15 Jan Creating a Strategy and not just setting goals
Creating a Strategy is a very specialised talent. Many companies will create a strategy, which will more resemble either a mission statement or a set of goals. Google’s Corporate Strategy is “to accelerate innovation and strengthen brand loyalty through transformational changes while creating an open-source environment”. Quite a mouthful, but the message from this is if you want action, you have to develop a set of choices.
“One major reason for the lack of action is that “new strategies” are often not strategies at all. A real strategy involves a clear set of choices that define what the firm is going to do and what it’s not going to do. Many strategies fail to get implemented, despite the ample efforts of hard-working people, because they do not represent a set of clear choices.”
A good strategy will be a collaborative approach with the involvement of various levels of the organisation and a nod to culture to ensure strategic success. I know this will seem strange as many strategies can be written over many years and end up being over 100 pages. Good if you love War and Peace. However, the size of the strategy does not have any correlation to its effectiveness.
More recently we are looking at one page strategies that are very precise and achieve the organisations objectives with a set of clear actions. You can measure them readily, review the measures monthly or review them quarterly. Guess what? It seems to help our clients with uncertainty and managing complex change.
ICT Related Business Priorities to consider
- Future proofed investment pathway with clear actions aligned to the corporate strategy.
- Strategic Principles: developed to guide future investment and service delivery within the business managed by IT.
- Contemporary ICT Frameworks presented for adoption that add value.
- Areas of vulnerability within the organisation, scanned and mapped and we all need to look at these risks regularly.
- ICT Service options evaluated for suitability with the right governance to deliver the best services.
- Executive Team and Board involvement and agreement to the strategy.
- Performance Measurement & Metrics including sustainable budget models.
Source: Many Strategies Fail Because They’re Not Actually Strategies
