Previous | Table of Contents | Next |
Doug D. Whittle
The total strategic planning process allows departments to target their services and energies on high-payback and business-directed activities. Managers must decide whether to continue to lead their departments down the path of least resistance (i.e., providing general training and support services to users) or move to the next stage of growth, which includes identifying strategic uses of technology to meet future corporate business needs. This chapter provides managers and their departments with a six-step procedure designed to help them to begin that journey and reap its rewards.
In every corporation and business, people are inventing the future. Those individuals are making conscious decisions that will affect a corporations mission, what individuals do in their jobs, and even how they do their jobs. Because someone is responsible for inventing the future, who is that someone going to be managers or someone else? If it is agreed that managers and their departments must take the lead in deciding their futures, where do they start? The answer is strategic planning.
A frequently heard complaint from managers and staff is that they are too busy doing their jobs to participate in strategic planning. In todays corporate climate, it is no longer valid for groups to claim they are victims of too much work, not enough resources, and lack of senior management support.
Companies are quickly realizing that long-term success and survival is only achieved by planning for the future. Strategic planning, however, is not something that must occur only at a senior management or corporate level. If a department views itself as a business, formal planning efforts incorporating short-term objectives and long-term visions must take place at the department level. The following sections detail the steps that can be taken to achieve these goals.
The first step in strategic planning is to conduct an objective analysis of the organizations current situation. If a written department mission statement exists, that would be the logical starting point. If not, one will be needed, so the following questions are still valid they just enter the picture at a later time.
Managers can begin by taking a critical look at every word in the mission statement. What does it say about the department? According to the mission statement, what is the department? What does it do? What does it not do? What added value does it contribute to the organization or company? What are its standards of quality and service?
In other words, is the department doing what its mission statement says it does? Managers should then locate the corporate or company mission statement. Also, they can see to it their division or business unit has such a statement. The departments statement should be compared with these. Is the departments statement harmonious with the larger entities, or is there no apparent relationship between end-user computing and the division or company?
For now, it is enough to review the mission statement and identify areas that need further clarification, discussion, direction, or change. Managers should not attempt to create or rewrite the actual statement yet. If a formal mission statement does not exist, managers should move on to step two; they will still have a chance at writing one later!
Step two requires broad shoulders and a strong dose of objectivity. Managers must look at their departments and their relationships with the overall business of their companies to identify the following areas: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Managers should gather the members of their departments for at least a half day of soul searching. They should reassure everyone that outside-the-box thinking is expected, that all discussions will be kept within the room, and most important, that total honesty is necessary. In other words, nobody can get defensive or be offended if something in their area or department is identified as a weakness. The objective of this session: to obtain an honest snapshot of what the department really is.
Key resources within an operating unit and company should also be asked to provide input to these four areas as they see them related to the department. The objective remains the same to gain a snapshot of the department, but this time, from an outside (i.e., client and manger) perspective.
Through guided exercise or discussion, participants should be asked to list the major strengths and weaknesses of the department. This list provides excellent self-feedback as well as obvious motivation for the staff. Strengths are areas of excellence; the functions and qualities that give the department a distinct advantage its most outstanding resources and skills. A department may list top-notch product specialist as one of its strengths. A spreadsheet support person, for example, is truly an expert in a particular package.
Weaknesses are functions and qualities currently endemic in the department; the limitations in resources, skills, and capabilities. For instance, although managers may see product experts and specialists as a strength, a perceived weakness may be that the department is too specialized that its support staff only knows their own world of specialties, and are currently unable to provide adequate support across product lines.
Weaknesses should not be perceived as failures; they are simply the areas in which the department has less strength. It may be entirely appropriate that it remains weak in some areas to provide more resources in the higher priority areas.
Opportunities are areas of potential and possibilities. What are the major favorable situations the department might optimize within the current and future environments? Perhaps an opportunity is a new company ideology that encourages reallocation and sharing of resources. The opportunities portion allows some futuristic, visionary, what-if type thinking.
Previous | Table of Contents | Next |