contemporary show, Nick Danziger, Eleven Women Facing War opened in February and was selected by The Daily Telegraph as one of the best photography exhibitions of 2016. This was followed by Edward Barber: Peace Signs in May, which achieved a five star rating from Time Out. Edmund Clark: War of Terror opened at IWM London on 28 July with a well-attended private view, followed by IWM Contemporary: Mahwish Chishty which received excellent reviews. In December 2016 our contemporary conflict display Afghanistan: Reflections on Helmand opened at IWM London.

In March 2016 we launched the redeveloped American Air Museum (AAM) at IWM Duxford. The Museum gives our audiences insights into the men, women and children whose lives were affected, and often transformed, by the aircraft on display. The AAM website continues to engage a large audience of registered users who have been actively editing and contributing material to the site. At IWM North we have upgraded the Big Picture Show – the immersive digital experience in the Main Exhibition Space – improving the quality of experience for our visitors and the offer for corporate hospitality clients.

2016 saw us reach a major milestone in our volunteering programme with the completion of a three-year, multi partnership, HLF funded project if: Volunteering for Wellbeing. The volunteers, all at risk of social exclusion, benefited significantly from the programme. We have used a Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology to demonstrate the wider social and economic value of the project and we are now working to continue its legacy through future our Volunteering Strategy.

Our transformation programme has progressed with changes to our public facing learning and engagement and content and narrative teams to ensure that we are truly audience-focused. The Cultural Change Ambassador Network (CCAN) continues to champion our cultural change agenda. A series of ‘Notes Day’ workshops took place across IWM during summer 2016, inviting all staff and volunteers to engage with the cultural transformation of IWM and an action plan is now is being taken forward. We have introduced three new apprentiship roles in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University. Our HR team have delivered an organisation-wide pay and grading review, ensuring that there is transparency and parity of pay across IWM.

We have continued to focus on improving our estate and the visitor experience. Alongside awarding a new Facilities Management contract in 2016, we have also prepared a masterplan for IWM Duxford, which our Board of Trustees has now signed off. The masterplan sets out the long-term vision for the development of IWM Duxford, ultimately positioning it as one of the leading, must-see visitor attractions in the East of England. The second phase of Transforming IWM London has commenced with the appointment of key project consultants and the start of a major fundraising campaign to deliver new Second World War and Holocaust Galleries due for completion by 2020. Collections storage and movement planning to support this project is well underway, including a major project to improve storage facilities at IWM Duxford. We have continued to make great strides in the effective development and management of our collections, most notably with the successful award of Archive Service Accreditation.

Over the past year there have been instances where our performance and the delivery of planned activity has not met CP16 targets or planned timeframes. The completion of a Human Resouces (HR) Strategy and associated Training and Development Strategy has been delayed, as we have focused heavily on supporting ongoing change projects alongside the delivery of the pay and grading review. We have made good progress in analysing training needs across our teams, while an internal HR review, undertaken by our internal auditors, has given us a clear way forward for the strategic development of this business function. Our plans to deliver a Stakeholder Strategy have also stalled largely as a result of the learning review and changes to responsibilities within delivery departments.

Our commercial performance has been mixed in what has proved to be a challenging year, with areas of the business reliant on visitor numbers most affected and we are monitoring this closely. The IWM London exhibition Real to Reel: A Century of War Movies received outstanding reviews and press coverage on opening and was a high-quality offer. In terms of performance it did not draw audiences as expected. It has been difficult to maintain press and audience engagement with Fashion on the Ration at IWM North, due to its lengthy run. At IWM Duxford attendance of our Air Show season was disappointing, not meeting expected visitor or income targets despite a high quality of offer. A new Flying Display Director has since been appointed, with the new team working very closely with our commercial and marketing teams on a strategy to improve the programme and build profile and audiences. We continue to evaluate our successes and challenges, learning from mistakes made and putting plans in place to grow engagement among our target audiences and commercial customer base.

We have made major changes to our staffing structure over the last two years. We recognise that our people are an essential ingredient in our success and place heavy emphasis on evolving our ways of working. Part of this is about how we become a learning organisation where we are increasingly outward-facing, building partnerships, as well as experimenting with new ideas and then evaluating and learning from their success or otherwise. We also know that ongoing change, in particular, new ways of working (as our Culture Change Ambassadors Network help us find new ideas to try) will be an important part of how IWM continues to operate. We want to work in an increasingly agile and responsive way so that we are positioned to capitalise on opportunities and effectively manage risk, building our organisational confidence as we go.

Our new HR Strategy will include a strong focus on training and development so that we effectively support all staff to increase their skills, knowledge and understanding. We are placing particular emphasis on leadership skills during the initial phases of this work, along with ideas that will help us truly embed our brand values. Alongside this, we are delighted to be offering further apprenticeship opportunities across several different areas of our operation, including IT, exhibitions and major project work. We recognise the link between staff accommodation and embedding culture change and as we continue to develop the narrative at IWM London – delivering the masterplan that will transform the branch – and move staff and collections to support this programme, we are taking the opportunity to create new office space at All Saints, accelerating this project over the next two years.

To ensure that we remain relevant, we must strive to increase the breadth of our audiences, staff, volunteers and supporters so that we can be truly representative of the communities that we serve. We need to think about diversity, access and equality and how we commit to building this into our thinking and planning to achieve change over the long term.

