This document discusses the gap that often exists between business strategy and implementation. It explains that strategy and operations require different thinking styles, which can cause them to become systemically disconnected. While closing the gap is difficult due to these differences, the document provides some practical steps organizations can take, including: recognizing the interdependence of strategy and operations; using tools like planning, design principles and reality mapping; and conducting a "top-slice" analysis to develop a tangible understanding of implementation requirements before fully committing to a strategy. The key is finding ways to keep strategic thinking and operational execution reinforcing rather than pulling against each other.
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Many of the companies we work with are burdened by the errors and complexity of managing separate finance models for each of their business processes, even though the models are based on the same sets of data. We help them align their models to create flexible, forward-looking tools that serve the business effectively throughout the year. For more information and to schedule a demo please visit http://quebit.com/ .
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Originally published in 2003, this white paper on portfolio management has stood the test of time and is still relevant in all 7 best practice areas. Although the 7 best practices remain the same, the field of portfolio management has evolved substantially. To follow are some key questions that have been answered in the last few years:
Where should I start: Process or Tools?
For IT portfolios, what is more important: APM or PPM?
Which is the right level to start: Project or Portfolio?
Has portfolio management become more widely accepted as a practice in the last three years?
Are there financial benefits to implementing portfolio management?
Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management: Managing the RevolutionUMT
Most large organizations routinely need to balance the need for centralized control and local autonomy. Different lines of business may have unique objectives, and it’s often difficult to envision implementing standardized processes. Dispersed companies tend to slowly gravitate away from homogenous practices and this leads to fragmented policies and the use of disparate systems. In more extreme circumstances, merger and acquisition activity may attempt to quickly assimilate entirely distinct organizations. However, implementing the Comprehensive EPM methodologies and frameworks in a systematic manner will yield predictable results that include savings, improved transparency and better alignment with company strategies.
Closing the Gap Between Project Management and Governance
In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, budgets are tight and resources are limited. Consequently, making decisions about which projects to pursue is vital in supporting an organization’s growth, vision, and value. For this dilemma, there is a powerful cost containment and risk mitigation strategy—a combination of IT governance and portfolio management. This approach is highly relevant for budget issues state agencies and departments currently face. With the proliferation of technology at greater and greater speed, the options that could bring potential benefit are seemingly endless. Gone are the days when a great technological idea was an end in itself. Technology has truly become an enabler across all sizes and types of organizations. The challenge now is to understand which business goals can be enabled by a technology and choose the best projects to accomplish those goals. The best way to ensure and demonstrate value to the organization is to know how these projects are supporting the organization financially and operationally. Implementing sound project management practices along with a governance framework can enable this kind of visibility and control.
Planning and Forecasting - Aligning Finance Models to Streamline Business Pro...QueBIT Consulting
Many of the companies we work with are burdened by the errors and complexity of managing separate finance models for each of their business processes, even though the models are based on the same sets of data. We help them align their models to create flexible, forward-looking tools that serve the business effectively throughout the year. For more information and to schedule a demo please visit http://quebit.com/ .
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Portfolio Management ImplementationsUMT
Originally published in 2003, this white paper on portfolio management has stood the test of time and is still relevant in all 7 best practice areas. Although the 7 best practices remain the same, the field of portfolio management has evolved substantially. To follow are some key questions that have been answered in the last few years:
Where should I start: Process or Tools?
For IT portfolios, what is more important: APM or PPM?
Which is the right level to start: Project or Portfolio?
Has portfolio management become more widely accepted as a practice in the last three years?
Are there financial benefits to implementing portfolio management?
Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management: Managing the RevolutionUMT
Most large organizations routinely need to balance the need for centralized control and local autonomy. Different lines of business may have unique objectives, and it’s often difficult to envision implementing standardized processes. Dispersed companies tend to slowly gravitate away from homogenous practices and this leads to fragmented policies and the use of disparate systems. In more extreme circumstances, merger and acquisition activity may attempt to quickly assimilate entirely distinct organizations. However, implementing the Comprehensive EPM methodologies and frameworks in a systematic manner will yield predictable results that include savings, improved transparency and better alignment with company strategies.
