Role of IT in Business

A successful business depends upon many factors one of the important

factors in choosing the right technology. An essential use of technology in
business for more success and communicate through a platform like
software, E-mail, video chat, and different internet technologies as well.
Information technology has become very helpful in the business field.
Whatever the business is small or big. In all the organizations and
companies IT is helpful for the manager and employees to work in a more
efficient way, solve all the rising problems in an easy way. Recover the
entire problem and teach how to manage all complexity and how to get
more success. Information technology makes this all world like a global
village. It allows the organization to make a virtual meeting with clients
through video chat, which saves lots of time and effort of the company. They
have no need to waste lots of money on traveling. All the employees can
access and share all information at the same time when the company makes
a meeting with another client in another city. All employees can also work
remotely so the company may save lots of costs. The company easily solves
lots of problems using IT technologies.

Importance of IT in Daily Operations

1. Through the IT business is improved because the company can finish
their tasks more easily and in a cheaper way.
2. All the data is stored on a centralized database.
3. It makes the company more productive.
4. It helps the company to save lots of money and effort.
5. It enhances the capability of decision making.
6. It is also helpful for the employee to improve their performance.
7. It also helps the company to expand globally
8. It provides staff access to company information whatever and
whenever they need it.

Important of IT in Business
Here some points we define the importance of IT in business

1. Improved Company Communication

An important use of IT in business to improve communication. Through the
IT technology, the company used different technologies such as E-mail,
Video chat, Conferencing software. All these facilities make the company
make a meeting with employees and other clients in any city and even out of
the country; they easily make a virtual meeting with clients and also share
information with them. It saves lots of effort and money of the company that
will be waste ion traveling. This all makes the company more efferent.
 2. Batter Customers Experience
IT is also helping to provide batter customer experience through batter
customer services and using e-commerce IT enables the customer to
interact with the company in working hours through company websites. The
customer also sends a message through E-mail and ask about new products.
Through tracking customers a company can see all sales and feedback of the
customer about products and it provides help to the company to improve
their products. The customers are also able to make online shopping.

3. Improved Decision Making Ability

IT plays an important role in decision making. There is a software ERP and
decision support system that helps the company to improve its performance
and provides great help in making complex decisions. This type of software
has a dashboard that provide information about finance, customer sales, and
marketing trends, etc. This all information is really helpful for the manager
of the company; he used this information to make a decision about new
products, supply, and material order,

4. Inventory Management
All the companies need to maintain more socks to fulfill the requirements
without any delay. The Inventory management systems are helpful to
identify the quantity of each product a company and make a list for the
additional stock by using a way of inventory management. It becomes more
important for the company because the organization needs to maintain
enough stock to meet customer requirements. By using IT in inventory
management, it also will also provide help to the company to maintains,
triggering when it comes to managing inventory.

5. Manage Information Systems

Data and Information are a more valuable thing for any organization and
this important information needs a more secure and safe place. Data play an
important role in the strategic plan for getting the purpose.
MIS(Management Information System) should be used by the company to
track sales data, daily expenses, and products well. This information provide
help to calculate profits from time to time,  how to maximize return on
investment and recognize areas of improvement.

6. Customer Relationship Management

All Companies are using IT in improving the relationship with customers.CRM
(Customer Relationship Management) used to capture each and every
relation a company has with a customer, through this more experience gain.
If a customer has any issue he makes a call to center and reports an issue,
the customer relations officer will be able to view all customer’s shopping
information, what he purchased, call up the training manual for that item
and effectively respond to the issue.

Other Business Role of IT

1. It allows different companies to store data in a database or in the
cloud . It reduces the use of papers.
2. It provides more security and easy backup of data.
3. Internet able the company to use a system like wireless cameras to
improve security and reduce the chances of risk.
4. It provides great help to save data and do not loss confidential data.
5. It is helpful for people to search for different companies for jobs and
easily allay online through company websites.

Advantages of IT in business
1. It improves the communication of organizations.
2. It provides great help in making decisions through different software
tools.
3. It improved Manufacturing Productivity
4. Improved Finance Performance
5. Improves customer relationships with the organization.
6. It provides a great platform for employees to improve their
experience.
7. I save lots of effort and money for organizations.
8. It provides great virtual and coloration.
9. It provides a vast amount of data sharing.
10. Improved customer’s services by solving their problems on time.

Disadvantages of IT in Business
1. It is really difficult for the company to train staff for new technologies.
2. There are lots of security issues.
3. By providing too many communications that it may result in some
important personal information being leaked to the public.
4. Many software and hardware are more expensive.

Executive Support System

Executive support systems are intended to be used by the senior managers directly to provide
support to non-programmed decisions in strategic management.
These information are often external, unstructured and even uncertain. Exact scope and context
of such information is often not known beforehand.
This information is intelligence based −

 Market intelligence
 Investment intelligence
 Technology intelligence

Examples of Intelligent Information

Following are some examples of intelligent information, which is often the source of an ESS −

 External databases
 Technology reports like patent records etc.
 Technical reports from consultants
 Market reports
 Confidential information about competitors
 Speculative information like market conditions
 Government policies
 Financial reports and information

Features of Executive Information System

Advantages of ESS
 Easy for upper level executive to use
 Ability to analyze trends
 Augmentation of managers' leadership capabilities
 Enhance personal thinking and decision-making
 Contribution to strategic control flexibility
 Enhance organizational competitiveness in the market place
 Instruments of change
 Increased executive time horizons.
 Better reporting system
 Improved mental model of business executive
 Help improve consensus building and communication
 Improve office automation
 Reduce time for finding information
 Early identification of company performance
 Detail examination of critical success factor
 Better understanding
 Time management
 Increased communication capacity and quality

Disadvantage of ESS
  Functions are limited
 Hard to quantify benefits
 Executive may encounter information overload
 System may become slow
 Difficult to keep current data
 May lead to less reliable and insecure data
 Excessive cost for small company

Decision Support System

Decision support systems (DSS) are interactive software-based systems intended to help
managers in decision-making by accessing large volumes of information generated from various
related information systems involved in organizational business processes, such as office
automation system, transaction processing system, etc.
DSS uses the summary information, exceptions, patterns, and trends using the analytical models.
A decision support system helps in decision-making but does not necessarily give a decision
itself. The decision makers compile useful information from raw data, documents, personal
knowledge, and/or business models to identify and solve problems and make decisions.

Programmed and Non-programmed Decisions

There are two types of decisions - programmed and non-programmed decisions.
Programmed decisions are basically automated processes, general routine work, where −
 These decisions have been taken several times.
 These decisions follow some guidelines or rules.
For example, selecting a reorder level for inventories, is a programmed decision.
Non-programmed decisions occur in unusual and non-addressed situations, so −
 It would be a new decision.
 There will not be any rules to follow.
 These decisions are made based on the available information.
 These decisions are based on the manger's discretion, instinct, perception and
judgment.
For example, investing in a new technology is a non-programmed decision.
Decision support systems generally involve non-programmed decisions. Therefore, there will be
no exact report, content, or format for these systems. Reports are generated on the fly.

Attributes of a DSS
  Adaptability and flexibility
 High level of Interactivity
 Ease of use
 Efficiency and effectiveness
 Complete control by decision-makers
 Ease of development
 Extendibility
 Support for modeling and analysis
 Support for data access
 Standalone, integrated, and Web-based

Characteristics of a DSS
 Support for decision-makers in semi-structured and unstructured problems.
 Support for managers at various managerial levels, ranging from top executive to
line managers.
 Support for individuals and groups. Less structured problems often requires the
involvement of several individuals from different departments and organization
level.
 Support for interdependent or sequential decisions.
 Support for intelligence, design, choice, and implementation.
 Support for variety of decision processes and styles.
 DSSs are adaptive over time.

