Annually, we have a staff post-holiday party, where tradition has it I cook for the staff and their partners.

This was a lot easier when the staff was smaller.

This year we had about 30 folks, so one-pot, simple, but delicious, was the order of the day. I dug down and recalled my time as a student in Spain, where I learned to make two dishes: sangria and paella. Afterward, several staff asked for the recipe. The point of paella is that there is no recipe, so here is my reconstruction of how this particular paella went down, to serve 12.

Preheat oven to 350F

1/3 cup good olive oil

1 onion

2 chorizo, preferably uncooked, crumbled

4 chicken thighs – boneless, cut in 1″ cubes

2 lb cleaned squid, cut into ½” rings, and including the heads

6 garlic cloves – or more, chopped roughly

3 cups short-grain white rice

24 mussels, de-bearded

24 clams

24 prawns

1 8oz package frozen artichoke hearts

Saffron (about $7 worth is the best way to describe it)

4 cups chicken stock

2 cups clam juice

1 8 oz package frozen peas

A roasted red pepper cut into strips (or a small jar of pimientos)

You need a paella pan, or a heavy, flat-bottomed, shallow frying pan. For this recipe it should be about 15″ in diameter. This recipe is scalable, notice that I have 2 clams, 2 mussels, and 2 prawns per person. 

Place the paella pan over a high heat and add the oil. When it is hot add the onion and stir to coat. Then add the chorizo. The chorizo should turn the onions and oil red. When this happens, add the chicken and brown. Then add the squid and garlic. When the squid is opaque add the rice and stir it in thoroughly. Add the mussels, clams, prawns, and artichoke hearts. Stir to mix. Add the clam juice and chicken broth, then the saffron. Mix thoroughly making sure all the rice is submerged in liquid. Sprinkle the peas over the top and decorate with the pepper strips. From this point on, no stirring, you’ll ruin the look!

Once the whole mixture is bubbling remove from heat and place it, uncovered, in the oven. Cook at 350F for about 30 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender. You can eat it at once, or at this point turn the oven down to 225F, cover with foil, and keep warm for up to an hour.

Serve right from the pan!

2008 is a special year for La Piana Associates. It will be our tenth anniversary as a firm.

On July 1, 1998 I launched the firm with two employees, a substantial grant from the Irvine, Packard, and Hewlett foundations, and a vision. That vision was to contribute significantly to the growth and success of nonprofits through consulting, training, and research and development efforts that brought new ideas into management practice across the sector.

That vision eventually morphed into the firm’s mission statement: “to transform the way nonprofits are led and managed so that they have a more powerful impact on society.”

There are many consultants out there, and certainly no shortage of workshops and training opportunities. What has come to define our firm is combining these services with R&D efforts that bring new ways of doing things to the sector, then rolling out these innovations through both our own consulting practice and publications, training, and teaching others.

Our ten-year track record of R&D based publications includes:

- Play to Win: The Nonprofit Guide to Competitive Strategy (2005)

- The Nonprofit Mergers Workbook, Part II: Unifying the Organization After A Merger (2004)

- The Due Diligence Tool (2005)

– Strategic Restructuring: Mergers, Integrations, and Alliances (2003)

- The Start-Up Assessment Tool (2003)

- In Search of  Strategic Solutions (2003)

- Real Collaboration (2001)

- The Nonprofit Mergers Workbook, Part I: Considering, Negotiating, and Executing a Merger (2000)

- Beyond Collaboration: Strategic Restructuring for Nonprofit Organizations (1997)

- Nonprofit Mergers: The Board’s Responsibility to Consider the Unthinkable (1994)

Our next book: The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution: Real-Time Strategic Planning in a Rapid-Response World, grows out of a four-year research project, and is scheduled to appear in March.