Decode the Corporate Strategy
Access Granted: Commencing IT value delivery.
- IT is not included in corporate strategy discussions and required strategic information is challenging to obtain.
- Corporate objectives are too vague.
- Business units keep changing their minds about corporate imperatives.
- Business units demand more than IT can deliver.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
The corporate strategy is the treasure map to corporate prosperity. The CIO needs his own copy so he doesn’t get lost.
- You’ll need data from many sources to fill in the missing pieces of the map.
- Finding all the treasure is impossible; prioritize IT support.
- Identify the capabilities required to reach prosperity; a boat and crew will be required.
Impact and Result
- Collect all relevant corporate strategy data to get a holistic view of your organization’s structural, customer-related, and operational direction.
- Analyze corporate strategy data to identify all relevant corporate objectives and initiatives.
- Limited IT resources necessitates prioritizing corporate objectives and initiatives; allocate IT resources to key imperatives.
- Identify the business capabilities required to execute the corporate strategy. Supporting these business capabilities will drive IT strategy formation.
- Prioritize the use and modification of business capabilities required to achieve corporate strategy.
Workshop: Decode the Corporate Strategy
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Make the Case
The Purpose
- Identify benefits of decoding the corporate strategy.
- Identify pain points experienced when corporate strategy isn’t understood.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Clearly defined pain points of understanding corporate strategy.
- Understands IT’s role in decoding corporate strategy.
Activities
Outputs
Identify current process used to understand corporate strategy.
Identify challenges encountered decoding the corporate strategy.
- A list of challenges the IT department is encountering trying to understand corporate strategy.
Identify things that work well currently.
- A list of benefits that could be achieved from better understanding of corporate strategy.
Module 2: Quick Tips and Tricks
The Purpose
- Identify the do's and don’ts of understanding corporate strategy.
- Find quick wins that can improve IT’s understanding and promote a positive perception of IT.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Identified quick strategies for improving understanding of corporate strategy.
- Identified best practices for interviewing stakeholders.
Activities
Outputs
Assess current IT effectiveness at understanding corporate strategy.
- A list of things IT currently does well.
- A list of things IT currently does poorly.
Identify three quick-wins that IT can implement quickly to improve.
- Three ideas for improving understanding of corporate strategy.
Module 3: Process Overview
The Purpose
- Set project goals.
- Overview of the decoding the corporate strategy process.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Understand the corporate strategy decoding process.
- Set clear goals for the corporate strategy decoding initiative.
Activities
Outputs
Determine the importance of comprehensiveness and improve stakeholkder relations.
- Clearly defined goals for decoding the corporate strategy.
Walk through the high-level corporate strategy decoding process.
Module 4: Collect and Analyze Data
The Purpose
- Mine corporate strategy documents.
- Mine business unit strategy documents.
- Conduct stakeholder interviews.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Identify required corporate strategy documents.
- Prepare for stakeholder interviews.
Activities
Outputs
Brainstorm relevant corporate strategy documents.
- Harvested corporate strategy documents.
- Harvested business unit strategy documents.
Mock interview to prepare for stakeholder interviews.
- Completed and documented stakeholder interviews.
Module 5: Identify Corporate Objectives
The Purpose
- Identify corporate objectives.
- Identify corporate initiatives.
- Map corporate initiatives to corporate objectives.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Identified corporate objectives.
- Identified corporate initiatives.
- Mapped corporate initiatives to corporate objectives.
Activities
Outputs
Read corporate strategy data and identify relevant objectives and intiiatives.
- A documented list of corporate objectives.
Map corporate objectives to corporate initiatives.
- A documented list of corporate initiatives.
Module 6: Prioritize Corporate Objectives
The Purpose
- Prioritize corporate objectives.
- Prioritize corporate initiatives.
- Validate corporate objectives.
- Validate corporate initiatives.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Prioritized corporate objectives.
- Prioritized corporate initiatives.
- Validated corporate objectives.
- Validated corporate initiatives
Activities
Outputs
As a group, determine the priority of corporate objectives.
- A prioritized and validated list of corporate objectives.
As a group, determine the priority of corporate initiatives.
- A prioritized and validated list of corporate initiatives.
Module 7: Identify Corporate Capability Effects
The Purpose
- Map current corporate capabilities.
- Identify how organizational initiatives affect corporate capabilities.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Mapped current corporate capabilities.
- Identified how organizational initiatives affect corporate capabilities.
Activities
Outputs
As a group, map and document current corporate capabilities.
- A documented list of corporate capability effects.
Determine how corporate initiatives and objectives will use or modify corporate capabilities.
Module 8: Prioritize Corporate Capability Effects
The Purpose
- Prioritize capability effects.
- Validate capability effects.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Prioritized capability effects.
- Validated capability effects.
Activities
Outputs
As a group, determine the priority of corporate capability effects.
- A prioritized and validated list of corporate capability effects.
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 1-phase advisory process. You'll receive 4 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
- Call 1: Get off to a productive start
Discuss who to include on your project team and what the project team will be doing. Discuss the corporate strategy decoding process at a high level.
- Call 2: Get the information you need
Discuss what information available in your organization can help you understand the corporate strategy. Discuss best practices for interviewing stakeholders.
- Call 3: Identify and prioritize organizational imperatives
Identify and discuss key corporate objectives and initiatives. Evaluate objective and initiative importance to organizational success and the perceived importance to key stakeholders.
- Call 4: Identify the capabilities required to execute corporate strategy
Discuss how corporate objectives and initiatives affect business capabilities. Evaluate capability change importance to organizational success and the perceived importance to key stakeholders.
Contributors
- Stephen Davies, Managing Director, Transformation by Design Business Consultants Inc.
- Paul Hingorani, Managing Director, Transformation by Design Business Consultants Inc.
- Stephen Hogg, Senior Manager, KPMG Canada
- Sandy McBride, Enterprise Architecture and Transformation Leader, KPMG LLP
- Ian Shelley, Partner, Blackline Consulting
- Dave Wallace, Chief Information Officer, University of Waterloo