Benefits of DSS
 Improves efficiency and speed of decision-making activities.
 Increases the control, competitiveness and capability of futuristic decision-making
of the organization.
 Facilitates interpersonal communication.
 Encourages learning or training.
 Since it is mostly used in non-programmed decisions, it reveals new approaches
and sets up new evidences for an unusual decision.
 Helps automate managerial processes.

Components of a DSS
Following are the components of the Decision Support System −
 Database Management System (DBMS) − To solve a problem the necessary
data may come from internal or external database. In an organization, internal data
are generated by a system such as TPS and MIS. External data come from a
 variety of sources such as newspapers, online data services, databases (financial,
marketing, human resources).
 Model Management System − It stores and accesses models that managers use to
make decisions. Such models are used for designing manufacturing facility,
analyzing the financial health of an organization, forecasting demand of a product
or service, etc.
Support Tools − Support tools like online help; pulls down menus, user
interfaces, graphical analysis, error correction mechanism, facilitates the user
interactions with the system.

Classification of DSS
There are several ways to classify DSS. Hoi Apple and Whinstone classifies DSS as follows −
 Text Oriented DSS − It contains textually represented information that could
have a bearing on decision. It allows documents to be electronically created,
revised and viewed as needed.
 Database Oriented DSS − Database plays a major role here; it contains organized
and highly structured data.
 Spreadsheet Oriented DSS − It contains information in spread sheets that allows
create, view, modify procedural knowledge and also instructs the system to
execute self-contained instructions. The most popular tool is Excel and Lotus 1-2-
3.
 Solver Oriented DSS − It is based on a solver, which is an algorithm or procedure
written for performing certain calculations and particular program type.
 Rules Oriented DSS − It follows certain procedures adopted as rules.
 Rules Oriented DSS − Procedures are adopted in rules oriented DSS. Export
system is the example.
 Compound DSS − It is built by using two or more of the five structures explained
above.

Types of DSS
Following are some typical DSSs −
 Status Inquiry System − It helps in taking operational, management level, or
middle level management decisions, for example daily schedules of jobs to
machines or machines to operators.
 Data Analysis System − It needs comparative analysis and makes use of formula
or an algorithm, for example cash flow analysis, inventory analysis etc.
 Information Analysis System − In this system data is analyzed and the
information report is generated. For example, sales analysis, accounts receivable
systems, market analysis etc.
 Accounting System − It keeps track of accounting and finance related
information, for example, final account, accounts receivables, accounts payables,
etc. that keep track of the major aspects of the business.
  Model Based System − Simulation models or optimization models used for
decision-making are used infrequently and creates general guidelines for operation
or management.

How to Design an IT Support Plan

These days, it’s difficult to run a business without technology. That’s why when technical issues
arise, it can stop a company’s operations in its tracks. As a business owner, you need to be able
to keep your hardware and software not only running, but also operating at peak efficiency. The
best way to ensure your business avoids downtime and security risks is by creating an IT
strategic plan that maximizes the effectiveness of your managed IT services.

Creating an IT Support Plan

The truth is it’s impossible to completely eliminate technology breakdowns—it happens to even
the most prepared businesses. That’s why the goal isn’t necessarily to get rid of all potential
failures, but rather to create a support plan that allows you to respond to issues quickly and with
confidence. A well put together plan will greatly help with decreasing downtime and enhancing
productivity. 

In order to design an effective IT support plan, there are a few services you need. The items
include on-site support, remote support, end-user support, cyber security services, and
emergency services. These managed IT services come together to provide an almost seamless IT
package that should give you the flexibility to resolve issues proactively.

Remote Support
You’re not going to have a technician who can be where you are at all times. That’s where
remote support comes in. With this service, a professional can check on all of your systems and
update software, implement security protocols, perform network administration, and more as
needed from anywhere.

On-Site Support
Although many issues can be addressed remotely, there are some issues that require a physical
presence, specifically hardware problems. When printers, computers, servers, or other equipment
need maintenance, you need to be able to call in a technician who can handle these issues.

End-User Support
Even when your network is running fine overall, individual users can still run into trouble. For
example, one of your employees may find that they’re unable to access the company’s managed
cloud services. This requires an IT support specialist who can take time to troubleshoot that
employee’s issue.

Cyber Security
No matter what industry your business is in, it’s vulnerable to cyber criminals. An organization
can’t afford to succumb to data loss or other cyber threats. It’s necessary to have a
comprehensive network security solution that can keep the company and your
employees’ information secure.

Emergency Services
Emergencies can happen at any time—they are unpredictable. The best thing you can do is have
a solution in place to get your company back up and running as soon as possible. Having a robust
recovery plan can act as insurance during these kinds of scenarios.

strategic planning
What is strategic planning?
Strategic planning is a process in which an organization's leaders define their
vision for the future and identify their organization's goals and objectives. The
process includes establishing the sequence in which those goals should be
realized so that the organization can reach its stated vision.
Strategic planning typically represents mid- to long-term goals with a life span
of three to five years, though it can go longer. This is different than business
planning, which typically focuses on short-term, tactical goals, such as how a
budget is divided up. The time covered by a business plan can range from
several months to several years.

The product of strategic planning is a strategic plan. It is often reflected in a

plan document or other media. These plans can be easily shared, understood
and followed by various people including employees, customers, business
partners and investors.

Organizations conduct strategic planning periodically to consider the effect

of changing business, industry, legal and regulatory conditions. A strategic
plan may be updated and revised at that time to reflect any strategic changes.

Chief information officers use strategic planning to determine how IT can be best used to
further an organization's business goals.

Why is strategic planning important?

Businesses need direction and organizational goals to work toward. Strategic
planning offers that type of guidance. Essentially, a strategic plan is a
roadmap to get to business goals. Without such guidance, there is no way to
tell whether a business is on track to reach its goals.

The following four aspects of strategy development are worth attention:

1. The mission. Strategic planning starts with a mission that offers a

company a sense of purpose and direction. The
organization's mission statement describes who it is, what it does
and where it wants to go. Missions are typically broad but actionable.
For example, a business in the education industry might seek to be a
leader in online virtual educational tools and services.

2. The goals. Strategic planning involves selecting goals. Most

planning uses SMART goals -- specific, measurable, achievable,
realistic and time-bound -- or other objectively measurable goals.
Measurable goals are important because they enable business
leaders to determine how well the business is performing against
goals and the overall mission. Goal setting for the fictitious
educational business might include releasing the first version of a
virtual classroom platform within two years or increasing sales of an
existing tool by 30% in the next year.

3. Alignment with short-term goals. Strategic planning relates

directly to short-term, tactical business planning and can help
business leaders with everyday decision-making that better aligns
with business strategy. For the fictitious educational business,
leaders might choose to make strategic investments in
communication and collaboration technologies, such as virtual
classroom software and services but decline opportunities to
establish physical classroom facilities.

4. Evaluation and revision. Strategic planning helps business leaders

periodically evaluate progress against the plan and make changes or
 adjustments in response to changing conditions. For example, a
business may seek a global presence, but legal and regulatory
restrictions could emerge that affect its ability to operate in certain
geographic regions. As result, business leaders might have to revise
the strategic plan to redefine objectives or change progress metrics.
What are the steps in the strategic planning process?
There are myriad different ways to approach strategic planning depending on
the type of business and the granularity required. Most strategic planning
cycles can be summarized in these five steps:

Identify. A strategic planning cycle starts with the determination of a

business's current strategic position. This is where stakeholders use the
existing strategic plan -- including the mission statement and long-term
strategic goals -- to perform assessments of the business and its environment.
These assessments can include a needs assessment or a SWOT (strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis to understand the state of the
business and the path ahead.

