Premium Essay

Strategic Issues in Project Management

In:

Submitted By dmuniu
Words 2955
Pages 12
Strategic Issues: The Pivotal Process for Strategic Success

Thomas E. Ambler Senior Consultant, CSSP, Inc.
Tom Ambler
REALIZE YOUR POTENTIAL! Is that what you want for yourself and your company? What is your company’s potential? Do you have a vision of it?

Yes? That’s why you use Simplified Strategic Planning, isn’t it? In the Simplified Strategic Planning process you build toward your strategy - your vision for the longer term, the course and direction you need to take to maximize your potential. Then, for the short term you make sure that your resources line up and are focused on achieving your vision.

Good strategy takes more than just strong desire. Good strategy requires good input and analysis. It also requires good decision-making. That’s what the exercise known as “STRATEGIC ISSUES” is all about. It is a pivotal step in the strategic planning process that deals with answering the “Big Strategic Questions.”

Successful identification and resolution of Strategic Issues results from combining both content and process elements, big and small, effectively and smoothly.

What is a Strategic Issue? A Strategic Issue is, first of all, an issue - an unresolved question needing a decision or waiting for some clarifying future event. Secondly, it is strategic and has major impact on the course and direction of the business. It probably relates directly to one or more of the fundamental “Three Strategic Questions”:
•What are we going to sell?
•To whom are we going to sell it?
•How will we beat or avoid our competition?

Strategic Issues lie right at the heart of the business. Correspondingly, the process step dealing with Strategic Issues lies right at the heart of Simplified Strategic Planning.

How Does the Strategic Issues Process Relate to the Rest of the Simplified Strategic Planning Process? Figure 1 provides a schematic diagram of the entire Simplified

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Strategic Issues

...ARTS-PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT Course Code: LDP 604 Course Name: Project Design, Planning and Implementation Duration: October 2013-February 2014 Assignment: Group Presentation Topic: Strategic Issues in Project Management Date: 30th October, 2013 Group Members: 1. Winnie Munene 2. Philip Abong’o 3. Bernard Tarus 4. Noel Amoit 5. Brian Kenya 6. Sam Kiarie 7. Peter Kabutu Lecturer: Mr A. Bwibo Definition A strategy is a method or plan chosen to bring about a desired future, such as achievement of a goal or solution to a problem. It can also be defined as the art and science of planning and marshalling resources for their most efficient and effective use. An issue is something that has happened and either threatens or enhances the success of a project. Issue management is the process of recording and handling any event or problem. Some of the issues can be dealt with within the project; however strategic issues may require a change in order to keep the project viable. Therefore, the following are diverse definitions of strategic issues in project management:- A strategic issue in a project is a condition of pressure, either internal or external that will have a significant effect on one or more factors of the project such as its financing ,design, engineering, construction and operation.(MBA knowledge base). Cleland D. (1989) identifies strategic issues as disagreements/conflicts...

Words: 6510 - Pages: 27

Premium Essay

Obama Care

...areas that present specific operations issues and has made recommendations for each of these areas below.   The issues discovered and discussed are strategic planning, organization, finance, project management, a project team, and project resource allocation and are presented in the information below with recommended resolutions. Week 1 Issues Issue #1 The first issue identified by Strategy One is in the area of strategic planning.   CanGo has been a successful company to date by being a trail blazer and leader in the online retail resource vertical.   In order for CanGo to continue its success, remain a leader and expand its offerings, strategic planning must be implemented in the management of the company.   “The strategic management process is made up of four elements: situation analysis, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategy evaluation. These elements are steps that are performed, in order, when developing a new strategic management plan. Existing businesses that have already developed a strategic management plan will revisit these steps as the need arises, in order to make necessary changes and improvements.”   (Bushman, 2007)   There is an admitted lack of planning in the current organization.   By documenting the trending in what has been successful; CanGo will be able to remain an industry leader as long as this planning is a priority in deciding the future vision of CanGo.     Issue #2 The second issue identified by Strategy One is in the area...

Words: 4593 - Pages: 19

Premium Essay

Strategic Change Management

...QCF LEVEL 7 EXTENDED DIPLOMA IN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP STRATEGIC CHANGE MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT UNIT: STUDENT NAME : COLLEGE ID : TUTOR : SUBMISSION DATE : WORD COUNT : TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction …………………………………………………………………………… 03 LO1. Understand the background to organizational strategic change 1.1 Discuss a minimum of three established models of strategic change, highlighting the differences in approach. 1.2 Evaluate the relevance of models of strategic change, and using examples from organizations, Explain why the models for change are appropriate in their selected examples. 1.3 Assess the value of using strategic intervention techniques that are used in organizations. LO2. Understand issues relating to strategic change in an organization 2.1 Examine the need for strategic change in an organization. 2.2 Show an understanding of the forces that are impacting on an organization and driving the need for Change. 2.3 Assess the resource implications of the organization not responding to strategic change. It is Expected that learners will assess the relevant financial, human and physical resources. LO3. Be able to lead stakeholders in developing a strategy for change 3.1 Develop systems to involve stakeholders in the planning of change. The systems need to be Appropriate...