Closing the Gap Between Project Management and Governance
In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, budgets are tight and resources are limited. Consequently, making decisions about which projects to pursue is vital in supporting an organization’s growth, vision, and value. For this dilemma, there is a powerful cost containment and risk mitigation strategy—a combination of IT governance and portfolio management. This approach is highly relevant for budget issues state agencies and departments currently face. With the proliferation of technology at greater and greater speed, the options that could bring potential benefit are seemingly endless. Gone are the days when a great technological idea was an end in itself. Technology has truly become an enabler across all sizes and types of organizations. The challenge now is to understand which business goals can be enabled by a technology and choose the best projects to accomplish those goals. The best way to ensure and demonstrate value to the organization is to know how these projects are supporting the organization financially and operationally. Implementing sound project management practices along with a governance framework can enable this kind of visibility and control.
Strategy has little value until it is implemented. In a world where disruption can happen overnight, moving rapidly from strategy design to delivery is critical. Yet too many companies go only halfway, putting their best resources into design and in effect ending up treating delivery as an afterthought. As a result, strategies fail, customers leave, key talent is lost and financial performance suffers.
The M&A practice has a puzzle. The share of operations that are not able to deliver the value increase envisioned for the acquirer is more than half. And as time goes by the success rate is not improving. It is stagnant if not worsening. This thesis analyzes the state of the art of M&A practice and the fit of Design Thinking to make a turnaround in M&A.
Gamebook for digital era – 4 cornerstones of successLoihde Advisory
Future is not anymore a simple extrapolation of the present situation and may bring many surprises due to disruptive technologies and innovations. Instead of Strategic Planning,
you need Strategic Thinking. From this Gamebook, you will learn the four cornerstones of success for digital era.
Tricks of the Transformation Trade: Disruptive Disintermediation, Agility Age...UMT
A vast majority of U.S multinational firms – 93% in fact, according to a recent survey – are at some stage
of undergoing or preparing for business transformation initiatives. This is being driven by an unprecedented
confluence of changes in customer behavior, disruptive technology and domestic competition, among other
key triggers. It’s constantly “transform or wither” in today’s volatile global business, and
agility is the executive imperative of the day, albeit an elusive one. An organization’s long term success or failure
depends on its capacity to consistently identify opportunities and risks and renew itself faster than rivals do.
Business leaders need to be more efficient and effective at updating and implementing strategies than ever
before. If wielded correctly, an important weapon in their agility war chest is a new style of enterprise program
management office (PMO) that is more comprehensive than in the past.
A simple deck outlining the Lean Value Tree: A Product Strategy Map. shows alignment to a company mission, separating the Strategic Map from the Tactical Idea alignment and validation.
Five Immutable Principles of Project of Digital Transformation SuccessGlen Alleman
Successful Digital Transformation projects are fraught with technical, cost, and schedule risks.
These Five Principles of Project Success have been shown to increase the Probability of Project Success (PoPS).
Portfolio Agility– From Elusive Imperative to Practical Reality: Seven Dimens...UMT
More efficient and effective setting and implementing of strategy can be potentially achieved by leveraging a new style of PMO that is more comprehensive than in the past.
Agility is the elusive executive imperative of the day; long term success or failure depends on an organization’s skill at identifying and capturing opportunities faster than rivals do in this volatile and global business environment.
Bridging the gap between strategy and execution and facilitating better decisions and their deployment requires a non-ad-hoc, comprehensive roadmap to laying an enterprise-wide web of information sharing and structural change that is adopted at all levels of the company.
“a strategic inflection point is a time in the life of business when its fundamentals are about to change. That change can mean an opportunity to rise to new heights. But it may just as likely signal the beginning of the end”
Stay Paranoid: Top Survival Insights from Intel’s Andrew Grove, Part 1Malcolm Netburn
Intel’s former CEO Andrew Grove sits among business’s most eminent leaders. Grove’s highly celebrated business book, Only the Paranoid Survive, offers an intimate account of Intel’s darkest hour. It was the mid-‘90s when Intel was forced to innovate or perish. The once rapidly successful semiconductor startup faced unexpected, overwhelming competition, a severely disrupted market and a team of bewildered, disheartened employees in desperate need of clear direction.
Grove sat at the fore of Intel during its passage through the “valley of death” and, remarkably, managed to transform Intel into the famed microprocessor manufacturer it is known as today. In this two-part guide, key quotes from Only the Paranoid Survive are arranged to deliver Grove’s most crucial lessons for dealing with disruption, innovation and change management.
Part 1 offers essential insights for discerning between common changes and truly monumental change – change that, if left undetected, is positioned to forcibly upset your entire business.