Prioritize. Next, strategic planners set objectives and initiatives that line up

with the company mission and goals and will move the business toward
achieving its goals. There may be many potential goals, so planning prioritizes
the most important, relevant and urgent ones. Goals may include a
consideration of resource requirements -- such as budgets and equipment --
and they often involve a timeline and business metrics or KPIs for measuring
progress.

Develop. This is the main thrust of strategic planning in which stakeholders

collaborate to formulate the steps or tactics necessary to attain a stated
strategic objective. This may involve creating numerous short-term tactical
business plans that fit into the overarching strategy. Stakeholders involved in
plan development use various tools such as a strategy map to help visualize
and tweak the plan. Developing the plan may involve cost and opportunity
tradeoffs that reflect business priorities. Developers may reject some
initiatives if they don't support the long-term strategy.

Implement. Once the strategic plan is developed, it's time to put it in motion.

This requires clear communication across the organization to set
responsibilities, make investments, adjust policies and processes, and
establish measurement and reporting. Implementation typically
includes strategic management with regular strategic reviews to ensure that
plans stay on track.

Update. A strategic plan is periodically reviewed and revised to adjust

priorities and reevaluate goals as business conditions change and new
opportunities emerge. Quick reviews of metrics can happen quarterly, and
adjustments to the strategic plan can occur annually. Stakeholders may
use balanced scorecards and other tools to assess performance against
goals.

A balanced scorecard focuses on four key parts of a business's strategic plan: financial,
customer, internal business processes, and learning and growth.

Who does the strategic planning in a business?

A committee typically leads the strategic planning process. Planning experts
recommend the committee include representatives from all areas within the
enterprise and work in an open and transparent way where information is
documented from start to finish.

The committee researches and gathers the information needed to understand

the organization's current status and factors that will affect it in the future. The
committee should solicit input and feedback to validate or challenge its
assessment of the information.

The committee can opt to use one of many methodologies or

strategic frameworks that have been developed to guide leaders through this
process. These methodologies take the committee through a series of steps
that include an analysis or assessment, strategy formulation, and the
articulation and communication of the actions needed to move the
organization toward its strategic vision.

The committee creates benchmarks that will enable the organization to

determine how well it is performing against its goals as it implements the
strategic plan. The planning process should also identify which executives are
accountable for ensuring that benchmarking activities take place at planned
times and that specific objectives are met.

How often should strategic planning be done?

There are no uniform requirements to dictate the frequency of a strategic
planning cycle. However, there are common approaches.

 Quarterly reviews. Once a quarter is usually a convenient time

frame to revisit assumptions made in the planning process and
gauge progress by checking metrics against the plan.
  Annual reviews. A yearly review lets business leaders assess
metrics for the previous four quarters and make informed
adjustments to the plan.

Timetables are always subject to change. Timing should be flexible and

tailored to the needs of a company. For example, a startup in a dynamic
industry might revisit its strategic plan monthly. A mature business in a well-
established industry might opt to revisit the plan less frequently.

Types of strategic plans

Strategic planning activities typically focus on three areas: business, corporate
or functional. They break out as follows:

 Business. A business-centric strategic plan focuses on the

competitive aspects of the organization -- creating competitive
advantages and opportunities for growth. These plans adopt a
mission evaluating the external business environment, setting goals,
and allocating financial, human and technological resources to meet
those goals. This is the typical strategic plan and the main focus of
this article.

 Corporate. A corporate-centric plan defines how the company

works. It focuses on organizing and aligning the structure of the
business, its policies and processes and its senior leadership to
meet desired goals. For example, the management of a research
and development skunkworks might be structured to function
dynamically and on an ad hoc basis. It would look different from the
management team in finance or HR.

 Functional. Function-centric strategic plans fit within corporate-level

strategies and provide a granular examination of specific
departments or segments such as marketing, HR, finance and
development. Functional plans focus on policy and process -- such
 as security and compliance -- while setting budgets and resource
allocations.

In most cases, a strategic plan will involve elements of all three focus areas.
But the plan may lean toward one focus area depending on the needs and
type of business

What is strategic management?

Organizations that are best at aligning their actions with their strategic plans
engage in strategic management. A strategic management process
establishes ongoing practices to ensure that an organization's processes and
resources support the strategic plan's mission and vision statement.

In simple terms, strategic management is the implementation of the strategy.

As such, strategic management is sometimes referred to as strategy
execution. Strategy execution involves identifying benchmarks, allocating
financial and human resources and providing leadership to realize established
goals.

Strategic management may involve a prescriptive or descriptive approach. A

prescriptive approach focuses on how strategies should be created. It often
uses an analytical approach -- such as SWOT or balanced scorecards -- to
account for risks and opportunities. A descriptive approach focuses on how
strategies should be implemented and typically relies on general guidelines or
principles.

Given the similarities between strategic planning and strategic management,

the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably.

What is a strategy map?

A strategy map is a planning tool or template used to help stakeholders
visualize the complete strategy of a business as one interrelated graphic.
These visualizations offer a powerful way for understanding and reviewing the
cause-and-effect relationships among the elements of a business strategy.

While a map can be drawn in a number of ways, all strategy maps focus on
four major business areas or categories: financial, customer, internal business
processes (IBPs), and learning and growth. Goals sort into those four areas,
and relationships or dependencies among those goals can be established.

For example, a strategy map might include a financial goal of reducing costs
and an IBP goal to improve operational efficiency. These two goals are related
and can help stakeholders understand that tasks such as improving
operational workflows can reduce company costs and meet two elements of
the strategic plan.

A strategy map can help translate overarching goals into an action plan and
goals that can be aligned and implemented.

Strategy mapping can also help to identify strategic challenges that might not
be obvious. For example, one learning and growth goal may be to increase
employee expertise but that may expose unexpected challenges in employee
retention and compensation, which affects cost reduction goals.
The balanced scorecard part of the strategy map helps managers keep track of what tasks
must be accomplished to achieve strategic planning objectives.

Benefits of strategic planning

Effective strategic planning has many benefits. It forces organizations to be
aware of the future state of opportunities and challenges. It also forces them
to anticipate risks and understand what resources will be needed to seize
opportunities and overcome strategic issues.

Strategic planning also gives individuals a sense of direction and marshals

them around a common mission. It creates standards and accountability.
Strategic planning can enhance operational plans and efficiency. It also helps
organizations limit time spent on crisis management, where they're reacting to
unexpected changes that they failed to anticipate and prepare for.

Information technology is a key part of developing an effective strategic plan.

Top 4 Approaches to Strategic Planning |
Management

Fundamentally, there are four different approaches to do formal

strategic planning. The approaches are:- 1. Top-Down Approach 2.
Bottom-Up Approach 3. Mixture of the Top-Down and Bottom-Up
Approaches 4. Team Approach.
1. Top-Down Approach:

In a centralised company, such planning is done at the top of the

corporation and the departments and outlying activities are advised
straightway what to do.

In a decentralised company, the CEO or the President may give the

divisions guidelines and ask for plans. The plans after review at the
head office are sent back to the divisions for modifications or with a
note of acceptance.
2. Bottom-Up Approach:

The top management gives the divisions no guidelines but asks

them to submit plans.

Such plans may contain information on:

(i) Major opportunities and threats;

(ii) Major objectives;

(iii) Strategies to achieve the objectives;

(iv) Specific data on sales/profits/market share sought;

(v) Capital requirements, etc.