Words: 3050 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Portfolio Managemenet Plan

...Emory University Portfolio Management Plan Contents Emory University Background 4 Strategic Plan 6 Strategic Capacity Plan 7 Portfolio Management Process 7 Project Selection Criteria 8 Program Management Plan 9 Conflict Resolution Plan 11 Change Management Plan (CMP) 13 Resource Utilization Plan 16 References 18 Appendix A 19 Emory University Background Emory University was founded by an original charter that started the school in Oxford, GA, Newton County on December 10, 1836. It was hand-written on two pieces of notebook paper, front and back. By 1914, the Methodist Church was looking to create a university in the South, and Emory College was looking to expand. Asa Candler, founder of The Coca-Cola Company, wrote the "million-dollar letter" to offer seed money, and he sweetened the deal by donating land in Atlanta. Emory University received a DeKalb County charter to build at its present location in 1915. The soft drink company president's brother was Emory alumnus and former president, Methodist Bishop Warren Candler, who returned to serve as its first chancellor on the new campus. The Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Company has given rise to family fortunes for the Candlers, the Woodruffs, the Goizuetas and others who have been extraordinarily generous to Emory. The philanthropy of these and other donors has enabled Emory's growth and empowered its ambition to become one of the nation's leading universities. It's unofficially considered poor school...

Words: 4613 - Pages: 19

Premium Essay

Senior Project

...Analysis Report Strategic Management Consultants, Inc. Team A Camesha Hunt Alex Landos Derrence Kun Liang Lim Rodney Scott Miguel Soto BUSN 460 Senior Project DeVry University Professor Milford Abstract Team A has been instructed to list 6 issues facing CanGo that Team A assembled from the week 1 and 2 videos. They should be prioritized in order of importance. They should be numbered. The team must then come up with an actionable recommendation for each of the issues found. These should also be numbered and the recommendations must be actionable (DeVry Week 2 Assignments). The following body of text will outline and explain the questions to the fullest extent possible while citing the appropriate sources in APA (6th ed.) format on the references page at the end of this document. Strategic Management Consultants, Inc. Team Video Analysis Report Introduction Strategic Management Consultants, Inc. will address six issues facing CanGo that Team A collected from the week one and two videos. Strategic Management Consultants, Inc. will come up with actionable recommendations, number, and prioritize the solutions for each of the issues found (DeVry Week 2 Assignments). Methods The research for this assignment was collected through DeVry’s E-platform portal from our course e-shell in week one and week two video episodes. 6 Issues After reviewing the video episodes in week one and two Strategic Management Consultants, Inc. believes that the six issues facing CanGo are...

Words: 2511 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Business Analysis

...Week 2 Analysis Report BUSN460 Senior Project Professor: Raouf Ghattas January 20, 2013 Issue 1: CanGo is in need of a formal business plan. A formal business plan includes a mission and vision statement to help define the business and where the company would like to go in the future. As the owner/operator of CanGo, Elizabeth never developed a formal business plan for the business from the beginning and therefore had no documented blueprint for the business to speak of. Perfect starting issue! Recommendation: A business plan is a written document that demonstrates persuasively that enough products or services can be sold at a profit for your firm to become a viable business. The three primary reasons for writing business plans are (1) to aid you in determining the feasibility of your business idea, (2) to attract capital for starting up, and (3) to provide direction for your business after it is in operation. CanGo needs a written that will help find omissions and flaws in their ideas by allowing other people to critically review and analyze the plan. A business plan tells you what your business objectives are; when, where, why, and how your business will accomplish its objectives; and who will be involved in running the business. This planning process will help define CanGo’s short term goals and help determine the actions that need to be taken to accomplish them and then gather and commit the necessary resources (Hatten, 2008). The mission statement needs...

Words: 1795 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Week 2 Cango Project

...Chamber of Commerce meeting to discuss her strategic management process that contributed to the success of CanGo, she realized that the strategic planning process of her company was haphazard and emergent. Its success has more to do with “luck” rather than deliberate strategies and planning. CanGo’s management would have to make a decision about how to institute a strategic management process in the implementation of a successful online gaming system to their business, so they can develop a competitive advantage. As an external consultant hired by CanGo, our job is to advise the management team as to the appropriate courses of action needed to address various challenges facing the firm. We will observe CanGo’s personnel, their interactions in various group settings, and other business functions. Based on these observations, we will address CanGo's notable challenges; develop our recommendations for its resolution and improvements that are focused on improving the business processes, operations, and profits of CanGo. Based on our observation from week 1 and 2, below are the 6 issues that our team determined that CanGo is facing, followed by our recommendations. 1. The first observed issue: The current strategic planning process of CanGo is risky and emergent. Recommendations: It is recommended that Liz follow the strategic planning process in order to develop a more strategic management process. The strategic planning process consists of four elements...

