shape your business and technology for success business...

Title

Emelgo Guide to Business and Technology Strategy

Copyright © Emelgo Ltd 2014. All Rights Reserved 1

Business and TechnologyStrategy GuideAccelerate your strategy and transformation

Simon Tait

melgoShape your business and technology for success



IntroductionAs I write, there are 1,409 books for sale on Strategy at Amazon. Which seems like a lot. Until you considerthat there are over 57,000 books on Management Skills. Six Sigma, process improvement method, has morebooks published on the subject than does Strategy. In my 20 years as a management consultant focused onbusiness and technology strategy, I found it rare for companies to have a written business strategy.

The average life span of a company in the 500 (top 500 US companies by market capitalisation) is just 15years today. Down from 50 years in the 1920s.1 What is it that distinguishes a company which is succeedingfrom one which is dying? I would argue that Strategy has a major impact, perhaps the biggest impact onsuccess.

And, it seems, “When CEOs talk strategy, 70% of the company doesn’t get it”2. We also have a problem ifthere is agreement between executives on strategy and the strategy does not get communicated. CEOsoften have an over optimistic view and may not even recognise how performance is falling short. In onestudy, 28% of CEOs thought their teams were doing poorly in critical areas, compared with 52% of non-CEOs.These critical areas included thinking innovatively, cross-marketing, leading change, overseeing talentdevelopment and building a company culture. The biggest difference between perception and reality wasclarity of decision making processes.3

And technology is driving faster and faster change. A wave of new technology is sweeping into the everyday lives of huge segments of the population. This is resetting expectations of what is possible at work andchanging what and how consumers buy. There are huge opportunities for technology based businessmodels. Facebook now has over one billion users.4 Significantly, businesses which can apply digital strate-gies are much more profitable. Companies which can apply digital strategy and manage transformationare 26% more profitable and those which can manage neither are 25% less profitable than average.5 Andwhere new challengers have been able to adopt radically new business models, traditional businesses aredying. For example, US Music sales dropped from $11.8 billion to $7.1 billion in the ten years since iTuneshas been in business.6

In summary, organisations are more at risk than ever. They are not good at making strategies and imple-menting them and CEOs may not realise just how poor they are in areas which are critical.

Read on to understand how to develop an effective business and technology strategy and how to mobiliseyour organisation for change.

1 Professor Richard Foster, Yale University. Quoted in BBC News. Can a company live forever? Kim Gittle-son2 Timothy Devinney et al “When CEOs Talk Strategy, Is Anyone Listening?”. Harvard Business Review Mag-azine June 2013.3 CEOs Misperceive Top Teams’ Performance. Richard M. Rosen and Fred Adair. HBR Magazine September2007.4 Facebook: The Making of one Billion Users”. Bloomberg Businesses, 2012.5 The Digital Advantage: How digital leaders outperform their peers in every industry. Capgemini Consult-ing and MIT Sloan MITCenter for Digital Business, 2013.6 A decade of iTunes singles killed the music industry. Adrian Covert. CNN Money. April 25, 2013.



I’ve written this guide for anyone who needs to create a business and technology strategy. Here are somefeatures:

● It is accessible - you don’t have to be expert in strategic analysis to use it

● It works top down - you decide how far you go in terms of detail

● It addresses engagement and transformation right from the start - it is designed to be useful whenmajor change will occur

● It covers all the factors which influence the ability of an organisation to succeed, including itsstructure, technology and culture

● You can you use it in any context. This includes a formal IT strategy or a strategy for a new team orfunction.

● It focuses only on what needs changing. Not on everything an organisation does.

Most of all, this is an approach which can become part of the way you think about every change you wantto make.

If you use this approach you will succeed in bringing people with you. And a real outcome will result. Youmay also produce an attractive document or slide deck, or video which describes your future direction andhow you propose to get there. But here is odd thing. The document becomes relatively unimportant whenthe people who matter are on board.