These plans are then reviewed at top management levels and the
same process, as in the top-down approach, is then followed.
3. Mixture of the Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches:

This is practised in most large decentralised companies. In this

approach, the guidelines given by the top management to the
divisions are broad enough to permit the divisions a good amount of
flexibility in developing their own plans. Sometimes, the top
management may decide basic objectives by dialogue with
divisional managers in respect of sales and return on investments
especially when divisional performance is measured upon those
criteria.
4. Team Approach:

The chief executive, in a small centralised company, often use his

line managers to develop formal plans. The same approach is used
even by the president of a large company. In many other companies,
the president meets and interacts with his group of executives on a
regular basis to deal with all the problems facing the company so
that the group can develop written strategic plans.

Within each of these approaches, there are many

alternatives as follows:

(i) Complete SWOT analysis or not:

In some companies, the divisions supply the top management with

perceived opportunities and threats and with the strategies to
exploit opportunities and avoid threats.

(ii) Depth of analysis:

Some companies, at the initial stage, do not make in-depth analysis

of all aspects of planning. They increase the intensity of analytical
exercise gradually as experience is gained.

(iii) Degree of formality:

Divergent practices are in vogue as regards formality. For some
large companies having centralised organisation structures, and
comparatively stable environment and homogeneous product lines,
planning is less formal than large diversified companies with
decentralised and semi-autonomous product division structures.

High technology companies usually have more formal systems; yet,

they recognise informality in decision making and managerial
activities associated with planning.

(iv) Reliance on staff:

It is up-to the managers to decide the extent of delegation.

(v) Corporate planner or not:

Large corporations employ corporate planners to help in the

planning process. Smaller companies cannot afford to this luxury.

(vi) Linkage with plans.

(vii) Getting the process started:

Strategic planning may begin with an effort to solve a particular

problem. It may begin with a SWOT analysis or simply with a review
of current strategy.

(viii) Degree of documentation:

A balance has to be struck between too little and too much paper
work.

(ix) Role of CEO:

The chief executive officer’s role is critical depending on the degree

of complexity of organisations.
The Strategic Management Process 
Great strategies separate those who thrive from those who barely survive. In a
recession, that gap widens. Organizations that evolve and modernize their
strategic processes dominate markets, innovate and disrupt industries. Great
strategies go beyond strategic planning and focus on execution while making the
right adjustments. 

Ken Miller, Gm at Microsoft had this to say in the state of strategy report,

"strategy is about creating a winning plan. How are we going to do something
that allows us to compete stronger and win together? ... You've got to be able to
move quickly. You've got to be able to pivot. You've got to be able to be nimble
and fast." This encompasses the modern strategic management process.

What is strategic management process?

The strategic management process is the systematic analysis of an

organization’s internal and external environment to achieve and retain a
competitive advantage. The modern competitive environment requires an
iterative approach to strategic management where execution informs planning
and planning guides execution.

To make strategic management tangible, it's helpful to apply a

structured strategic management process. This process describes the steps, in
order, that an organization should perform to figure out where they want to get
to, how they're going to get there, and whether or not they're succeeding.

This is a comprehensive guide to strategic management, so the steps of the

strategic management process, in order, are:

 Why is strategic management important?

  What is a strategic management process?

o 1: The Plan Phase of the strategic management process

 1.1: High-level goal setting
 Craft a vision statement
 Determine your focus areas
 Set corporate level strategic objectives
 1.2: Strategic analysis & understanding your
environment
 Conduct an internal strategic analysis
 Conduct an external strategic analysis
 SWOT Analysis: A strategic analysis tool
 1.3: In-depth strategy formulation
 Business level strategic objectives
 Projects
 KPIs
o 2: The Manage Phase of the strategic management process
 2.1: Strategic governance
 Meeting structures
 Strategy reporting
 2.2: Strategic communication
 2.3: Strategy culture
 2.4: Performance management
 Common pitfalls of strategic implementation

o 3: The Track Phase of the strategic management process

 3.1: Track progress against strategic outcomes
 Implementing KPIs
 Automating reporting
 Digitize your strategic processes
 Applying strategic frameworks
 3.2: Iterating Strategy
 The role of culture in strategic management

Why is strategic management Important?

Because it clarifies and determines an organization’s identity. It enables, sustains
and resolves competition. There's an old Japanese saying that sums up pretty
succinctly why strategic management is important:

When you’re dying of thirst, it's too late to start thinking about digging a well.
More specifically, strategic management is important because it:

1. Increases the speed of your decision-making at a tactical level

Having strategic direction means that you can make tactical decisions
much more quickly. Understanding your organization's ultimate outcomes
helps you prioritize your tactics based on their effect upon those outcomes.
2. Improves employee engagement
Having a commonly understood and well-respected set of goals, as well a
clear plan of how to get there, is far more motivating for employees than
simply showing up and working for the sake of it.
3. Makes hiring decisions easier
When you know what you want, it’s much easier to figure out your
capability gaps. That makes the hiring process far easier and reduces the
number of poor hires.
4. Creates interest in your organization
Having a strategic plan makes it easier for outside parties (such as
potential investors) to understand and get interested in what you're doing.
That makes your life much easier when you need access to the services
those parties provide.

There are many other benefits to strategic management, but those four translate
the abstract “survive and thrive” into concrete, realistic statements. 
The process of strategic management

A strategic management process is a documented set of steps that you'll go

through to turn the “concept” of strategic management into reality for your
organization.

It’s how organizations define the business outcomes they want to achieve and
how they will utilize their resources to achieve them. The strategic management
process covers strategic planning, implementation, and strategy iteration.

What are the key elements in the strategic management process?

To keep it simple, the strategic management process consists of three key

elements:

Plan >> Manage >> Track.

These are the three big categories of actions and decisions that go into the
process of strategic management. Although all of them are equally important to
developing and executing a great strategy, each element demands a different
amount of time and effort to be successful.

For example, the Plan Phase includes only 10% of the total effort in the strategic
process. The other two Phases, the Manage and Track Phases, are where the
90% of effort and frustration really are.

Planning is essential, but without execution, it's meaningless.

1: The Plan Phase of the strategic management process

The first part of the strategic management process involves figuring out what you
want to accomplish and how you're going to get there. The Plan phase can be
further broken down into the following subsections:
1.1: High-level goal setting

High-level goal setting encompasses the process of defining what you want to
achieve in the big-picture sense. It's distinct from strategy formulation, which is
where you'll come up with tactics, which we'll cover a little later on. Goal setting
has three main elements:

Craft a vision statement

It all starts with a vision.

The most successful organizations are those that are able to clearly articulate
what they're trying to achieve. They'll also stand almost dogmatically behind that
vision throughout everything they do. Briefly, the main reasons why defining your
vision is so critical for the strategic management process are:

 It gets all parties on the same page about what the organization is
ultimately trying to achieve.
 It helps create an identity around your brand, product, people and
customers.
 It serves as the anchor point against which to 'sense check' your actual
deliverables when you get to the strategy formulation stage (1.3).

There is a reason why defining your vision is the first thing you should do in your
strategic management process. Every single step that follows should flow back to
the delivery of this vision. Your vision is what's going to keep you honest and
consistent as you move through the strategic management journey.

Determine your Focus Areas

Focus Areas break your vision down into (usually) 3 to 5 areas of focus.

For example, your vision might be to "Put a computer on every desk in the world"
(Microsoft, in the 1980s) - and your corresponding Focus Areas might be:

 An intuitive user experience

 Affordability
  Customer experience

Focus Areas are the first step on your path to turning your vision statement into
reality.

