Monday, November 27, 2017

Strategy vs Strategic Planning

Q. (Also posted in justLetak!)
What is the difference between strategy and strategic planning?

A.
Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. It may also extend to control mechanisms for guiding the implementation of the strategy. Strategic planning became prominent in corporations during the 1960s and remains an important aspect of strategic management. It is executed by strategic planners or strategists, who involve many parties and research sources in their analysis of the organization and its relationship to the environment in which it competes.[1]

Strategy has many definitions, but generally involves setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy describes how the ends (goals) will be achieved by the means (resources). The senior leadership of an organization is generally tasked with determining strategy. Strategy can be planned (intended) or can be observed as a pattern of activity (emergent) as the organization adapts to its environment or competes.

Strategy includes processes of formulation and implementation; strategic planning helps coordinate both. However, strategic planning is analytical in nature (i.e., it involves "finding the dots"); strategy formation itself involves synthesis (i.e., "connecting the dots") via strategic thinking. As such, strategic planning occurs around the strategy formation activity.[1]

Ref:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_planning

Digital Strategic Planning - what is it all about?

Q. (Also posted in justLetak!)
What is Digital Strategy? What is then Digital Strategic Planning?

A.
A digital strategy is a form of strategic management and a business answer or response to a digital question,[1] often best addressed as part of an overall business strategy. A digital strategy is often characterized by the application of new technologies to existing business activity[2] and/or a focus on the enablement of new digital capabilities to their business[3] (such as those created by the Information Age and often as a result of advancements in digital technologies such as computers, data, telecommunications, Internet, etc.). 

As is the case with its business strategy parent, a digital strategy can be formulated and implemented through a variety of different approaches.[4] Formulation often includes the process of specifying an organization's vision, goals, opportunities and related activities in order to maximize the business benefits of digital initiatives to an organization. These can range from an enterprise focus, which considers the broader opportunities and risks digital can create and often includes customer intelligence, collaboration, new product/market exploration, sales and service optimization, enterprise technology architectures and processes, innovation and governance; to more marketing and customer-focused efforts such as web sites, mobile, eCommerce, social, site and search engine optimization, and advertising. 

The planning to carry out the digital strategy can be called digital strategic planning. In 'Strategic Planning for Information Systems' a textbook for MICTM programme by Ward and Peppard (2002), Strategic Planning (for information systems) is a systematic, comprehensive analysis to develop a plan of (digital) action.
Of course, strategic planning is part of the exercise to come out with a strategy. Strategy is a generic term, where as strategic planning is a more detailed term which describes the processes of coming out with the strategy. Read more about strategy and strategic planning here.

From 'What is digital strategy?' by Mark McDonald, below is the extract from the article.

Digital (strategy) is the application of information and technology to raise human performance.

Human performance is the essence of digital transformation. Human performance creates the type of value that leads to revenue. Alternative goals for digital create efficiencies that largely drive down the cost of creating short-term benefits but drain the economy and growth.

Digital becomes just another technology when digital investments do not call for changing what people do in ways that enhance their ability to achieve their goals. If that is the case in your situation then the digital strategy option is simple – just spread the technology beyond its beachhead in marketing. Such peanut butter approaches fit that view of digital.

Digital technologies offer more than additional rounds of automation. Realizing what more looks like, however, involves reducing the idea of strategy to its essence. Strategy as a term has become too complex, loaded and limiting. Strategy needs to be simplified to its essential elements. Here is a suggestion:

Strategy is setting a direction, sequencing resources and making commitments.


While there is constant debate about what constitutes a strategy, direction, sequence, resources and commitment are all elements required to define transformation. Direction defines the “why” in terms of ambition and excluding alternatives. Sequence answers “when” and “what first.” Resources and commitment complete the discussion by answering “what” and “who.”


A business strategy for success in a digital world

Every technology with transformation potential starts in isolation, and digital is no exception. Mobile, cloud, process, customer, supply chain, etc. Each had its own siloed strategy before it blended into business strategy. As a result of these strategy waves the terms ‘digital’ and ‘strategy’ have become overused and misapplied terms.

Digital is no different. Digital strategy needs to become the essence of business strategy. Renewing the baseline for digital and strategy clears away the clutter, setting teams on a path for action. In that renewal a digitally informed business strategy becomes an answer to a simple question:

How can a business win using information and technology to raise human performance?

That is digital strategy, particularly after you have finished thinking of digital in the same light as IT, or as investments limited to marketing.


Ref:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_strategy
Mark McDonald on "What is digital strategy?", available athttps://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/blogs-digital-what-is-digital-strategy
Ward, John & Peppard, Joe (2002) Strategic Planning for Information Systems. 3rd Ed. John Wiley & Sons. Page 69.