People often do not read or do not understand documents. And when they do, they do not feel they ownit. Why is this? Strategy functions, architecture teams and consultants all suffer from this from time to time.There is a process of coming to terms with a change. Particularly a change which challenges old assumptionsand which concerns the direction of an organisation. You cannot jump to the answer if you do notunderstand, and equally, feel the problem and then see the future in a way which convinces you.

What helps is to move through a process which helps people to understand the current and future environ-ment and realities. With this understanding, people can make sense of the decisions they are making.

I recommend reading through the guide, then referring to it step by step as you plan and carry out yourstrategy and transformation project.

Please give me some feedback on how useful you find the guide and where I can improve it.

Welcome to business and technology strategy.

I hope you enjoy using the guide.

Simon Tait

How and when to use this guide



Business and technology strategies are developed for complete organisations. Business functions in largeorganisations create their own strategies. But, lets be clear. You need an integrated strategy covering thewhole organisation if you expect to make major change.

What should be the scope of a business and technology strategy? This is not a trivial question. I recentlydownloaded a free guide to IT strategy which had 145 pages of material. A junior colleague, fresh frombusiness school observed to me “there is no commonly agreed definition of IT strategy” and there is evenless agreement on digital strategy or on business and technology strategy. I do not think this needs to be aproblem - I take the view that you scope your strategy for your needs and then should use the resourceswhich serve your purpose. Nothing more and nothing less.

For our purposes, a business and technology strategy examines the context within which an organisationexists and will exist. We develop one or more future states which we believe will be successful. We plot andoptimise a journey from the current state to the future states. We conduct one or more initiatives as weprogress towards the future state.

Along the way we will encounter other concepts. Please note, however, that business capability is centralto any business and technology strategy. That is, the ability of an organisation to carry out certain activitieswhich are key to its purpose. Mostly we need to do them better. Sometimes, to do them worse. Or do notdo them at all. This last point is important because we seek focus from our strategy. We should stop andpotentially divest operations which are not central.

● Business capabilities need to be enabled. We should consider the enablers carefully. For example,we will have difficulty improving our capability to innovate if we have not changed the culture. Forbusiness and technology strategy we should consider:

Processes an organisation uses

Knowledge and information

Technology

Organisation and governance

Culture

Ecosystem - the relationships with customers, suppliers and collaborators

Environment (political, economic, social, technological, legislative, environmental) withinwhich the organisation operates.

The enablers you consider are driven by the capabilities you need and ultimately the opportunity or threatto the organisation arising from the future. Selecting a subset of enablers gives the strategy a particularflavour. For example, an IT strategy (and architecture) might consider processes, knowledge and informa-tion, technology and the company’s IT ecosystem but not culture or organisation and governance.

You may not control all the enablers you need to and this is very common. The process you use and how youapproach other stakeholders is very important if you are not in control. We consider this process later inthis guide.

What to cover



I focus on five key steps to create a business and technology strategy. Why these five steps? Eachdetermines a key aspect of strategy. A successful outcome at each step depends on successful outcomesfrom each preceding step.

Five key steps

● See the future is about understanding the future environment for the organisation and building avision

● Understand your potential involves defining a business model which will succeed and identifying thecapabilities you will need

● Shape your destiny sets out the internal structures and enablers for the organisation includingprocess, technology and organisation

● Pick your route looks at how and how soon you get to the future state and optimises the initiativesand projects required

● Start the journey puts in place the oversight for the transformation and mobilises the initiatives andteams involved.

You must use a suitable process (for example, a set of workshops) to help you and your stakeholders reachagreement at each step as described in the next section. Each step also requires knowledge and informa-tion. You may have this already, it may come from individuals who may already be part of your team or fromexternal experts or consultants. Alternatively, prepared content can be used which may take the form ofreading, presentation material or traditional documents. Tools and frameworks are used to present thechoices needed at each step.

In the graphic on the next page, the inputs to each step are shown as the top row and the outcomes as thebottom row.