Set corporate-level strategic objectives

Conclude your goal setting by creating corporate-level strategic objectives.

Specifically, Strategic Objectives that will sit underneath each of your Focus

Areas and provide strong direction for the strategy formulation, which will happen
at a business unit level (e.g., you have different businesses under an umbrella
company, e.g. Virgin) and functional level (i.e., individual functions or
departments within a business, e.g., Marketing).

Corporate-level strategic objectives should begin to add some outcomes to your

strategic plan rather than just areas you want to focus on. 

1.2 Strategic analysis & understanding your environment

Now, it's time for a quick reality check.

Make sure you have the capabilities to execute on that vision. Make sure that
your vision is compatible with the external realities of the world. A strategic
analysis consists of two parts:

Conduct an internal strategic analysis

In the first step, look inward at your own capabilities.

Perform an internal strategic analysis. Ask yourself questions such as:

 Do we have the necessary people and skill set to deliver against our

goals?
 Do we need or have the necessary capital to fund our ambitions?
There is a range of tools that you can use to perform an effective internal
analysis - but the key is to be brutally honest about your own capabilities so that
you can either solve your deficiencies or adjust your goals accordingly.

Conduct an external strategic analysis

In the second step, turn your gaze outwards and perform an external strategic
analysis that includes things like:

 The macro-economic environment

 Your competitors
 Regulations and compliance
 Customer trends
 Market trends

In other words, consider factors that are potentially outside of your control and
how they will affect the viability of your goals.

SWOT analysis: a strategic analysis tool

One of the most famous ways of doing both internal and external strategic
analyses is through a SWOT Analysis. This technique forces you to go through
an exercise that considers:

Strengths: What are you good at? What skills do you have as an organization?
Amplify these skills throughout your strategic management process.

Weaknesses: What aren't you good at? Why have you failed in the past? Solve
for these weaknesses or, worst-case, avoid situations where they could hurt you.

Opportunities: What are the unique opportunities you can exploit in the market?
Which of the strengths you've outlined give you an edge and how will you utilize
them? Rapidly capitalize on these types of opportunities.
Threats: What aspects of your environment could hurt your ability to exploit
opportunities? Are there any macro or micro economic issues that you need to
be aware of? Mitigate these threats wherever possible.

Understanding your strengths and weaknesses are internal strategic analysis

exercises. Understanding your opportunities and threats are external strategic
analysis exercises.

Understanding your environment (internally and externally) is a critical

prerequisite to strategy formulation and a critical component of the strategic
management process.

1.3 In-depth strategy formulation

Once you have your vision, a clear set of goals and a good understanding of your
environment, move onto in-depth strategy formulation.
This is where you craft a detailed plan about how you're actually going to
achieve your goals. In our guide, we walk you through How To Write A Strategic
Plan in great detail to make the process a little bit less daunting. The strategy
formulation process consists of:

Business level strategic objectives

You wrote strategic objectives at a corporate level as part of goal setting. Now
repeat this at a business level and at a functional level throughout your
organization.

Specifically, each of your business units should look at the objectives that were
written at a corporate level and then craft their own set of corresponding
objectives that they will strive towards within their business unit.

Note: “Business unit” means something different depending on the size of your

organization. Large corporations may define business units at a product level,
while medium-sized organizations might define them as departments such as
“marketing.”

Projects

Think of “Projects” as actions. 

The specific things that you will do to deliver against your objectives. Projects are
extremely specific deliverables, with deadlines and a series of tangible tasks
underneath them assigned to specific individuals to ensure accountability.

Call them “Actions” or “Initiatives,” it doesn’t matter, so long as they're specific

and have clearly defined implementations.

KPIs

Create a strong set of KPIs for each of your objectives.

This is the last step of the strategy formulation. KPIs measure whether or not
you're achieving your objectives. Ideally, your strategy formulation should
incorporate two different kinds of KPIs:

 Leading KPIs - These are early indicators that your objective is likely to be
reached. They help you be proactive.
 Lagging KPIs - These are definitive measures of whether or not you've
reached your Objective and can only be measured after you've finished
implementing a good number of your contributing Projects. They are a
glance to the past.

By the end of the strategy formulation phase, you should have clear objectives,
specific projects to drive progress and strong KPIs to measure your progress.

2: The Manage Phase of the strategic management process

Strategy implementation is where 80% of strategies fail.

This is a huge topic on its own. Here is a summary of the key elements of an
effective strategy implementation process:

The 3 levels of strategic management

Strategy isn’t the same at every level inside an organization. Thus, the strategic
management process changes at each level. Here are the 3 levels and what you
should be paying attention to:

At the corporate-level strategic management, decisions treat the various

business units, brands, and subsidiaries as a portfolio. This is where the vision of
the company has the greatest impact and determines where the focus of
resources and discussions should be. At this level, your decision-making takes
into account the macroeconomic and geopolitical forces that shape your
competitive environment.

At the business-level strategic management, decisions are discussed and

tailored to specific business units. For example, Disney's media brands and
amusement parks develop their individual strategies at this level. Decision-
making takes into account the overall direction and corporate-level priorities of
the organization.

At the functional-level strategic management, decisions are made at the

departmental or team level. Managing functional strategies means managing
daily decisions and the more practical side of things. Aligning decision-making at
this level with the previous two levels ensures that the organization actually
manages to move towards its desired direction.

2.1 Strategic governance

Governance is your strategic execution rhythm.

Meeting structures

One of the most important things you need to do when setting up an effective
strategy implementation process is to determine how “the strategy” will integrate
with the existing structures in your business.

Meetings are a manifestation of those structures, so ask yourself the following

questions:

 How often you will meet to discuss progress.

 What format those discussions will take, and supported by what reports.
 Who will be involved in those discussions.
 What information you need to manage the goals in your plan and make the
governance process effective.

Strategy reporting

Since you decided on your meeting habits, the next natural question is what
reporting tools will you use (specifically what kind of Strategy Snapshots or
Dashboards will you use).

Cascade’s reporting dashboards are automatically generated, including only the

metrics you need. They are specifically designed to meet your reporting needs.

2.2 Strategic communication

Communicating your strategic plan is terribly important to strategy

implementation.

It is a process most companies ignore or dramatically underestimate to their

strategy’s demise. The traditional way of communicating the organization’s
strategy has been to present it to its people. But strategy presentations don’t
work.

Instead, you should expose your strategy to your people. Allow them to access it
on demand and they will engage with it, challenge it productively and ultimately
improve it. If your employees don’t regularly engage with the company’s strategy,
they won't execute it or focus on what matters most.
Exposing your strategy to your people builds organizational alignment. That’s
one of the most valuable benefits of our platform.

2.3 Strategy & culture

Your culture is your strategy’s biggest ally or biggest enemy.

Let’s put it this way. If your strategy is in conflict with your culture, it will fail. You
will never succeed at implementing your strategic plan.

If your culture resists your strategy, you face a significant implementation

problem. At best, you'll get a lukewarm reception to the strategy (which at least
you can see and do something about). At worst, you'll get a positive reception,
followed by a total lack of change and engagement (which will hurt you even
more, as you won't even know that your strategy hasn't been embraced until
much further down the line).

If any of the following are true, step back and consider if your organization is
culturally ready for major strategic change:

1. There is a disconnect between management and everyone else. People

use pronouns like “they” instead of “we” when talking about major
initiatives.
2. There are no regular reviewing meetings happening, or there are, but
they're poorly attended.
3. People are cynical about proposed changes and respond with things like,
"We tried that, it didn't work!"