1. Strategic Inflection Points
2. Helpful Cassandras
3. Six Forces Affecting Business
4. The 10X Change
Strategy has little value until it is implemented. In a world where disruption can happen overnight, moving rapidly from strategy design to delivery is critical. Yet too many companies go only halfway, putting their best resources into design and in effect ending up treating delivery as an afterthought. As a result, strategies fail, customers leave, key talent is lost and financial performance suffers.
The M&A practice has a puzzle. The share of operations that are not able to deliver the value increase envisioned for the acquirer is more than half. And as time goes by the success rate is not improving. It is stagnant if not worsening. This thesis analyzes the state of the art of M&A practice and the fit of Design Thinking to make a turnaround in M&A.
Gamebook for digital era – 4 cornerstones of successLoihde Advisory
Future is not anymore a simple extrapolation of the present situation and may bring many surprises due to disruptive technologies and innovations. Instead of Strategic Planning,
you need Strategic Thinking. From this Gamebook, you will learn the four cornerstones of success for digital era.
Tricks of the Transformation Trade: Disruptive Disintermediation, Agility Age...UMT
A vast majority of U.S multinational firms – 93% in fact, according to a recent survey – are at some stage
of undergoing or preparing for business transformation initiatives. This is being driven by an unprecedented
confluence of changes in customer behavior, disruptive technology and domestic competition, among other
key triggers. It’s constantly “transform or wither” in today’s volatile global business, and
agility is the executive imperative of the day, albeit an elusive one. An organization’s long term success or failure
depends on its capacity to consistently identify opportunities and risks and renew itself faster than rivals do.
Business leaders need to be more efficient and effective at updating and implementing strategies than ever
before. If wielded correctly, an important weapon in their agility war chest is a new style of enterprise program
management office (PMO) that is more comprehensive than in the past.
A simple deck outlining the Lean Value Tree: A Product Strategy Map. shows alignment to a company mission, separating the Strategic Map from the Tactical Idea alignment and validation.
Five Immutable Principles of Project of Digital Transformation SuccessGlen Alleman
Successful Digital Transformation projects are fraught with technical, cost, and schedule risks.
These Five Principles of Project Success have been shown to increase the Probability of Project Success (PoPS).
Portfolio Agility– From Elusive Imperative to Practical Reality: Seven Dimens...UMT
More efficient and effective setting and implementing of strategy can be potentially achieved by leveraging a new style of PMO that is more comprehensive than in the past.
Agility is the elusive executive imperative of the day; long term success or failure depends on an organization’s skill at identifying and capturing opportunities faster than rivals do in this volatile and global business environment.
Bridging the gap between strategy and execution and facilitating better decisions and their deployment requires a non-ad-hoc, comprehensive roadmap to laying an enterprise-wide web of information sharing and structural change that is adopted at all levels of the company.
“a strategic inflection point is a time in the life of business when its fundamentals are about to change. That change can mean an opportunity to rise to new heights. But it may just as likely signal the beginning of the end”
Stay Paranoid: Top Survival Insights from Intel’s Andrew Grove, Part 1Malcolm Netburn
Intel’s former CEO Andrew Grove sits among business’s most eminent leaders. Grove’s highly celebrated business book, Only the Paranoid Survive, offers an intimate account of Intel’s darkest hour. It was the mid-‘90s when Intel was forced to innovate or perish. The once rapidly successful semiconductor startup faced unexpected, overwhelming competition, a severely disrupted market and a team of bewildered, disheartened employees in desperate need of clear direction.
Grove sat at the fore of Intel during its passage through the “valley of death” and, remarkably, managed to transform Intel into the famed microprocessor manufacturer it is known as today. In this two-part guide, key quotes from Only the Paranoid Survive are arranged to deliver Grove’s most crucial lessons for dealing with disruption, innovation and change management.
Part 1 offers essential insights for discerning between common changes and truly monumental change – change that, if left undetected, is positioned to forcibly upset your entire business.
1. Strategic Inflection Points
2. Helpful Cassandras
3. Six Forces Affecting Business
4. The 10X Change
Benefit of team sports and children white papersethtemko
A brief overview of recent global studies on the benefits of team sports and children. These include physical, emotional and social benefits. A description of how Hi-Five At Work uses these benefits when designing their summer camp programs. These programs are provided as an employee work-life balance benefit - children of employees go to a sports summer camp provided to them at their work by their employers.
The Four M’s of Effective Affiliate Marketing ManagementCasey Knox
Sylvia Cintrón, Digital Media Director at AREA203 Digital, shares her experiences and accomplishments in the implementation of the core 4 M’s of effective affiliate marketing management values.