Working in partnership with individuals, organisations and key stakeholders will strengthen our position, open up our perspective and bring mutual benefit. At the heart of this will be the launch of the IWM Institute for War and Conflict Studies during 2017. The Institute will bring together our research, learning and programming activity so that we maximise both our impact and our standing within the academic and cultural sector. We will invite active dialogue and lead debate internally and externally to help challenge our thinking and make sure that we keep striving to evolve, create, review and improve. The Institute will help us to lead new thinking, building expertise and understanding across a range of partners and activities through a range of channels and activities.

We have made huge progress over recent years in reviewing, documenting and digitising our collection, as well as continuing to deliver major storage upgrade projects. We have a more sustainable and dynamic collections management approach, strategically shaping our collection by identifying key acquisitions and managing the targeted disposals programme. We are also working hard to build and share research, knowledge and understanding around our collection. The coming years will also see us continue in the delivery of our Contemporary Collecting Strategy so that our collection reflects contemporary conflict and supports us in building on the notion of global citizenship as a lens for learning and engagement. Our aim is to hold our collection accountably and so that we can exploit it fully for audience and user benefit.

In terms of collections storage, we have a strategy that will deliver wholesale change at IWM Duxford, ensuring that both large and small collections objects are stored in the correct environmental conditions and laying the foundations for the delivery of the masterplan at Duxford.

We are developing a new Digital Strategy which sets out how digital can become so embedded in IWM that it becomes business as usual. This digital transformation will mean that we successfully build up capability and processes across the whole of IWM. Our particular opportunity and challenge in increasing our digital ways of working, processes and platforms is to create immersive and joined-up digital enhancements of our objects, exhibitions, events and other activity or commercial offers.

We also know that there is an ongoing need to closely monitor our cost base, seek all possible efficiencies, maximise profit and build financial sustainability, as set out in our Financial Strategy (see page 17). This is essential so that we can continue to invest on our collection, our programming and our offer. Our Estates Strategy sets out how we will manage and maintain our property assets over the next 10 years. We will continue to focus on maximising the return on our investment (in terms of financial, audience, collections and brand impact) through the delivery of our Commercial Strategy. This is fundamentally about increasing customer loyalty and as a consequence, securing our net profit levels and financial sustainability over time.

5. Looking ahead

This Corporate Plan describes how, between 2017–18 and 2019–20, work towards our long-term strategic goals will continue. It lays the foundation for major development at our branches over the next decade and beyond. During CP17 we have major projects that will take us forward as an organisation. Our highest priorities are:

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  Transforming Imperial War Museum London phase two;
  
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  Delivering our collections storage masterplan at IWM Duxford and related Accommodation Strategy at All Saints;
  
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  Implementing our Customer Relationship Management system and;
  
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  Achieving the outcomes of the public engagement and learning review so that we use a global citizenship lens to achieve greater impact with our audiences, develop innovative programmes and embed learning in all that we do
  

Our collections management approach is increasingly responsive, such that our world-leading collection remains relevant to our audiences, and is dynamic, accessible and usable. By 2030, our storage masterplan for our collection will be complete and the objects in our care will be in the right place and stored in the correct environmental conditions. Crucial to this will be the ongoing digitisation of our collection. This Plan sees us make significant progress in generating digital content for access and preservation purposes and linking this to a coherent and ambitious Digital Strategy which by 2030 will mean that digital ways of working are fully embedded.

In terms of public engagement, learning and exhibitions, we will adopt a truly audience-focused approach, delivering programmes and activities that are innovative, sector-leading, impactful and sustainable. Over the coming years, we will focus on becoming a learning organisation with clearly defined audiences and high quality, targeted and innovative learning programmes so that by 2030, this change will be fully embedded and will mean that we have revolutionised our approach to learning and engagement, prioritising our audiences in all that we do.

Our commercial ambition is substantial. Along with effectively managing our fixed costs, building net profit will be a primary lever in ensuring that we are financially sustainable over the long term. The performance measure table at page 21 illustrates that over a 15-year period, we are seeking to build our income by a margin. By 2030, our CRM system will be well established, the IWM membership scheme will be thriving and very well supported, and net profit through commercial activity (including our corporate events, retail, public catering, licensing and publishing activity) will be at £10 million per annum.

Along with increasing self-generated income and net profit, we will also continue to deliver our Estates Strategy. By 2030, we will have addressed our substantial backlog in capital maintenance, systems and infrastructure projects.

Our masterplanning goals are stretching and ambitious. Our success in delivering major capital change will be contingent on bringing stakeholders, and in particular, funders, with us. Over the next three years, we will create and embed a clear, targeted Stakeholder Strategy that identifies the primary influencing and advocacy relationships that support our business and those that we will nurture at each of our branches. We will also build unrestricted giving by focusing our energy on maintaining these important relationships. The creation of the IWM Institute will focus our research and programming output and allow us to build up endowment funds to support this core work.

Allied to this, our impact and reach is amplified by working in partnership. By 2030, we will have a National and International Partnership Strategy that is fully embedded, describing how we support and nurture strategic partnerships that bring rich mutual benefit.

Using our three strategic goals, the table below illustrates the activity that we plan to deliver during CP17, laying the foundations for achieving our long term plans, and the impacts and outcomes we expect.