2.4 Performance management

Performance management drives execution.

It connects your strategy with people's individual goals and corresponding

rewards.

The goals people are measured against as part of their formal reviews should
match up pretty tightly to the strategic plan of their function or business unit.
Which in turn should create a link between their goals and the overall corporate-
level strategic plan. Invest in a digital tool, like a strategy execution platform, to
align your people and manage their performance across the entire organization.

However, the biggest bane of any strategic management process is a lack of

accountability. This is the situation where people throughout the organization
seem to agree with the strategic plan, but no one really changes anything about
their behavior to make it happen.

Common pitfalls of the strategy implementation process

Strategy implementation is hard.

It’s why many strategies fail to materialize. These are the common pitfalls most
strategy implementation processes fall into:

 Lack of Accountability
The lack of a single named individual for ownership of goals, projects, and
KPIs. Teamwork is awesome, but by naming one clear “Goal Owner,” you
avoid any confusion about who ultimately is responsible for delivering the
different aspects of your strategic plan.
 Poor Reporting
Inconsistent reporting structures and processes. You need to implement
regular meetings throughout the organization that focus specifically on the
outcomes of the strategy. This includes reviewing the KPIs and project
statuses regularly and in a consistent format throughout every level of the
business.
 Poor Data
The lack of easy data availability. This is really more of an excuse than an
issue in most cases, but nevertheless should be addressed. You need to
give people a set of tools to access the KPI data (both lead and lag) that
has been created to measure the strategy's success.
 Misalignment of Reward to Strategic Success
Linking reward to strategic success. How often have you been at an
organization where the ‘end of year review process’ involves a box-ticking
exercise against a list of goals you created in some HR system, simply
because you were told by your boss that you had to? There needs to be a
clear linkage between the success of the organization's strategy and the
reward and recognition given to employees.
By tackling the four common pitfalls above, you'll be going a long way towards
ensuring the success of your strategy implementation.

3: The Track Phase of the strategic management process

The final phase of the strategic management process is tracking the progress of

your strategy and adapting it.

Tracking your strategy needs to start on the same day the implementation does.
Not only that, but you need to have considered the mechanisms for how you'll be
tracking your strategy as far back as phase 1! More specifically, you should
already have a clear set of KPIs for each of your Strategic Objectives.

3.1 Track progress against strategic outcomes

It's easy to get lost in the implementation phase.

It can be a long and challenging process to move your organization towards a

place where it's consistently delivering strategic Projects and KPIs. In fact,
sometimes it takes so long that the organization forgets to revisit its Strategic
Objectives to see if all its implementation work is actually moving the needle
towards its ultimate goals!

To be able to efficiently analyze the progress of your strategic plan, you need to
do a number of things:

Implement KPIs

We've mentioned this a couple of times, and for a good reason.

As part of your strategy formulation, you need to ensure that each of your
Strategic Objectives has at least 1 KPI. This will tell you whether or not you're
making progress against that part of your strategy.

More specifically, you need to ensure that you have at least one lagging KPI for
each Strategic Objective, supported by a number of leading KPIs alongside.

Automate reporting

Once you've created your KPIs in place, it's time to do whatever it takes to

automate the reporting process.

That means setting up live integrations between the data source (e.g., your CRM
system) and your dashboard or tracking tool of choice (e.g., Cascade).
Automating reporting against your KPIs is a critical part of the strategic
management process as it forces your organization to be accountable for the
results of your strategic efforts and removes any excuses around the lack of
availability of data.

Digitize your strategic processes

In a world where companies need to adapt fast to survive and thrive, sheets and
slides have no place in the strategic processes.
Excel is an excellent tool, but it has a lot of limitations to be effective in
strategy. To execute, manage and adapt your strategy, you need to move away
from static tools. Many strategic processes, like tracking and reviewing, have so
much friction that they make the organization rigid.

You have to automate these processes. Use a digital, dynamic environment that
is sophisticated enough to handle your strategy and easy enough to use to
facilitate its execution. A platform like Cascade removes friction from these
processes and becomes your single source of truth.

Apply strategic frameworks

Strategic frameworks such as the Balanced Scorecard and McKinsey's Strategic

Horizons add value to your strategic management process in many different
ways.

For example, the McKinsey's Strategic Horizons framework ensures that you
have a healthy mix of short, medium, and long-term goals in your strategy (and
that you're delivering successfully on each of them).

Of course, analyzing your strategic success is one thing, actually doing

something about any shortcomings is the real key to success. And that's where
the final stage of our strategic management process kicks in.

3.2 Iterate the strategy

The Plan > Manage > Track process is cyclical.

The reason is simple: the strategic management process is never-ending.

Strategy is iterative. It is definitive for your organization, rather than something
you do once and move on from. That means constant iteration, constant test-
and-learn, and constant assessments.

Assessments of your strategy should include what has gone well and what has
not and needs to be changed. They're how you make tweaks to elements of your
plan that aren't working out the way you'd hoped. That doesn't mean huge
changes every month. That would be a disaster and would seriously hurt the
credibility of your strategic management process. Rather this is about making
small micro-adjustments to keep your plan realistic and relevant. Tweaking a KPI
here, adding a new project there, etc.

If you take away only one thing from this article, it should be that Plan > Manage
> Track is the best way to think about strategic management.

In fact, it's such a good framework that we built our entire strategy execution
software platform around it. When you use Cascade, you'll find the features
neatly divided into these three key phases of the strategic management process.
Strategic management examples to inspire
An example of clear planning in strategic management

When Bob Iger became the CEO of The Walt Disney Company in 2005, the
company was having troubles for the last decade.

If he was to revive the entertainment behemoth and protect his head, he had to
devise a strategy that the board would feel confident to support. He knew that
Disney’s soul was animation. The company’s future would be as successful as
the company would be in the animation industry.

So the corporate-level strategy he presented to the board had three main

priorities:

1. The creation of the best-in-the-world branded content

2. The adoption of the latest technological advancements to aid the creation
and distribution of that content
3. Unprecedented international expansion

Iger’s knowledge and understanding of both the industry and his company were
deep and comprehensive. His three strategic priorities were incredibly simple and
clear. He took into account the competitive landscape, Disney’s capabilities and
an informed view of the future.

In this strategic management example, Bob Iger created a set of strategic

priorities through one of the most comprehensive planning phases.

An example of strategy implementation in strategic management

How did Bob Iger execute his strategy?

Developing a comprehensive strategic plan is one thing. Managing and tracking
its performance is another. Iger knew that the company had powerful competitors
that were beating Disney technologically and in storytelling, despite its powerful
content creation engines.

So Disney’s CEO decided to realize his plan with two big decisions:

1. Acquiring top brands and companies

2. Restructuring and reorganizing Disney to create original content

Acquiring Pixar, Marvel and the Star Wars franchise gave Disney an incredible
advantage in the market. The best storytellers and the latest technological
advancements of the entertainment industry were all under one roof. These
acquisitions ensured that Disney would create the best branded content in the
world with the aid of great technology.

Meanwhile, the company acquired BAMTech to speed into the streaming industry
and create Disney+. But to succeed in that industry, a company needs unique
and original content. So the question was whether Disney would develop that
content inhouse. And it did. Iger believed in the studios’ capabilities. However,
that disrupted the company from within and he had to revise the internal incentive
system to ensure that the studio heads worked together.

Today, Disney+ has more subscribers than Netflix.

Developing a great plan is only a small part of the work. Executing it and
following through is where the struggle lies. Bob Iger’s strategic management
capabilities proved to be very effective.

The role of culture in strategic management

Talking about the strategic management process with only a brief mention of
culture is borderline a crime.

