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8 - 10 April 2002
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Florence, Italy
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GartnerG2 Scenario: In Search of Business Growth
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Petra Gartzen, Research Director, GartnerG2 | | |
Tuesday 9 April 2002
"Old" business life consists of long period of stability interspersed with short bursts of change, said Petra Gartzen, a research director at GartnerG2. Presenting at Symposium/ITxpo in Florence on Sunday, Gartzen said this has changed to a "new" business life consisting of constant flux with major discontinuities which requires a new way of strategic planning, flexible leadership styles and new business practices.
"Strategic planning in its current form will not work in the information age," said Gartzen.
So what steps need to be taken to assure the greatest return to growth in corporate revenue, earnings, market share, productivity or cash flow? Will strategic planning ever be "hot" again? Can companies become recession-proof? GartnerG2 believes it has the answers.
"A new, real-time strategy must be developed, says Gartzen, a strategy which includes a discrete phase for building out the support needed to execute the plan and scheduling strategic assessment reviews three times each year to allow for mid-year course corrections or new initiatives that do not disrupt on-going operations.
"Metrics to measure strategic progress, not just financial performance, are central to this process," said Gartzen. "A real-time strategy cannot be measured without real-time feedback of strategic performance."
Such processes and key metrics require the right people with the right skills. They also require the full support of an executive team that uses this process to drive company performance. Together, said Gartzen, these will provide a leading path to strategy.
Key recommendations from GartnerG2:
- Recapture a growth-oriented organizational mindset, but preserve a disciplined sense of opportunism
- Use enterprise agility for competitive advantage
- Shift strategic attention to external agility
- Innovate or die
- People are key
- Leadership must drive the process and empower employees
- The right people with the right skills will make or break strategy
- Let go and grow. Do not hang on to old processes for tradition's sake. The "build versus buy" rule has changed: decide which services to build and which to buy, then manage these relationships to influence long-term growth
- Re-map all your business processes to link directly to customers, partner and suppliers
- Abandon or outsource business processes that do not create value with customers, partners or suppliers
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