Words: 2187 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Project Management

...Why organization use project management to achieve strategic objective 4 2.3 Case study 7 3.0 Conclusion 8 PART B 9 Question 1: 9 Question 2 11 Question 3 13 Question 4 14 Question 5a 14 Question 5b 16 Question 5c 18 Reference 21 Appendix 23 List of Figure Figure 1: Dialog box to change working time 9 Figure 2: Gantt chart for Part B-Question 1 10 Figure 3: Networking Diagram 12 Figure 4: Project summary for Part B - Question 1 13 Figure 5: Collapse Boxes for the Networking diagram 14 Figure 6 : Inserting 15 days of delay 15 Figure 7: Gantt chart for Part B Question 5a after delay 15 Figure 8: Gantt chart before delay 16 Figure 9: Leveling Gantt for Part B – Question 5b 17 Figure 10: Gantt chart before any delay 17 Figure 11: Gantt chart for Part B – Question 5b 18 Figure 12: Gantt chart for Part B Question 5c 19 Figure 13: Gantt chart before any delay 19 PART A 1.0 Introduction Nowadays strategic objective is viewed as essential as operation target to an organization’s operation (Brown & Russell, 2008). There is an increasing awareness that solely achievement on the operation goal will not generate the prominent competitive advantage as expected. It can only be realized through the accomplishment of strategic objective. Alogan and Yetis (2006) have defined that strategic objective as a translator which can project our vision into an...

Words: 3990 - Pages: 16

Premium Essay

Cango Video Analysis Week 1 & 2

...Team B Video Analysis Report of CanGo Innovative Financial Management & Consulting Services BUSN 460 Based on the first two week of observation, Innovative Financial Management & Consulting Services (IFM) has noted the following issues and our recommendation for your review. ISSUE #1: No Mission Statement or Company Vision RECOMMENDATION: It is the recommendation of IFM that a formal mission statement and company vision be defined. A mission statement defines why the organization exists and what it does, and is also a way of ensuring that everyone in the organization is on the same page. A mission statement also serves as a base line for effective business planning. A vision statement focuses on the organization's future; it can also robustly communicate the company’s purposes and inspire your team or organization. IFM consultants will meet with the Board of Directors to help define the company’s mission statement and vision. ISSUE #2: No Strategic Plan RECOMMENDATION: Once the CanGo mission and vision have been finalized and approved by the board, IFM consultants will develop a strategic plan through the following process: • Conduct a SWOT analysis • Review SWOT analysis and outline CanGo’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats • Define objectives, key strategies and short and long term goals • Define operational plan Once the strategic plan has been fully developed and approved by the CanGo Board of Directors, IFM will...

Words: 987 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

One on One

...|Top of Form | |[pic][pic][pic] | | | |[pic] | | | | | |[pic]   | | | |[pic] ...

Words: 2441 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Easy Internet Cafe

... Page 3 – Executive Summary Page 4 – Issue(s) Identification Page 5 – Environmental and Root Cause Analysis Page 7 – Alternatives Page 9 – Recommendations and Implementation Page 10 – Monitor and Control Executive Summary With our decision to radically revamp our operations to appoint franchisees for the new stores and existing ones, it is critical that we have an operating system that reflects this major change. With the new strategy the franchisees would be required to bear the costs of the property and hardware. It is hoped that these actions would reduce elc’s drain on capital. We are focusing all our time on the logistics for the stores which is the main reason for escalation of high costs and continuing losses. We are not focusing on our core competencies of our business which is our software and service level. Four companies were reviewed for focusing on the logistics of the equipment for the stores. I would recommend going with Ingram Micro as their focus is on supply chain management. Easy Internet Café needs centralized warehousing where all equipment and furnishings are staged before forwarding onwards to the franchisees to reduce costs. With centralized warehousing it will reduce costs, especially if the location was more central to our customers for faster and easier shipping. This will also simplify Inventory management throughout the supply chain as there would be one management system instead of multiple. This is exactly what...

Words: 893 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Functional Areas of Business

...a specialist in my area of background I received, does not give me a feeling that this is my way I want to go forward during my entire life. Thanks God, soon, I got promoted to Facilities Engineering Department to Project Engineer position. Since that moment my project management career started. During obtaining work experience by moving from project engineering positions in small projects to more managerial positions in bigger projects, I decided to obtain specific knowledge related to professional project management area. Since 2005 I entered to Project Management Institute Association and managed to obtain Project Management Professional certificate in 2012. PMP was quite challengeable for me and the real thing I proud of. This successful pass though was also like a definition of a new horizon to go forward obtaining Master of Business Administration degree. Why I decided to go to Business Administration? Actually, my last two projects and my functions on these projects were related not to direct management of project activities, but to more strategic things also related to organizational goals out of the project boundaries. At that time I suffered some lack of knowledge in general management areas which are not being broken down in details in projects management like Laws, Economics,...

