Strategy Driven

NOVEMBER 13, 2019

The only thing you’ll be limited by is your vision and your budget. Having an IT strategy in place means that while your business continues to grow and succeed, your IT systems can support that growth and contribute to it. Integrated Systems. Your consultant takes the time to look at your business needs as a whole.

Consultative 10

Consultative Technology Budgeting Reputation 10

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

But how does a strategic plan of this sort differ from a budget? The vast majority of strategic plans that I have seen over 30 years of working in the strategy realm are simply budgets with lots of explanatory words attached. Obviously you can't execute a strategy without initiatives, investments, and budgeting.

Planning 13

Planning Strategy Strategic Planning Budgeting 13

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 3, 2011

As overall business strategy planning ties closer to IT strategy, four personas of the next-generation CIO will emerge: 1. Chief "Infrastructure" Officers focus on cost reduction, and account for 65% to 70% of the overall IT budget. Chief "Integration" Officers connect internal and external ecosystems.

CIO 15

CIO Chief Information Officer Budgeting Technology 15

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 27, 2014

Today’s corporations are directing more and more of their budgets toward a complex web of global specialist providers and suppliers to help deliver on their businesses’ core strategies. Or does it focus on customer service and helping the business achieve its strategy? Organizational isolation.

Budgeting 8

Budgeting Objective Cost Globalization 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 22, 2017

For every company wrestling with evolutions in its strategy, success depends as much on matching the operating model to those evolutions as it does on the soundness of the strategy itself. Why is one insurance company deep into an agile transformation while another is experimenting with it only at the edges of its business?

Strategy 8

Strategy Company Banking Apparel 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 25, 2013

"What if," I asked, "the day after a meeting, the team discovered its strategy needed a wholesale revision?" Investment capital isn't tied to an annual budget cycle; it is tied to estimates of what it will take to address key assumptions. A scarcity mentality. Nothing focuses the mind like a dwindling bank account.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Innovation Banking Budgeting 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 13, 2015

Many budgets and strategic plans include financial performance goals of some sort. But a company’s goals should be in line with the aggressiveness of its strategy, its appetite for risk, and its ability to manage that risk.

Goal 8

Goal Strategic Planning Strategy Objective 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 18, 2012

Known for walking out of long meetings to make sales calls, he shortened IBM's two-month annual budget process to six days. In contrast, IBM kept laser-like focus on building the global organization to execute its strategy, and financial results followed. He's personable, but blunt. Microsoft's enterprise services stagnated.

Globalization 15

Globalization Golden Parachute Short-term Long-term 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 26, 2013

Only the largest of enterprises could afford the best technologies, and even for those with the largest bank accounts, IT strategies were limited to basics like CRM , ERP , or email. And given the complexities involved in building up competitive IT weaponry, businesses won by out-spending and out-resourcing their opponents.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Competitive Advantage Information Technology How To 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 1, 2011

My last post talked about how a little-known company , Grace Manufacturing, took a flexible and opportunistic approach to its strategy when its core business faltered. Everything was done seat of the pants and with minimal budget. We all know how this story turns out — today Honda is a dominant player in the U.S.

Strategy 15

Strategy Automotive Short-term Marketing 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 5, 2016

The continent’s long-term potential remains attractive, but a company’s success in the current environment will depend on its strategy. The medical devices firm may decide to focus on South Africa, despite the low-growth environment, because the budget spent on health care is still considerably large there.

GDP 8

GDP Politics Marketing Bottom-up 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 9, 2011

Overall, we found that more than half of our survey respondents have adopted OSS solutions as part of their IT strategy. in their deployed software portfolios, which is a 3 percentage point increase from the current budget year. To find out, we surveyed 547 IT leaders in 11 countries.

Software 15

Software Tips Survey Licensing 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 23, 2016

The company better aligned the workforce mix to its strategy, by optimizing different talent acquisition channels, manager spans of control (number of workers reporting to them), and worker mobility. Educate leaders on how and why to optimize a blended workforce.

Strategy 8

Strategy Span of Control Finance How To 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 13, 2017

reset the budgets. Reset the Budgets. We recommend zero-based budgeting and planning to make the choices clearer. A zero-based budgeting and planning process using stretch targets challenges conventional thinking and brings forth bolder ideas. redesign the operating model. Refocus on Strategic Priorities.

Zero Based Budgeting 14

Zero Based Budgeting Organization Budgeting How To 14

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 17, 2017

Ensuring that the company is investing behind the change means that leaders recognize that the budget process is one of the most important tools in closing the strategy-to-execution gap. But rarely are budgets linked closely to the strategy.

Execution 15

Execution Strategy How To Budgeting 15

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 10, 2017

Connect your budget directly to your strategic priorities; if your budget doesn’t reflect your priorities, you have very little chance of executing your vision. In many companies, the investments you make in capabilities are hidden within an array of functional budgets. Second, rethink costs in terms of capabilities.

Cost 10

Cost How To Budgeting Strategic Planning 10

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Among them: an explosive and often chaotic increase in staff (mostly in middle management), relying too heavily on Facebook as the core of its strategy, a focus on getting new players instead of retaining old ones, and squeezing as much money out of its users as possible in ways some felt were unethical.

Class 8

Class Health Care Supply Chain Globalization 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 13, 2016

The European budget airline Ryanair, for example, is absolutely clear that it is a no-frills operation where efficiency is the operational priority — and efficiency takes precedence over customer service. Contrast this with other successful companies. How would your priorities change in case of a sudden economic downturn?

Project 8

Project How To Objective Efficiency 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 10, 2018

Capitec gets many things right in terms of its strategy, including its market positioning, internal operations, and organizational culture. Its customers seem to agree: Surveys indicate that Capitec has had the most-satisfied customers of all banks in the country — for the past five years running. Resisting revenue temptations.

Banking 8

Banking Industry Bottom-up Resistance 8