Experience level:
Beginner, Intermediate
Target audience: Merchant/Advertiser
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Sylvia Cintrón, Digital Media Director, AREA203 Digital
The object of the game is to cross the finish line and close the transaction. But there are lots of players on the team, and it takes a good coach to get them all pushing in the same direction.
Many start-ups have great ideas but struggle when it comes time to bring the product to market and have difficulty in selecting a market to focus on. Defining your optimal target market and identifying the ideal prospect will help you streamline the effectiveness of your marketing, shorten the sales cycle and close more business.
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• Practical ideas to segment and prioritize market opportunities
• Developing detailed customer profiles that will improve sales
• Learn the stages of the customer buying process
• How incorporate target marketing into your overall strategy
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When you think of hiring for your team, does the paperwork overwhelm you? Are you concerned about the number of interviews you seem to need to make a great decision? Do you ever have trouble making a decision, to know if this candidate is right for you --the team, the project, and the organization?? You know the cost of hiring people is high, and the cost of not getting the right person is even higher.
You can apply agile approaches to your hiring, iterating on everything. You can get feedback as you go, and involving the entire team, including the sourcing. You can teach your recruiters to use a kanban board to track candidates and where they are. You can iterate on the job description (and job ad) based on what you see in candidates. When you involve the entire team, you can create questions and auditions that work for you. You can identify candidates who fit your culture and those who don't.
Note: I ran this session is a timeboxed interactive workshop. You can use the activities here to hire better.
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Way Forward: An effective strategic planning capability can do more than address the common and predictable issues that cause a new ventures demise. This paper defines an agile approach to strategy that balances the rigor and speed entrepreneurs need.
Great insight on what constitutes and effective business plan. Learn how to develop a strategic business plan that is guaranteed to get the attention of potential investors, business partners and other stakeholders.
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https://www.productmanagementtoday.com/frs/26903918/understanding-user-needs-and-satisfying-them
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Visit : https://www.avirahi.com/blog/tata-group-dials-taiwan-for-its-chipmaking-ambition-in-gujarats-dholera/
2. Every organisation needs to be able to convert its business strategies into operational reality, but most experience severe difficulties in doing so. There is a lot of business literature about strategy and a lot about operational management, but virtually none about how they can be connected up. This presentation explains the systemic reasons for the black hole that usually opens up between strategy and operations - and describes some of the practical steps that can be taken to deal with it. OUTLINE 2
3. The relationship between strategy and implementation Why a systemic gap exists in business What you can do about it Agenda 3
4. What is Strategy? Purpose, vision, goals Strategy Tactics, actions, results 4
5. One that isn’t implemented successfully Three distinct reasons: It was a poor strategic idea It was a good idea but implemented poorly The idea was good in theory but didn’t take account of implementation issues properly WHAT IS A BAD STRATEGY? The third is the least obvious, but the one that cause the greatest cost and frustration 5
6. Scottish Parliament building (vs St Pauls) Investment in NHS (vs Tesco) Millennium Dome (vs London Eye & O2 Arena) Invasion of Iraq (vs Battle of Britain) IMPLEMENTATION, IMPLEMENTATION, IMPLEMENTATION 6
7. “To think is easy. To act is hard. And the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) 7
8. WHAT IS A GOOD STRATEGY? Bad: One that isn’t implemented successfully Three distinct reasons: It was a poor strategic idea It was a good idea but implemented poorly The idea was good in theory but didn’t take account of implementation issues properly Good: One that is implemented successfully Three distinct reasons: It was a good strategic idea There was good implementation The strategy and implementation were each shaped to take account of the other 8
9. The relationship between strategy and implementation Why a systemic gap exists in business What you can do about it AGENDA 9
10. The Dilemma Two completely different disciplines are needed for a business to succeed: strategic, and operational Every strategy needs to be implemented into operational reality Operational excellence is useless unless it is linked to a sound business strategy Organisations usually experience difficulty turning their Thinking (the strategy) into Action (operations) Note: the graphics and labels used in this and subsequent slides are Registered Service Marks of Telos Solutions ltd 10
11. DIFFERENT BUSINESS LANGUAGES Strategy Positive, directional, “big-chunk” Conceptual Focus on what other people in the market will do/buy Created and managed by people Operations Failure-avoidance, stability, details Tangible Focus on what we do Created and managed by people 11
