Thursday, June 4, 2015

Strategic Objective and Analytic

Strategic Objective and Analytic

To get a better handle of causal relationship  between strategy and operations - To know which
action will advance strategic theme and objectives-companies are increasingly turning to data analytic

The IBM institute of Business Value's 2013 analytics survey result, presented most comprehensive look at organisational activities related to data and analytics. After doing analysis of survey, outcome of 9 key levers which was further broadly categorized in the 3 levels and that is 1. Enable, 2. Drive, and 3. Amplify. It was found strong correlation between organization that excel at these levers and those that create greatest value from analytic.
Leaders are setting the organization direction for analytic by aligning big data and analytic strategy with the enterprise strategy and investing in scalable and extensible information management capabilities

Following are quoted from  online marketing conference.

Why is the strategy part so challenging for companies?

Both web analytic consultants and practitioners alike would probably agree aligning an implementation to a company’s business goals as one of the most important steps – but also one of the most difficult to accomplish. Why can it be so difficult? I’ve identified three roadblocks that can create problems.

1. Tactical focus
Web teams are really busy handling the onslaught of daily tasks — launching new paid search campaigns, managing site updates, planning the next site redesign, creating new online surveys, building ad hoc reports, testing new landing pages, etc. Workforce reductions in the last couple of years may have burdened these teams with more responsibilities and less resources to complete them (let’s not forget the smaller training budgets). They are essentially struggling to keep the online boat afloat – bailing water while trying to keep the sails up. However, I frequently find that not enough people have stopped to check if the boat is heading in the right direction.

They might be meandering in a generally safe direction, about to hit the rocks, or already shipwrecked – and nobody even noticed. Even when an individual or team isn’t clear on the company’s online strategy or business goals, they will continue to diligently focus on accomplishing their day-to-day, tactical responsibilities. The default setting in most of us is to keep busy, keep our heads down, and get things done — not wait around for an online strategy to be provided or clarified. Good tactical execution is important, but strategy ensures that efforts are not wasted on the wrong activities or goals. As Sun Tzu stated, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

2. Organizational dynamics
In large organizations, multiple divisions or teams share parts of the company’s online presence, but nobody oversees the overall online business. As a result, there is frequently no overarching online strategy or shared business goals that unify each group’s focus.
In some cases, the online parts of a business can turn into a political battleground with different groups wrestling for control. You don’t need 14 different business divisions and worldwide operations to experience politics because even small companies have run into the same conflicts. With each team interpreting the organizational goals independently, it becomes very difficult to prioritize and align a web analytics implementation to vague or conflicting business objectives. Whether or not your company’s decision making is centralized or decentralized, having a clear online strategy is always a best practice and essential for creating a global view of a company’s online performance.

3. Inadequate discovery process
One of the most important steps is to involve all of the key stakeholders in the discovery of the organization’s business requirements and clarification of the online strategy. Sometimes a single person or group may feel they can represent the needs of the entire company to save time, and not all of the stakeholders need to be bothered with the discovery process. Despite the best of intentions of these individuals, I’ve seen this approach fail on multiple occasions.

Leadership is the answer: 3 Level that come under "Amplify" per IBM Business value Analytic Survey
When leaders clearly articulate the online strategy to employees and teams, those individuals are empowered to be more strategic with their tactical responsibilities.
Despite a company’s complex organizational structure, the right level of leadership can align different individuals or groups around a unified online strategy and minimize the politics.
Leadership can play a key role in ensuring that the right people are participating in the discovery process. Leaders can make sure that all the right people are not only involved but also committed
As the famous business professor John P. Kotter stated, “Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there.” Effective leadership plays an integral role in not only establishing the strategy but also ensuring that business performance can be measured against the defined strategy.





References:

http://www.thepalladiumgroup.com/KnowledgeObjectRepository/BSC%20Online/B1107B_BSCOnlineOct.pdf

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=rErIteyOpOEC&pg=PT127&lpg=PT127&dq=challenges+in+analytics+projects+with+strategic+objectives&source=bl&ots=OP-1u40EIc&sig=EenRSvG5PvfPnhCV6cwQkH4pQTE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZJ9uVd6QDcOMuASlmIPwBw&sqi=2&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=challenges%20in%20analytics%20projects%20with%20strategic%20objectives&f=false

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/strategic-objective.html

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