I consider next the questions you need to answer at each stage.

seethefuture

seethefuture

under-stand

your

potential

under-stand

your

potential

shape your

destinyshape your

destinypickyour

route

pickyour

route

start the journeystart the journey



seethefuture

seethefuture

under-stand

your

potential

under-stand

your

potential

shape your

destinyshape your

destinypickyour

route

pickyour

route

start thejourneystart thejourney

Assess trends

See impact on industries

View visions and strategies

See opportunities

See threats

Understand your advantage

Compare your capability

Create a vision

Understand successful architectures

See options and rationale

Shape business/tech architecture

Make key choices

Optim

ise benefits and costs

Set your pace

Plan your journey

Look up benefits and costs

See typical plans

Reference governance models

Understand roles &

involvement

Mobilise for im

plementation

Bootstrap your delivery capability

Prototype and learn

Decide how to com

pete

Assess capability to deliver

Choose the enablers

View value propositions

Understand how

others do it

Access blueprints



Questions help us to focus on what is important to achieve the outcome from each step. Questions are abetter starting point than method or tools because they do not vary according to the scope, depth and thestakeholders you need to convince. We consider the impact on stakeholders next.

seethefuture

understandyour

potential

shape yourdestiny

pickyour

route

start the journey

About the future:● What could it be?● How fast will it arrive?● What impact is it having on business

and on people?

About relevance:● How relevant is it to me / my busi-

ness? What could happen?● What opportunities do I have?● What are the threats?

About the prospect:● What could be my vision?

About a possible way of operating:● What model will realise my vision?

About who you are and what you do best:● What are my strengths and weak-

nesses?

About how fit you are to thrive:● What do I need to do exceptionally

well?● Where will I need to catch up?

About making the model work in practice:● How do we enable the model to

function (relationships, environ-ment, process, organisation, gov-ernance, technology)?

About what to build:● What structures are needed?

About how to shape:● What are the important decisions?● Which option is right?

About where and when:● When is the best time?● What is the right pace?● What are the dependencies be-

tween programmes?

About financials:● How can costs and benefits be opti-

mised?● What is affordable?

About demonstrating results:● What are the major stages?● What are the key outcomes?

About the “ship”● How will we govern the process?● How should we organise?

About the “crew”● Who should be involved?● What roles and skills are absent?● How will we operate?

About adaptability and resourcefulness● What experiments can we try?● How will we learn?

Questions for focus



If a strategy process is to fundamentally change an organisation it must change those who participate in thestrategy and transformation which follows. People naturally introduce their own hopes, aspirations andvalues to strategy. Transformation will likely change peoples’ roles, their careers and possibly their personallives. The link between organisation and individual transformation is shown in the graphic below. Strategiesand transformations tend to fail if they do not consider this connection and the perspective which peoplewill take on the process and on the decisions which are made.

How to engage stakeholders

There are a number of things you can do to make the process work from a people perspective:

● Use a workshop or conference based process which brings people together to share, discuss andreach agreement

● Bring people to terms with reality as it actually is and could be - both inside the organisation, acrossthe industry, and more widely

● Acknowledge the impact on people and give them support for their personal transformation

● Use interventions as needed through the process to bring people back to balance.

We’ll look at a suitable process in the next section.

Organisation perspective

Individual perspective

Lifetime

Phase

Lifetime

Phase

Transformation

Transformation

Link between transformation for the organisation and for people withinthe organisation

Focus



Deciding the processThe process I recommend for business and technology is shown on the next page. It is suitable for groupsof participants from a handful up to around sixty or so. It is a starting point and you should modify it asnecessary.

It considers mainly the involvement of three (overlapping) groups :

● A core team who need to contribute to, and buy in to, the strategy. Typically this will include theleadership team with accountability for the organisation, or for the part of the organisation whichwill own and implement the strategy and the business sponsor. As the process progresses this willinclude others who will help design and implement the changes.

● A coordination team who drive the strategy project forwards, usually under the direction of thebusiness sponsor. The coordination team work “behind the scenes” to organise events and to deliverthe content needed. The sponsor participates in important planning and decision making meetingswith the coordination team.

● The wider organisation who will become aware of the process, whose views will be sought onparticular issues and who need to be engaged in the transformation process to make it a success.