Having a plan is important. However, the implementation of a full strategic

management process goes much further than the mere formulation of a strategic
plan. The true benefits of the process come from the behavioral changes that
you'll drive throughout your organization. They are also the biggest challenges.

Behaviors including:

 Thoughtful, fact-informed planning

 Collaborative ideation
 Realistic but ambitious goal-setting
 Accountability
 Reflection on the reasons behind successes and failures
 Prioritizing
 Focusing on what matters most
 Abandoning old and useless practices

To be effective in your implementation of a strategic management process, you

need to commit to a certain set of core values in your organizational culture:

Transparency: You need to be willing to be open with your employees and

colleagues. If people feel as though you're only giving them half the story when it
comes to the strategy or the results, it's unlikely that they'll fully embrace the new
strategic management process.

Empowerment: You'll also need to be willing to trust people to formulate and

execute on their own parts of the strategy. Micro-managing every level of the
strategic plan is going to be increasingly unworkable as your organization grows.

Collaboration: It sounds obvious, but your strategic management process can

only succeed when coupled with a culture of collaboration and sharing. People
need to be willing (and have the tools) to share information efficiently and clearly.
If culture opposes strategy, culture always wins.

The Cascade strategic management framework

Condensing this guide, our strategic management framework has three big
phases:

 Planning: where you evaluate your company's capabilities with an internal

analysis and study of the external forces of your competitive landscape.
Then you determine your high-level objectives and measures.

 Managing: where you focus on the execution of your plan. You determine

the company’s reporting habits and tools like meeting frequencies,
performance management approaches and aligning culture with strategy.
This is where you communicate your strategy and translate the high-level
priorities into more actionable projects.

 Tracking: along with managing, tracking demands 90% of the effort

involved in the strategic process. Managing and tracking fall under the
execution umbrella. We highlight tracking, because without it you can’t
evaluate your strategy’s performance, review your mistakes or adapt to
changes in time.

Hopefully, you've found our guide to strategic management clarified the various
processes it includes and you found a few ways to improve your own strategic
management process.

Key Factors Affecting Your Strategy

Implementation
Developing an effective strategy for your organization is vital for growth and
sustainability. However, coming up with a strategy that can work is only part of
the battle - making it happen is a whole different challenge.
There are several issues in strategy implementation. In this article, we’ll break
down the issues and barriers that stand between your strategy and its successful
implementation.

Here are the five key factors for successful strategy implementation:

 Commitment to the strategy

 Aligning strategy with organizational structure
 Aligning strategy with organization’s culture
 Creating an environment where strategy succeeds
 Setting realistic targets for delivery across a set time period

For each issue, we provide an example and actionable steps.

The 5 key factors for successful strategy implementation

Commitment to the strategy
As a leader, the sustainability of your organization needs to be your top priority.

The implementation of a long-term strategy isn’t a “box-checking” exercise. It

constantly battles the daily urgent matters. If you’re approaching it as a "check it
off and move on" item, you will fail before you’ve even started.

Strategic planning is a challenge.

It requires a lot of self-reflection.

When you question your organization's performance, you confront an unpleasant

reality. This kind of brutal honesty can help your organization realign its focus. If
you dig deeper into your organization and unearth those ugly truths, you will craft
a strategy that aims to conquer your greatest weaknesses.

Self-awareness is an incredible trait for an organization to have. Knowing your

strengths and weaknesses, puts you in an advantageous position for the future.

To effectively implement a strategy, you have to commit fully to the objectives. If

you don’t approach your strategy with complete conviction, don’t expect anyone
else to believe in it either. You need to be decisive.

But give the process the time it deserves.

A fully-formed long-term strategy won’t be implemented in a matter of a few days.

Commitment to the strategy could take several weeks to beat business-as-usual.

When you first get started, the initial conversations with senior leaders are going
to be messy. That’s simply part of the process. Each person will bring their own
point-of-view on how to implement the strategy most effectively with the available
resources.

Again, that’s part of the process.

Example

The senior leaders in an organization gather for several days to map out and
develop a long-term strategy. The implementation of the strategy is only
discussed as an afterthought. As a result, business-as-usual leaves commitment
to the new strategy to the wayside.

Actionable Steps

Take your time to map out a strategy. This can’t be done in a single day. It needs
time to brew in the minds of everybody involved. Once a strategy has been
decided upon, initiate an implementation discussion.

All senior leaders must be fully committed to the results of that discussion. They
can’t be half-in and half-out when it comes to a long-term version.

Aligning strategy with organizational structure

The structure of your organization affects the implementation of its strategy.

Is your organization ready to effectively execute the strategy you have outlined?
What changes will need to be made for this to happen? How much short-term
disruption will this cause to the existing operation?

In some cases, an organization’s structure isn’t aligned with the strategy. For
instance, you might have chosen strategic objectives that no department can
entirely own, so you have to restructure your teams.
An effective strategy is about bridging the gap between your objectives and
where you are now. If you have ambitious objectives to achieve over the next 18
months, but they can’t be delivered practically, they simply won’t happen.

Implementing a strategy with big moves requires significant change. You may
realize that your organization has been heading down the wrong path.

Certain departments may need to be scaled down, whilst others to be expanded.

Realigning your focus and mapping out your objectives might result in a course
correction.

It is quite normal for organizations to change their structure to implement a new

strategy.

For particularly large organizations, a strategy cannot be implemented overnight.

It can take several months for all of the pieces to fall into place, with people
joining, leaving, and moving around.

The key is to focus on moving past the planning phase and start implementing
the strategy. Outline your objectives and ambitions and align your people with
them, so your organization is able to adapt.

Example

Let’s take the example of a media organization.

The senior leaders in this organization consider a long-term strategy to specific

revenue goals. Upon review, they soon realize that their entire video production
department will effectively need to be disbanded and the expertise redistributed.

The problem is, their video production department is also deeply involved in the
activities of other departments in the organization.
It soon becomes evident that the organization’s structure will need to change for
the new strategy to be implemented successfully. Rather than doing this
overnight, they decide to slowly scale down the video production department and
reduce their cross-organizational activities.

Actionable Steps

Take some time to consider how your organization’s current structure may be an
obstacle further down the line. If a specific department needs to be scaled down,
what impact will this have on the other departments and how will it affect the
company's output as a whole?

Aligning strategy with organization’s culture

People execute strategies.

Who are the people in your organization that everyone looks up to? What role
models is the organization’s culture promoting? What are your culture’s values?

It is essential to have those individuals on board with your vision for the
organization, along with the strategy of how you are going to get there.

When your culture’s star employees get on board with the new strategy, it will be
easier to bring the rest of the people on board, too. These people will offer
valuable insights into what is happening in various parts of the organization,
which will help you implement the strategy across all of your operations.

You need to have people at all workforce levels understand the bigger picture.
Employees that are driven by purpose engage with their work more. This is why it
is important to communicate their role in the organization’s success. How they
contribute to the bigger picture.

Communicate the context as well as the content of your strategic plan.

Team leaders should regularly reinforce the purpose behind every employee’s
day-to-day actions. They need to know what the company is building towards
and why their own personal contribution matters.

Example

In developing an organization’s strategy, certain key people weren’t included.

The management team doesn't seem like it takes feedback from its people
seriously. The required organizational changes don't make sense to the
employees and nobody supports the new strategy. There are negative
discussions during lunchtime and the strategy implementation falls flat.

