Thinking About Strategy
Strategy means different things to different people, industries, organizations, etc… We can ask ten “strategy experts” and get different definitions, and I have my own take on it. Strategy is a way of moving forward, so there can be strategies for people, teams, organizations, products and services; basically anything we want to take from an existing position and move it to another level.
How Others Define Strategy
There is no one right answer, only opinions.
The question becomes, what do you and your organization need to achieve?
Thought Leaders on Strategy
“…Value for Shareholders…”: Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2004). Strategy Maps. Harvard Business School Press.
“…Competitive Advantage…”: Pearce II, J. A., & de Kluyver, C. A. (2015). Strategic Management. Business Expert Press.
“…Superior Performance Relative to Competitors…”: Rothaermel, F. T. (2017). Strategic Management. McGraw Hill.
“…How a Business is Going to Compete…”: Porter, M. (1980). Competitive Strategy. The Free Press.
“…Plan for Achieving Goals and Objectives…”: Nickols, F. (2008). Strategy, Strategic Management, Strategic Planning, and Strategic Thinking.
Gerald's Opinion and Approach
“…Building Capabilities & Competencies for Differentiation…”: Gerald Jeffs (2019), Strategy & Project Management Professional.
What Strategy is and What it isn't
Planning a strategy is key to successfully changing a business, but strategy should be visible in the actions being taken, and the plans being implemented. Discussing growth in new markets, delivering best-in-class services, bringing new products to your customers are all nice discussions, but until you do something, they’re just talking points. Any outsider can observe an organization and quickly understand their strategy, it shows itself where the money is spent, the type of projects in portfolios, and lower organizational levels see what’s being done differently than before.
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Managing a strategic project portfolio keeps the focus on the right work, communicates internally where the organization is going, and allows for strategic flexibility as the market being served changes. So, worry less about talking about who you’re going to be, and start talking about what you’re doing.
Managing Strategy
Consider strategy having two distinctive parts, first defining what is to be achieved and second the implementation. Managing strategy is like managing a project or program, there is a continued focus on activities, communications, organization alignment, and most importantly is the strategy returning the benefits expected. As the strategy progresses things change, adjustments must be made, prioritizations of other work may be moved forward or back, and sometimes the whole thing put on hold or canceled. A strategic project portfolio contains multiple initiatives that may have different owners, so the portfolio owner needs to balance demands of all efforts and make the final decisions based on the best interest of the top-level strategy.
Factors Impacting Strategic Success
For a strategy to be successful not all the stars need to be aligned, but there are factors that can limit the planned outcome, so we need to manage them all. Factors that can improve the possibility of success are things like transparency, stakeholder engagement, clear and consistent communications, organizational involvement, and others. Limiting factors may be disengagement from key players, the organization not aligned with the strategy, lacking resources with the skills and capabilities or bandwidth, and other initiatives with different priorities taking focus. As strategy managers we can never let up on our focus, control over elements impacting our initiatives, and continue to manage vertically and horizontally.
Strategic Project Portfolio Management
Strategic portfolios can be at many levels in an organization, and represent different functional areas such as operations, finance, technology, human resources, and the list just continues. It’s not uncommon for functional areas like Technology to have multiple portfolios that may be defined as security, infrastructure, applications, etc.... As the levels go up controlling alignment with top-level strategy becomes more difficult, but vital in keeping an organization aligned in its overall strategic objectives. There may be a Strategic Planning Office, or some other governance group to help track and report a consolidated view of projects and programs being implemented throughout the organization. Depending on the complexity of these portfolios there may be technological solutions used to help roll up, track, and report.
Organizational Alignment
Every level of an organization, product, or service can have a mission statement describing their value proposition, a vision of how that value is delivered, and a strategy for raising the bar. The other element to recognize is different cultures present at all levels, including the individual. As the organization aligns upward it’s each leader’s responsibility to keep their areas in sync with the next level up, but also if there’s a level below it’s aligned with them. Cultural alignment is difficult to maintain as organizations implement change. If people don’t understand the change, if they don’t see the value, or if it causes turbulence within their personal culture, they will find a way to separate themselves.