The process proceeds through the five steps of the strategy process, using conferences (or other workshoptype events) as the main method of involving the core team in the decision making process. These eventsare crucial to success in a number of ways:

● They serve to educate participants in the process, context within which the strategy is being devel-oped and the reality of the current state of the organisation and future prospects “warts and all”

● They allow participants to express their views and be acknowledged and allow those views to beincorporated into the strategy

● They get work done on the content of the strategy, bringing together people from different parts ofthe organisation with different skills and knowledge to work together and to get feedback from thewider core team

● They allow sponsor and decision makers to connect with the wider core team and with each otherand move towards agreement. This agreement can then be communicated immediately back to thecore team and after the event to the organisation as a whole.

Conferences will typically use breakout sessions to progress different areas in parallel and plenary sessionsto communicate results, integrate work and get feedback.

There must be flexibility within the events to change the flow in order to address important issues as theyarise. For this reason, agendas are not usually communicated in advance of conferences.

I recommend using an independent facilitator for conferences as they can stand back from the individualviewpoints of participants and promote collaboration. The events and what they would typically cover areshown in the graphic on the next page. You may decide to combine conferences to make logistics work. Thiscan work well, though there is a risk that issues are overlooked and remedial work is needed after the event.



Core Team CoordinatorsOrganisation

Learning andplanningm

eeting

Kickoff workshop

Debrief andrefocus

meeting

Debrief andrefocus

meeting

Debrief andrefocus

meeting

Debrief andrefocus

meeting

Debrief andrefocus

meeting

LearningW

orkshop

Furtherm

obilisationw

orkshops

Motivation

interviews

Comparison

questions

Visionexploration

and feedbackCapability

exploration andfeedback

Design


Roadmap


Issueinterview

s

Programm

einterview

s

Decision

census

Readinessassessm

ent

Landscapem

apping

Culturew

eb

Kickoffw

orkshop

Contextexploration

VisionConference

Parallel stories

Trends

Scenarios

Vision for business &technology

Act out future

under-stand

your

potential

under-stand

your

potential

shape your

destinyshape your

destinypickyour

route

pickyour

route


CapabilityConference

Business model

Value proposition & curve

Issue & decision

questionnaire

Landscapeinventory

Functional visions

Enablers–

technology,culture, organisation

Business capabilities

seethefuture

seethefuture

seethefuture

seethefuture

Initiativescoping

Projectexploration

DesignConference

Issues feedback

Decisions and principles

Enabler trends

Business capability toenabler m

apping

Enabler case studies

Programm

einventory

Architecture

Blueprintexploration

Mobilisation

Conference

Participation briefing

Act out governance andorganisation

Review blueprints

Exchange expectations

Roadmap

Conference

Transformation choices

Transformation m

apping

Portfolio prioritisation

Portfolio synergies

Barriers & enablers

Initiative review

Readinessquestionnaire



See the futureThe purpose of the vision conference is to get a consensus on the environment the organisation will oper-ate in future and an informal vision. Prior to the vision conference you will need the following:

● A kickoff workshop with the sponsor to set the scope and decide who will participate and how.

● Motivation interviews with core team members for their view of the vision, mission and goals - in-deed the role and value to be delivered to customers for the organisation, current issues and inter-ests and to highlight differences between leaders which may need to be addressed.

● Analysis of the context for the organisation going forwards - what trends are significant from a busi-ness and technology viewpoint, the impact on the industry and on other industries.

● Identification of authorities and experts within and outside the organisation whose view is respect-ed and needed as input to the conference.

● Feedback on previous strategy (or strategic) projects for lessons relevant to this project.

● A kickoff workshop with the wider organisation to advertise the purpose and scope of the strategyproject, to seek views as to what current or future issues the organisation sees and to identify re-sources (expertise, knowledge) who can help with specific tasks later on.

