Strategic Implementation and Management

I

Strategic Implementation and Management

Introduction

A key part of any strategic plan is selecting from among the various strategic alternatives open to the organisation, which should have been revealed through the internal and external analysis phases. The next step is to implement the plan, which is typically carried out by business units or functional managers responsible for specific divisions, products, and functions in the enterprise (Leidner, 1999). Implementation also involves the allocation of resources among the business units if the organisation has multiple divisions or among functional areas such as marketing, sales, operations, and human resources if there are no divisions. Priorities identified in the evaluation and analysis process help managers determine how to allocate resources most effectively.

Critical to the success of any plan is evaluating the outcomes or results of initiatives taken, gathering feedback from key stakeholder groups as well as operating results, and feeding that information back into the strategic plan so that revisions can be made. The key is to think about strategic planning as an ongoing process that evolves with the adaptations that the organisation needs to make to continue to perform effectively in its environment (Lederer, 2006).

Principal Tasks involved in Strategic Implementation

Strategic implementation has become increasingly complex, costly, and risky owing to changing business processes, strong competitive pressure, and rapid and radical technological changes. Hence, effective Strategic planning plays an important role in many situations and certainly in Strategic implementation and management. It also needs to consider the effects of environmental and organisational factors on the success of inter-organisational systems planning within the specific context of Internet-based systems. This study has the following principal tasks for hypothetical employees initiating or currently conducting Strategic planning exercises:

Strategic maturity emerges as a key variable, indicating that the greater the importance of strategic implementation, the greater the degree of acceptance of Strategic planning. Strategic maturity is no longer a competitive tool but a strategic necessity (Earl, 2004). Top management and IS executives are assured that the firm's extensive use of strategic implementation can facilitate the systems planning to support the implementation of IS.

Technology competence has emerged as another key variable, indicating that the degree of acceptance of IS planning increases with the importance of Strategic implementation. Firms must pay great attention to their technical capability to achieve Strategic implementation effectiveness and must keep in mind that technology competence includes both tangible IT infrastructure and intangible IT human resources (Lee, 2003).

Because top management support was an important factor for Strategic implementation effectiveness, top management should establish closer relationships and long-term commitment with business partners such as empowered cross functional and inter-organisational teams (Ranganathan, 2004).

CEO/CIO relationships were important facilitators for planning success of Strategic implementation and for the firm's executive performance. IS executives should be proactive in their efforts to identify opportunities from emerging Internet-based technologies and educate senior management (Lin, 2006).

Strategic implementation is an organisational and inter-organisational process. Introducing strategic implementation involves not only technical conditions, but also considerable environmental and organisational changes including changes in trading partnerships, beliefs and attitudes of senior executives, managerial styles, and shared values. Consequently, appropriately considering technological, organisational, and ...