Strategy Execution for Enduring Performance

Enterprises can achieve enduring high performance by creating an environment in which the development of strategic goals is reinforced by processes that educate, organize and align the enterprise?s activities with those goals.

Are most organizations operated on this model? Is yours? Unfortunately, many enterprises have only limited success in producing such an environment. Even fewer companies effectively manage business and technology together to achieve strategic goals or successfully employ predefined metrics to ensure consistency in the execution and accomplishment of those goals.

It?s a simple idea: a clear organizational vision, a clearly defined and effectively communicated road map to the future, and the measurement of outcomes against predefined criteria. Getting there, however, requires executing in three distinct but related areas:

1. Integrate Business and Technology Strategy.

? Establish effective processes to provide feedback into the creation and formal expression of an enterprise?s business strategy.

? Clearly articulate the expected role that technology will play in achieving each business objective.

? Define the criteria that will be used to judge the success of each initiative undertaken to achieve a strategic goal.

2. Communicate and Invest in Strategic Imperatives.

? Establish the linkage between making business technology management investments and achieving superior business results, and provide criteria for business technology impact and value creation.

? Initiate processes that provide practical ways to decide when to invest, how to channel investments toward appropriate problem solving and how to ensure that this leads to value.

? Communicate the expected outcomes to employees and key stakeholders. Be clear about the initiatives to be undertaken and their expected business results, so that each person feels ownership of the initiatives and is committed to their success.

3. Measure Effectiveness in Achieving Strategic Outcomes.

? Monitor the outcomes of each decision using business-focused metrics that measure success in terms suitable for the board and ?C? level executives, rather than expressing outcomes in ways that seek only to evaluate technological efficiency.

? Use statistical methods to provide the tools to capture, isolate and measure impacts.

Fredric Fishman is the managing director of BTM Global 2000. BTM Corporation innovates new business models and enhances financial performance by converging business and technology with its products and intellectual property.
? 2009 BTM Corporation | [email protected]