The vision conference will typically start with an introduction from the business sponsor to position theproject and set scope - what it can propose to change and what not. The main sessions are:

● Stories of organisations which were in similar situations are related - both success stories and likelydisasters. Both have messages and learning. These may be from other industries. Analogous situa-tions can be used to encourage “out of the box” thinking. For example, the story of Apollo 13 hasbeen useful for organisations needing to get over a challenge with limited resources. The story ofthe development of the US constitution has been useful for organisations struggling with govern-ance. Material presented must be easy to relate to for all those who will participate.

● Analysis and insights on both business and technology trends and changes in business context (po-litical, economic, social, technological, legislative and environmental) are discussed - in order to un-derstand current and future impact on the organisation and industry. This can be brought alivewith specific examples, typically from industries which are further advanced. For example, a tech-nical publishing house might discuss the impact of digital distribution on the music industry. Theimpact on the ecosystem (network of customers, suppliers and influencers) is very relevant.

● Scenarios describing possible outcomes within the industry are built. A scenario is based on takingtrends and making a call as to how fast and extensively they will impact. For example, a scenariotitled “Self-publishing rules” could involve most authors promoting and marketing their works with-out the help of traditional publishers. This helps when the future is unclear or different opinionsare held. The organisation can take multiple scenarios into account and test the strategy againsteach without having to place all their bets on one. The opportunities and strengths of the organisa-tion in response to the scenarios should be drawn out for discussion and agreement.

● Visions for business and technology are developed. Each participant can take a flip chart sheet anddraw a picture of the organisation - in whatever terms they wish. These are then shared at leastwithin a small group. This gives participants a sense of what could be and creates a sense of excite-ment. Larger group exercises which can be used to bring the future alive are done by role playing.

After the vision conference, the vision and possible scenarios need to be captured and brought into order.

Prep

arat

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At th

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seethefuture



The capability conference aims to flesh out the business model which will realise the vision and realise theopportunity / mitigate the threat of future scenarios. It deals with the “outside view” of the organisation -but not how it will work in detail. Before the capability conference can start you’ll need the following:

● A debrief and refocus meeting to consolidate feedback from the last step and determine whether ithas been completed sufficiently to move on. If not, further work will be needed.

● Meetings to explore the vision and get feedback with selected stakeholders who missed the visionconference. The vision is developed further and improved.

● Development of a draft set of business capabilities needed to fulfil the vision. There is no need tolist every capability - focus on what is different and how. For example, “multi channel sales andmarketing”, “mobile sales”. Where possible being specific about what strength means “month endclose in 2 days”. Ask the core team (e.g. by questionnaire) to assess the strategic importance andhow strong the company is compared to competitors. A public sector organisation may instead fo-cus on importance to stakeholders and maturity.

● The wider organisation should be polled on the issues they see with the current organisation andwhich will hold back progress towards the vision.

● Decide who will come to the capability conference. Include some experts and specialists with expe-rience in organisations which have worked in a similar way - possibly from another industry. Tamecustomers or key partners may be asked to participate if no conflict of interest would result.

The event starts with a review of what has been accomplished already. The main sessions, which will in-volve breakout and plenary work are:

● Development of a value proposition for the organisation - what customer, employee, ecosystemplayers will value from the organisation. This helps check that the proposed vision is a “win win” forthose who must participate.

● Development of a value curve. Take as a starting point the key dimensions of value to currentcustomers add the new dimensions of value which are being added. These may already exist inanother industry.

● Development of a business model canvas - summarising customer segments, value propositions,channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnership andcost structure. This completes the “outside view” of the organisation.

● Validation of business capabilities and assessment of current strength and hence the opportunity todevelop them further. Enablers are then identified across all business capabilities: covering knowl-edge and information, technology, organisation and governance, culture, ecosystem relationshipsand environment.

At this point visions for individual business functions are developed as part of functional business andtechnology strategies (for e.g. sales and marketing, finance, IT, supply chain).

At the end of the capability conference, the participants should be clear on how they will compete (or delivervalue to stakeholders), know where they must build new capability and have chosen the main enablerswhich are necessary to strengthen the organisation.

After the conference, the wider organisation should be consulted on how on how to fill gaps in capability.

