The best definition of business strategy includes two focal points:<\/strong><\/p>\n These focal points lead companies to product strategies, marketing and customer acquisition strategies, pricing strategies, sourcing and more. Another approach references Sun Tzu, author of \u201cThe Art of War\u201d — what actions can a company take to battle the competition? It is easy for people to understand why a company introduces a new product, but it\u2019s not as easy for someone to understand why the latest AWS cloud<\/a> service is strategic.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at how using strategy in IT benefits every element of your business.<\/p>\n A good strategy fits on a single piece of paper, is visual and everyone in your company can understand it. The first two qualifications are pretty straightforward, but how do you ensure non-IT people understand your IT strategy<\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\n Start with the \u201cwhy.\u201d Too often, IT organizations lead with the \u201cwhat,\u201d meaning technology, and lose business partners and even IT teams.<\/p>\n To create clarity between IT and the business, your IT strategy should align with the actions and direction of the business and business strategy. Some companies find this challenging as they may not have a well-articulated business strategy. CIOs should act as a bridge between the two parts of the company to decipher the business direction to create and align the IT strategy.<\/p>\n A key element in your IT strategy is explaining the why in non-technical terms.<\/strong> People, including our IT teams, need to understand the benefits of why before learning the how and what. It takes time to craft good why statements that resonate with business and IT people. The why statement provides the alignment to the business strategy.<\/p>\n For example, a why statement for a company growing by acquisition may be \u201cEnable quick and repeatable merger and acquisitions to support growth,\u201d or for a company with declining online sales, \u201cProvide frictionless experiences for users to improve customer conversion.\u201d<\/p>\n After you establish the why, articulating the future state \u2013 the what and how of your strategy \u2013 guides the organization on what to expect from IT over the next three to five years.<\/strong> In order to effectively communicate the future state, you need to effectively explain where you are today, including the blockers and potential impediments that hinder execution and what has to change to enable the future state.<\/p>\n As we mentioned above, an IT strategy paves the road for your future state. It informs an organization about IT\u2019s direction and goals and the plan to get there. Even though there are many benefits from a good IT strategy, these three elements are the most important to remember when creating your plan. Your IT strategy should provide the following:<\/strong><\/p>\n An IT strategy either supports or enables the business strategy. When IT leaders forget this, our strategy starts to fall apart. Without being able to tie IT activities back to market share, revenue or expense, we are no longer talking about strategy but tactics or approaches.<\/strong><\/p>\n A good example is when CIOs asked for a mobile strategy a few years ago. The question they thought they wanted to answer was, \u201cHow should we approach mobile? With an app or a mobile site?\u201d Every IT team answered with no preference, or they picked an app because it was the cool thing to do. However, the question they needed to answer was, \u201cWhy mobile?\u201d An app or website can\u2019t answer the why.<\/p>\n Now, let\u2019s turn this around to make mobile a strategy. Customers struggle with making product decisions in-store, so they pick competitors\u2019 products as often as they pick ours. If we create mobile tools to help customers make better decisions while shopping for our products, they will select our products more often, i.e., Mobile equals top-line growth.<\/p>\n As a CIO, you know the challenges facing your business and IT organization. Creating an IT strategy seems straightforward and something you can put together quickly. However, to quote Steve Jobs, \u201cYou have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are a few steps to get started creating your strategy.<\/p>\n A key element to the IT strategy is knowing where the business wants to head, but we need to identify what business capabilities impact its performance. Sometimes we must focus on the foundational business processes before moving forward. Therefore, there are two elements to understanding business needs:<\/strong><\/p>\n How well does IT meet the current and future needs of the business? What challenges exist? This assessment should include applications, platforms, data and security. It needs to consider how well IT teams can support the business and what impacts this support.<\/p>\n Now that we know where the business is going and have accessed the internal IT landscape, we need to determine what the future state looks like. This step is our opportunity to look at the world through rose-colored glasses and say, \u201cWhat if?\u201d.<\/p>\n One key activity within this phase is investigating new technologies and trends.<\/strong> We need to understand how the technology will help prepare us for the future. It is also important to spend time talking with your technology partners (and their competitors) to learn about their direction. This will give you insights into how their plans may impact your organization.<\/p>\n Here is where we spend the time to formulate our \u201cwhy.\u201d This step is when we understand our opportunities as these impact the business.<\/p>\n It is good to know where we want to go, but before we can determine how we will get there, we need to identify what gaps we have inhibiting us. These gaps can include technologies, required investment, adoption, organizational structure, skillsets and processes. Some gaps are easy and quick to address, while others can take multiple years. You will need to determine what actions you need to take to address the gaps.<\/strong><\/p>\n With the actions we need to take identified, we can lay these out into a plan. Two things to consider are how you will know you have closed the gap and what midterm milestones or metrics you will use to know you are making progress.<\/p>\n It is also important to make sure you use the right milestones and metrics.<\/strong> We have seen many cloud projects fail because the strategy to reduce operating expenses used a metric that tracked systems deployed, which actually increased operating expenses.<\/p>\n In any business, a good strategy enables better decision making. Teams gain an understanding of how their world will change, what skills they will need to develop, and what opportunities may exist in the future.<\/p>\n By leading with why and aligning your IT strategy with the business strategy<\/a>, every person in the organization should understand how it benefits them. This clarity creates trust because people will understand the investments and actions IT is taking.<\/p>\n\n \n
Developing a Strong IT Strategy<\/h2>\n
Three Elements of a Successful IT Strategy<\/h3>\n
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Strategy Versus Approach<\/h3>\n
How to Get Started<\/h2>\n
![\"IT](\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/TSL-IT-strategy_01232023_01_Understand-Business-Need.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
![\"IT](\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/TSL-IT-strategy_01232023_02_Assess-the-Internal-IT-Landscape.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"IT](\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/TSL-IT-strategy_01232023_03_Determine-Your-Future-State.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"IT](\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/TSL-IT-strategy_01232023_04_Address-Your-Gaps.png\")
<\/a><\/h3>\n![\"IT](\"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/TSL-IT-strategy_01232023_05_Map-Out-Your-Plan-of-Attack.png\")
<\/a><\/h3>\nConclusion<\/h2>\n