Words: 902 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Assett Management Plan

...TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction 5 1.1 Why Asset Management is Important? 5 1.2 Organisational Commitment 5 1.3 Progress Made 6 1.4 Strategic Linkages 6 1.5 Organisational Asset Management Linkages 6 1.6 Key Stakeholders 7 1.7 Issues 7 2 Demand management 7 2.1 Overview 7 2.5 Teaching Spaces 10 2.6 Consideration of Capacity – Supply vs Demand 11 3 Levels of service 12 3.1 Overview 12 3.2 Strategic Levels of Service 12 3.3 Tactical Levels of Service 13 3.4 Operational Levels of Service 13 3.5 External Level of Service Requirements 14 4 Asset description – knowing what we have 14 4.1 Overview 14 4.2 Asset Values 14 4.3 Building Description 15 4.4 Building Risk Profile 15 4.5 Building Functionality 15 4.6 Building Availability and Utilisation 16 4.7 Building Condition 16 4.8 Environmental Performance 17 5 Challenges and investments 17 5.1 Overview 17 5.2 Shortfalls – Educational Service Needs 17 5.3 Currently Funded Projects 18 5.4 Responses to Significant Known Challenges 18 6 Optimised Decision Making 19 6.1 Optimised Decision Making Framework 19 6.2 Significant Projects 19 6.3 Likelihood of Events Happening 19 6.4 What Controls Can Be Put Into Place 20 6.5 Prioritisation and Decision Making Process 20 7 Financial forecasts 20 7.1 Overview 20 7.2 Long Term Capital Forecasts 20 7.3 Consequential...

Words: 3823 - Pages: 16

Premium Essay

Trophy Project

...Executive Summary 3 2. Major problems Experienced in the Trophy Project 4 2.1. Synopsis of the Trophy project case study problems 4 3. List of Problems 4 3.1. Operational 4 3.2. Behavioural 5 3.3. Structural 5 4. Leadership at Top Management and functional management levels of the Organisation 7 4.1. Initiation Structures 8 4.2. Dysfunctional roles of Functional Manager 8 4.3. Lack of Senior Management Support 8 4.4. Reactionary Management style 10 4.5. Implementation strategy 10 4.6. Lack of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 11 4.7. Internal Processes perspectives 11 4.8. Lack of Innovation and Learning (Learning and Growth) Perspective 11 5. Reichart’s Leadership and Managerial Abilities 12 5.1. Planning 12 5.2. Organizing 12 5.3. Staffing 12 5.4. Leading 13 5.5. Controlling 13 5.6. Major Skills lacking in Reichart’s leadership 14 6. Recommendations 14 6.1. Implementing a Strategic Transformation and Change Management Programme 15 6.1.1. Strategic transformation planning 15 6.1.2. Creating a Climate for Change 17 6.1.3. Continuous Organisational Improvement 17 6.1.4. Risk Management 18 6.1.5. Control 18 6.1.6. Stage–Gate Model 18 6.1.7. Balanced Scorecard 19 7. Conclusion 19 8. References 20 9. Annexure 22 9.1. Planning, Control, organising, & leading 22 9.2. BS – PM Learning Organisation Value Chain Schematic 23 9.3. Kotter’s 8-Step Process for Leading Change 23 9.4. Strategic transformation process 24 9.5. Continuous Organisational Improvement...

Words: 4860 - Pages: 20

Premium Essay

Information Technology Term Paper

...INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT INTRODUCTION        With a weakened global economy, consumer confidence at record lows, and widespread layoffs unlike anything we have seen in over eighty years, information technology is taking on new roles in the business world.  CIO's are relying more heavily on IT in order to reduce operating costs, increase productivity and give their companies a competitive edge. Historically viewed as an expense and liability, IT is now being thought of as strategic business enabler. Management of IT and the associated strategy, funding and security are top of mind for many in today's challenging environment.  Executives are under more pressure than ever to maximize return on their technology investments. However, our research has revealed that there are several key concerns that appear to be trending throughout corporations as they determine the exact roles IT should play.   READINGS         Members of the group read several chapters from the textbook, Information Technology for Management: Improving Performance in the Digital Economy (Turban and Volonino, 7th Edition), as well as numerous articles on various information technology subjects.           A topic which received a significant amount of attention throughout our readings is the importance of aligning IT strategies with the business priorities of the company, and how this is critical to the success of an organization.  An important component of this alignment is ensuring that the IT division...

Words: 7761 - Pages: 32