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Shape your destinyThe design conference aims to get agreement on how the organisation needs to be structured in order toimplement the business model. It deals with the “inside view” of the organisation - the key decisions onhow it will work. Before the design conference can start you will need the following:

● A debrief and refocus meeting to consolidate feedback from the last step and determine whether ithas been completed sufficiently to move on. If not, further work will need to be done.

● Confidential interviews to understand the root causes of issues.

● A poll of selected stakeholders on decisions to be taken and their opinion on the right outcome.These will typically be focused on how the organisation will work and on enablers. For example,what should the organisation type be? (E.g. “front end / back end split”, “matrix” etc.). This will beconsolidated and repeated at the design conference itself.

● Culture mapping - to identify the current culture and its characteristics.

● Analysis of trends in enablers - organisation design, technology, processes. This aims to identifykey choices or decisions which could be made. For example, should an employee portal be imple-mented? What should be the approach to Cloud? Case studies should be captured to highlight thepros and cons of different decisions.

● Inventory of current initiatives and programmes - what will they be delivering? Should they formpart of the design?

● Mapping of the (process, technology, knowledge and information) landscape with a view to identi-fying strengths and weaknesses.

● Preparation of a candidate high level architecture showing the main components to be used andcovering e.g. processes, knowledge and information, technology, organisation and governance, ec-osystem relationships.

The conference starts with a review of what has been accomplished already. The main sessions, which willinvolve breakout and plenary work are:

● Analysis of trends in enablers - to understand what will be needed, the key decisions and principles.

● Insight from case studies which show the pros and cons of particular options.

● Review of other programmes and initiatives to decide if they could contribute towards the newmodel, and if not whether they are detrimental.

● Feedback of issues identified during interviews. This should give some suggested principles to shapedesign going forwards.

● Decision making and principles for enablers. For example, will the organisation be best split frontoffice / back office? Should an integrated package be preferred to best of breed IT solutions?

● A walk through of the candidate architecture to determine whether the design will support thecapabilities that will be needed.

At the end of the design conference participants should be clear on what will be built or changed and howthis addresses the need for new capabilities.

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shape yourdestiny



The roadmap conference addresses how you get to the future state(s) and how soon. Before the road-map conference you will need:


● Activity to socialise the design and to gain feedback and buy in.

● Identification of authorities and experts within and outside the organisation whose view is respect-ed and who need to participate in the conference.

● Review of feedback on previous projects for lessons which can be used to improve the success ofthis project.

● Scoping of candidate initiatives, estimation of their costs and benefits and an assessment for strate-gic alignment (how important is the business capability they contribute to?), compliance (do theyhave to be done for regulatory reasons?), for dependencies (what initiative must we complete be-fore this initiative can be completed?) and for timescale (main phases of work and how long theywill take). This gives the necessary input for prioritisation.

● Interviews with those programmes who can potentially contribute to the future state to agreewhat changes would be needed.

The main sessions for the roadmap conference are:

● Stories of similar projects for other organisations - both success stories and failures.

● Key choices about the transformation. Key choices are how fast, and in what order, to implementthe change based on the importance of getting to the future state and how ready the organisationis.

● Mapping the transformation. Typically this means working together to identify key outcomes (forexample, “realising a mobile channel”) in each area of change (for example “digital sales and market-ing”).

● Review of initiatives to confirm their benefits, costs, importance and dependencies.

● Live prioritisation of initiatives - to determine the order of importance, the ballpark budget andwhich initiatives are “must have”.

● Take decisions about other programmes. To review synergies, benefits and options: for example, tocreate dependencies, or to create separate projects to create common infrastructure.

● Find solutions to problems. Review barriers and enablers and decide how to address entrenchedproblems and accelerate progress.

At the end of the roadmap conference, participants should understand what must be done to achieve thevision and to address challenges and understand the major areas of work and what they would cost.

There should be general agreement on what is needed and that it is necessary.