12. The Strategic Orbit Strategic disciplines: intuitions uncertainty accepting risk ‘divergent thinking’ medium/long timescales Involves: complex relationships external engagement working towards outcomes many/varied stakeholders ‘Outside-In’ 12
13. The Operations Orbit Operations disciplines: control certainty efficiency risk avoidance ‘convergent thinking’ short/medium timescales Involves: hierarchical relationships internal processes managing tangible details relatively few stakeholders ‘Inside-Out’ 13
14. Well-developed - but separate We seek structured methodologies for each: Hundreds of strategy approaches, textbooks etc Hundreds of operations textbooks, processes etc Almost nothing on keeping them aligned 14
15. Thinking styles reinforce the separation Our brains perceive data in different ways We can adjust, but we have “preferred” settings eg big chunk vs detail towards vs away-from external vs internal options vs processes We tend to gravitate towards either strategic or operations thinking 15
16. A systemic Gap Each Orbit is internally coherent impossible to think strategically and think operationally in the same moment people tend to gravitate towards one or the other so people speak completely different languages Polarisation is the ‘natural’ state in business Strategy and operations are systemically disconnected The Gap is the most common source 16
17. What we want to achieve Both thinking orbits moving in their own direction But reinforcing - rather than pulling against - each other The Results Orbit ® 17
18. The relationship between strategy and implementation Why a systemic gap exists in business What you can do about it AGENDA 18
19. Parameters for closing the Gap The Gap is inherently messy Moving in two different directions at once There is no easy/universal panacea Most purported solutions tend to ‘ping’ to either the strategy or the operations side Experience, understanding and flexibility are key The business payback from paying attention to the Gap is huge 19
20. What you can do about it Operate from wherever you are – but respect the other positions Strategy people who respect operations don’t dismiss operations as ‘trivial’ Operations people who respect the strategy don’t dismiss strategists as ‘pie in the sky’ Experienced and pragmatic realists respect both positions and roll up their sleeves to get them working together 20
21. What you can do about it Recognise the interdependency Neither is ‘absolute truth’ The best result is created when strategy and operations flow together Team up with experienced people Create a team with different perspectives progress comes from understanding differences, not eliminating them Use tools, but don’t expect the tools to solve the problem 21
22. Some useful tools Planning Essentially an operations discipline Assumes a fixed goal Constant re-planning is essential Re-scoping/ de-scoping The world changes while you implement Reflect this in delivery plans Modify the strategy so that it has a chance to live Design Principles Language in the middle between strategy and operations Expose implicit assumptions Enables solid agreement on interim milestones Reality-mapping Describe the successful strategy in real, tangible terms Program management Dedicated resource working inside the gap 22
31. You need to close the gap Switch from strategic focus on value to practical focus on cost and delivery 3 dimensions: Credible: do people have a clear understanding? Realisable: how will the strategic concept be turned into reality? Viable: how much time will it take, and cost to implement? Committing to a strategy without this understanding is reckless Realisable StrategicConcept Viable Credible 24
32. Top-slice: a key tool A ‘first-look’ at operational impact switch from strategic mindset to operational mindset essential to calculate costs and risks A high-level delivery plan Get a feel for the shape of the work Size, sequence, dependencies Analogous to building a working model or prototype Operational implications are fed back into refining the strategy 25 Realisable StrategicConcept Viable Credible
33. Top-slice closes the gap Realisable People see, hear and feel in a more tangible form what the strategy is really about Expectations are set accurately – the Board cannot say “you never told us it meant this” People get the “what-does-it-mean-for-me?” information they always ask for Generates real and robust milestones for implementation Flaws/problems spotted before implementation and eliminated or minimised Because the strategy is more tangible, its components can be managed properly Costs can only be determined using an operational mindset Delivery timescales can be estimated Impact on ‘business-as-usual’ can be assessed properly Credible Viable 26
34. Results Orbit: other implications Negotiation All organisations work like this So you are working at two levels, not just one Communication It’s simply not enough to communicate the strategic vision! Creative tension Every delivery breathes life into the strategy ... ... but also defines what the strategy “isn’t” any more! 27
35. Summary Without implementation, strategy is worthless Without good strategy, operations are worthless too Strategy and Operations disciplines are different This creates a systemic gap Keeping them aligned is messy Despite this, you can do something about it Understand what is going on Team up with different thinkers and experienced people Use tools that fit the situation – but don’t force a mechanical approach 28