Actionable Steps

Take some time to get leading voices in the workplace involved in the strategy
process, even if they are not traditionally part of a leadership team. This will not
only facilitate buy-in and engagement from the wider team, but you will gain
valuable insight into what could be missing. People want to get involved with
strategy.
Creating an environment where strategy succeeds

This requires more than aligning the organizational structure with your strategy.

Just because your team is arranged in a way that puts the resources in the right
place, it doesn't automatically mean that the environment is conducive to actually
making your strategy happen. This only addresses the shape of the organization.

There will be key elements of your culture, operating model, etc., that define you
as an organization, which you’d want to keep. But don’t keep the things that no
longer serve you.
Change takes focus, effort, compromise, and probably getting a few things wrong
before you get them right. So, you need to create an environment that fosters the
things you want to keep and provides support for change. It's a tough balancing
act.

The key elements to achieve balance around culture and your implementation
approach are:

 Communication
Internal communication is of high importance and often of low quality. Here
is a rule: You can’t overcommunicate. Keep your staff in the loop, and be
willing to refine and adjust how you implement your strategic plan.

If you create an environment where discussion is invited and the approach

is clear but adaptable, your implementation has a better chance of
becoming a reality. It doesn't mean you have to act on every opinion, but
making communications a two-way street will pay off.

 Clarity
There is no substitute for everyone being on the same page about what is
happening and why. It gives you no excuses as to whether you've really
decided and committed to the plan and gives your team the best chance to
change.

 Accountability
The culture of accountability: if no one feels like they are responsible for
owning and delivering the plan, it simply won't happen.

 Acceptance of change
It's in that balance between valuing change and not constantly changing
everything. It's also about creating an environment where learning from
change is part of the culture.

 Focus
When you want to make a strategic change, you need to incorporate two
things in your implementation approach. First, accept that some things will
have to take a hit in the short term (to create the room for change), and
second, some will take a hit in the long term (because you value some
activities over others, i.e., you’re focused). People will have to drop some
things to take on new responsibilities.
Example

A small manufacturing company has decided to double-down on making its core

product line better and more versatile while discontinuing its other 2 smaller lines.

However, they haven't been clear to their staff why they are doing it (other than
"we think business will be better"). What's more, they haven't factored in the
impact on operational efficiency that will occur as they migrate staff away from
the lines being phased out over to the core line.

People don't know exactly what is expected from the changes and are worried
that the projections indicate they have to be working at their previous efficiency
even though they will be splitting their time across two areas, one of which they
don't know well.

Actionable Steps:

 Go beyond presenting the strategy to your team. Take the time to

explain why the current strategy isn't quite working and what you expect
the future to be. Expose the new strategy to your people. Let them engage
with it and have access on demand. Use a dynamic digital platform,
like Cascade, to organize and expose your strategic plan.

 Get on top of the operational impacts. People will be spending time

training, working on stuff they don’t necessarily know well, and dividing
time across more activities. The truth is that there will be some kind of hit
to productivity in the short term. That's part of your investment in the long
term. So, make it a part of the plan, and the plan will become all the more
realistic for it.

Setting realistic targets for delivery across a set time period

Your targets have to align with your organization’s capabilities.

While strategic objectives can stretch and challenge an organization, they still
need to be grounded in reality. Unrealistic objectives will only demoralize the
employees and stakeholders of your organization.

The objectives and goals need to be manageable. This doesn’t necessarily mean
that a strategy to achieve them has to be implemented overnight. Some
objectives may require months of strategic implementation to set an organization
on the right path.

When you present a long-term strategic plan to employees and key stakeholders,
it may appear to be overwhelming. Prioritize the objectives. If a particular
element of the strategy doesn’t need to be immediately implemented, how much
focus and attention does it actually require at the beginning of the process?

When you determine your strategic objectives, it’s always good to make them
bold to challenge the organization. But you need to also make them achievable.
Don’t choose too many, so you can focus your effort on the things that matter.

Whilst it can be good to set the tone for the organization's future, too many
changes all at once can lead to significant unrest amongst your workforce.

Aim to assure your workforce that the steps that need to be taken to achieve
these goals will be appropriately phased into the organization's operational
processes.

Example

A senior leader has sky-high ambitions for the future of an organization. They
have outlined financial targets that are bold and they promise unprecedented
growth. The strategy to embark on these will put the workforce under immense
pressure, lowering their morale as they try to keep up with the unachievable (and
quite possibly they’ll stop trying to).
Actionable Steps

Invite your people in the strategy conversations and let their feedback and
knowledge of the front line root your plan to reality. Ideally, you want to strike a
balance between pushing your organization forward and keeping things realistic
in the short term at every stage.

Issues in strategy implementation

Several obstacles affect an organization’s ability to adopt a strategy. However,

when appropriately addressed, almost all of these factors can be resolved. In
many ways, implementing a strategy is more important than developing it.

If you fail to set realistic targets, engage the right people, create a strong
environment, align the strategy with your organizational structure, and commit to
it, then you will fail at execution.

To summarize, the biggest issues in strategy implementation are:

 Lack of commitment to the strategy

 The alignment of strategy with organizational structure
 The alignment of strategy with the organization’s culture
 The creation of an environment for your strategy to succeed in
 The setting of realistic targets for delivery across a set time period

Factors to Consider in your Strategic Plan

Strategic planning is a process that you as a business owner may use to evaluate your business and the
environment in which you operate. Ultimately, a strategic plan informs operational decisions that help the
firm reach its goals and potential.If you haven’t recently revisited your business’ strategic plan or haven’t
developed a plan altogether, then consider these nine factors as a guide for updating or devising a plan
that ensures your business is well-positioned for operating profitably and competitively .

1. Articulate a vision and a mission. The vision describes what the business would like to be in
the long-term. It’s an aspirational statement. The mission shares the business’ purpose for
operating.
2. Identify your stakeholders. Stakeholders are groups that your business serves or groups that
influence your business. Stakeholders may include management, shareholders, employees,
customers, suppliers, government entities and the community at large. Your strategic plan
should consider each group that is relevant to your operation; the role that each group will
 have in affecting your business; and the opportunities that your business may have to
engage, influence or serve these groups to ensure that the business succeeds.
3. Scan your internal environment. Understanding your internal environment involves realistically
identifying your business’ strengths and weaknesses. Internal factors that may be strengths
or weaknesses include finances, human resources, machinery and equipment, culture and
operational protocols.
4. Assess your external environment. In the external environment, identify opportunities and
threats. These may be related to political, economic and demographic factors that are outside
of your control but still affect the business.
5. Combine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) assessment into a
single analysis. The SWOT analysis fuels goal-setting and positioning your business for
success. The SWOT analysis should help you to consider leveraging your strengths,
prioritizing weaknesses to realign, targeting the strongest opportunities as possible growth
areas and developing a strategy for monitoring and addressing important threats.
6. Define your competitive advantage . Find the unique position that your business can occupy
relative to its competitors and given its strengths and weaknesses and the surrounding
environment’s opportunities and threats.
7. Make SMART goals. When using your assessment to form business goals, formulate goals that
are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and have a time element. For example,
“Increase soybean protein content by 1 percentage point per year from 32 percent protein in
2015 to 35 percent protein in 2018” would be a stronger goal than “Grow soybeans that
buyers demand.”
8. Account for your personal and business goals . Personal goals represent the individual
objectives of management, staff and others involved in the business. Such goals may include
earning money, contributing to the community, developing professional skills, having time
available to spend with family or advancing a given industry. When setting business goals,
ensure that business goal achievement will enable the people involved in your business to
realize their personal goals.
9. Determine action steps.  These action steps or strategies shouldbring you closer to achieving
the goals that you set, fulfilling your business’ purpose and satisfying your business’ long-term
aspirations.