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The mobilisation conference aims to mobilise and align the initiatives which start the transformation jour-ney. Initiatives need to be properly organised, staffed and governed. The mobilisation workshop bringsthe teams together, creates a common community and provides an opportunity to work on common inter-ests.

Before the mobilisation conference you will need:


● Investigation of “blueprints” which can be a starting point for the design work of initiatives. For ex-ample, an off the shelf process map for an IT function (such as Gartner’s IT Lite) or an architecturepattern (such as the Open Group’s technology reference architecture).

● Collection of expectations which each initiative has, both for stakeholders and for other initiatives.For example, “sales and marketing will own the customer database and ensure the quality of data”.

The main sessions for the mobilisation workshop are:

● Team building to establish understanding of each team member, mutual trust and open communi-cation.

● Briefing on common ways of working such as progress reporting, formal governance processes,document control and publishing and change management.

● Role playing for the organisation and governance for the transformation. Participants put togetherrole plays to show the new structures working. For example, a role play for the new organisationmight demonstrate how relationship managers will work with the digital marketing function to givethe experience of a seamless organisation.

● Exchanging expectations among initiatives and teams. Expectations are socialised among teams andagreed.

At the end of the mobilisation conference, governance and organisation for the transformation should be inoperation, expectations between initiatives should be clear and the organisation should feel part of a jointeffort.

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It is rare indeed for a strategy project not to use tools and frameworks. Their purpose is to help people tomake sense of the multitude of choices being made and focus attention. They are used for research andanalysis purposes and at conferences.

The graphic on the next page shows which tools are particularly useful at each step. This is a starting pointand you will want to consider others if you want more focus on particular decisions. In summary:

● Trend books break down business and technology trends one by one and consider: the relevance ofthe trend to the organisation, the potential impact on the industry, the maturity of the trend (e.g.point in the “hype cycle”1) and key uncertainties.

● Scenarios set out alternative views of the future of the industry based on which trends have mostimpact. They are given a name (e.g. “wearable healthcare goes mainstream”) and described inrealistic detail. Typically you would develop three - one most likely and polarised alternative views.

● Stories present the experience of an organisation which relates to the current situation of theorganisation or the predicament it will face in future and serves to stimulate thinking. Stories can betold directly by someone with experience, or a video or audio story may be found or created, or aposter made. Each story should be related to a trend or to an issue.

● Value Curves2 or “strategy canvasses” are used to compare the different elements of what anorganisation might offer to its customers in the future with other players. A “blue ocean” strategyremoves elements which are expensive and adds others which are unique in the industry to createspace between the organisation and its competition.

● Business Models Canvasses3 are a simple graphical way to sum up the way a business makes money.Nine building blocks are shown: Customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer rela-tionships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships and cost structure.

● Business Capabilities are those things an organisation must do better to make its business modelwork. These include the key activities above. The current and required strength of each is assessedand its importance shown on a matrix4 to understand how strong the capability must be and whatgap should be filled.

● Enablers support one or more more business capabilities. Each is described in terms of its relevanceto different capabilities.

1 Gartner’s hype cycle maps the uptake of trends through five phases: technology trigger, peak of inflatedexpectations, trough of disillusionment, slope of enlightenment, plateau of productivity.2 Value curves are explained by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne’s in the book “Blue Ocean Strategy”.3 The use of “business model canvasses” is described in “Business Model Generation” by Alexander Oster-walder and Yves Pigneur.4Henderson, J. C. and N. Venkatraman (1993). Strategic Alignment: Leveraging Information Technology forTransforming Organizations, IBM Systems Journal, 32 (1), 4-16.

Essential Tools and Frameworks



seethefuture

seethefuture

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under-stand

your

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shape your

destinyshape your

destinypickyour

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pickyour

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trends &scenarios

value curve

enablers

transformation journeys

governance

stories

blueprints

portfolios

models

capabilities

Future viewB

usiness Model

Architecture

Capability B

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● Architectures1 are diagrams which show the main components of an organisation, its informationsystems, and its technology. For a strategy we are usually interested in high level building blockswhich are not specific in terms of which tool is used (for example, to use SAP or salesforce.com wouldbe decision which is deferred for the design stage of a programme).

● Transformation journeys are single page descriptions of transformations taken by organisationswhich describe the opportunity or challenge, approach taken, major steps or phases, outcome andrelevant lessons for those planning similar journeys.

● Portfolios are single page descriptions of initiatives which show the purpose, which businesscapabilities or enablers are addressed, overall roadmap (see below), the ballpark benefits and costs,dependencies on other initiatives, strategic importance and whether the initiative is critical forcompliance reasons. Each initiative is prioritised and plotted on a matrix typically showing impor-tance, return on investment and whether the initiative is must do.

● Roadmaps typically include a transformation map to show the key outcomes or achievements on theway to realising a vision and a logic diagram which shows each of the major initiatives and the linksbetween them against the timescale for the transformation.

● Governance structures show the reporting line or accountability for key governing bodies such as thetransformation steering board and executive board and for initiative governing bodies includingprogramme boards. Roles are described in terms of their purpose, responsibilities and peoplespecification (if required). We use generic governance structures where possible which are tried andtested. For example PRINCE 2 governance structures may be used for programmes.

● Blueprints describe how a capability works. For example, this could show show the organisationstructure, competencies needed, IT support, performance measurements, culture, processes andrelationships.

1 The Open Group publishes the TOGAF architecture framework which describes a method for creating ar-chitectures and the content of architectures. This is a good description of the work needed to create anenterprise architecture. For strategy work, however, this would be overkill.



What resources are useful in creating a business and technology strategy? Where to look? In truth there aremany ways to find what you need depending on your starting point and objectives.

Typically you might need help in one or all the following areas:

● Method and approach

● Research and analysis

● Coordination and support for key events

Typically help ranges from a complete service from a consultancy or independent consultant, to contentavailable off the shelf or made to order.

A complete service would include management of the whole process, research and analysis, coachingthrough the process and preparation of the final deliverable. Typically this is a six to eight week projectinvolving three or four consultants plus experts as required. Most large consultancies (for example,Capgemini Consulting, McKinsey, Accenture, Deloitte) can do this. They can also provide a complete servicefor individual initiatives or for a complete business transformation. Smaller consultancies can also providethis depending on their particular expertise. Even a large consultancy will need to do some specific researchand analysis and bring together the latest research and analysis rather than having such material “off theshelf”. This is the most expensive option.

IT advisors such as Gartner, Forrester, Mega or smaller firms (for example, MWD Advisors) can help withcontent. This will cover research and analysis and sometimes, method and approach, though they may haveless experience in execution than a consultancy who provides a complete service. IT advisors typically covertechnology, organisation and governance trends, analysis, insight and some frameworks or models.

Independent consultants will offer a wide range of services depending on their expertise and may be moreflexible. The key issue is specialisation - how much experience do they have in business and technologystrategy and transformation per se?

There are many books on method and approach, and on trends (though these may be prone to being overdramatic and overly long!).

There is also a wealth of research and analysis published on the Internet from various organisations - muchof it is well researched and relevant to developing a strategy. This includes free material and reports whichmust be bought.

Emelgo offers services in all three areas for business and technology strategy and can provide coachingremotely if needed.

Where to find resources

My favourite Internet resources include:

● www.businessballs.com

● www.capgemini-consulting.com

● www.cisr.mit.edu

● www.mckinsey.com

● www.ey.com

● www.kpmg.com

● hbr.org/magazine

● www.pwc.com

● www.mwdadvisors.com

● www.deloitte.com

● www.gartner.com

Emelgo provides services to help you to create your businessand technology strategy and to engage your organization tomake it become reality.

Simon Tait is a coach and consultant who helps clients accel-erate their business and technology strategy.

He has helped leaders reshape and transform their organiza-tions in over 50 assignments. Simon led the IS strategy (digitalstrategy) Center of Excellence for Capgemini Consulting UKwhere his role was to develop services and methods and totrain and coach consultants and lead client assignments.

Find out more at emelgo.com

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