Business Strategy replaced by Business Purpose

There is a new wave of thinking washing over Business Strategy and that is one of Business Purpose, but what is it and how does it affect the BRM function?

After years of trying to align IT Strategy to Business Strategy we realised that the true value was actually in convergence rather than alignment. Don’t have a Business Strategy and a IT Strategy have a single Business Strategy after all there is no such thing as Information Technology just Business Technology, remember its all about the business its goals and strategy to meet those goals, well it was until now....

Now there is a new thinking staying that Business Strategy is too confined and we should rather be thinking of Business Purpose, this white paper outlines it brilliantly well worth the time out to read through it:

https://www.managers.org.uk/~/media/Files/Reports/Guide-for-Leaders-White-Paper.pdf

These three points succinctly cover what is Business Purpose:

1) Purpose is a core and enduring motivation in the company

2) Purpose focuses on the ultimate means provided by the emotional capital to serve others and achieve long-term well being

3) Purpose is the fundamental motivation for the company which inspires the vision and guides the mission and resulting strategy

There are five points as to why you should become Business Purpose driven including increasing business performance. Most interestingly there is a section on how to implement Business Purpose including:

• Engaging Stakeholders to enrich your perspective
• Showing benefits through stories and proof points
• Enabling transparency
• Incentivise purposeful outcomes

Sound familiar? Yes the move to becoming a more Business Purpose driven organisation has many similar steps to becoming a successful Business Relationship Management function. So if you see this movement happening in your organisation or if you propose it, be sure to put BRM in the heart of it to work with the business converged into this new way of thinking.

New BRMP Classes

Excited to be offering two Business Relationship Management Professional [BRMP®] courses at Loughborough this year.

18th – 20th June 2018

1st – 3rd October 2018

Find out more and register here: https://t.co/cbOByDYDyo 

I will be using an exciting blended learning approach, using a much more fun and interactive delivery method than the normal PowerPoint. Also I’m using my experience of working as a BRM in the public sector where it’s not all about the money and profit margins as well as the shared experiences from my friends and colleagues at the BRM Institute.

Also alongside the June session we will be running a further workshop and conference/networking event. Plans are still being formed but we are expecting these sessions to be offering something new and exciting for the UK. 

The Game Plan: Strategic BRMs Focusing on Optimizing Value

As BRMs we often spend most of our time looking at our business units game plans, their long term strategies to achieving success, but we don't often look at our own. Now some might argue that if we make our business succeed then we ourselves have succeeded, and yes that is true, however if we can have our own game plan to optimize that success then the value could be maximized in that win for the organization for both the BRM and the business unit, a true win win!

So what should a BRM game plan look like? Well like all complex and interesting things, it depends, it depends on the maturity, the internal politics and a myriad of other factors. So how should it be approached? Well that is simple, like all things BRM it should be approached with value in the forefront of the mind, specifically measuring anticipated value and planning to maximize it without depreciating any value being gained elsewhere within the organization, actually not as simple as I might have first stated, lets break it down into four steps:

1) Finding potential value
2) Measuring expected value
3) Maximizing delivered value
4) Checking for value disruption

So step one was finding the potential value, this is key and like any hunter stalking their prey, to find it you have to understand it. I don't just mean reading up on a business units strategy or knowing what their top aims are for the coming years but really understanding them, get embedded in the business, know how they work and learn about the complex and interesting factors that build up the unwritten rules of how they plan, operate and improve. Once you really understand the business and the people operating within it you will learn the most effective ways the value can be realized. There is no point pushing for a strategic value chain to be focused on when you know the people needed to implement it don't believe in it and are planning on campaigning for a change in direction for it.

Step two is measuring the expected value, this involves looking at the value from multiple angles to see who is going to be gaining and where. It’s not all about the money, reputational gains, risk reduction, trust building or simply laying the foundations for longer term future strategy may all be elements of value to be gained. Build up some KPIs for the relevant stakeholders to agree on, then once agreed move onto step three.

Step three is about maximizing that value, so looking for potential value leakage and minimizing it, looking for the big value gains to push more resources towards. Can you now improve on the KPIs set in step two? Or ensure they are met with minimal risk?

Step four is one often forgot about but as a BRM you always need to look at the bigger picture, producing value for one business unit within a large organization can sometimes have a detrimental effect on another business unit. To mitigate this risk, ensure the correct levels of governance and control have been involved and are aware of any potential knock on effects. Keep them up to date with high level reports of progress as things change, a long term project may be fine one month but the next could have a big impact.

In conclusion, every organization is different and it’s impossible to define a game plan that will work for everyone but I hope to have made you think and given you an idea to help you deliver some value and improve your BRM game.

There is no such thing as an IT Strategy!

Business strategy is the only strategy, that's right there is no IT strategy, that IT strategy document you've been working on for months is worthless and here’s why.

The IT strategy is a supporting strategy to support the overarching business strategy, yes this is true but does it have any worth? Now we all know it’s hard to get anyone to read a long winded strategy, so often these supporting strategies come in two forms the long one and the one sider overview. I’m going to argue both are pointless, although I’m willing to be proven wrong as I have been a big fan of them in the past and could just be having an off day.

Lets take the one sider first, that's got to be useful hasn't it? Ok lets take it to the senior business leaders who are in charge of the organisational strategy first, they have their strategy saying they want to be doing X and Y to get to point Z in the next 5 years. Now we take the IT one side strategic overview saying we will help their strategy by doing A and B so we are at point C. Now if the business leaders have no faith in IT and IT have failed to deliver in the past they may take an interest in the details of this but ultimately they have told you to support X and Y and to come with them to point Z, so just get on with it the best way you can, that's what they pay you for. If anything is happening that results in going off track then tell us.

Ok so the top level isn’t interested what about the people working towards the strategy within IT? They need to align their services and projects with the IT strategy right? Wrong. They need to be thinking about the business strategy and not getting bogged down in this supporting strategy that will most likely be out of date by the time they read it, they need to understand from a high level where the organisation is going and adjust accordingly. Yes, I suppose the IT strategy could be seen as a tool to enable staff to better understand this by providing them a stepping stone they can relate to, but this runs the risk of them using this tool as a final strategy and not looking beyond to what is really needed.

So what about the long strategy the one no one reads, well that is often used for one purpose and that is to justify projects. We are doing this project because it works towards the strategic aim 3.78b in the IT strategy, no you are not, you are doing the project because you want to, you like the technology, you want to work with that team of people again, there is another true reason and you are using the strategy to justify it. This happens all too much in my experience and without an IT strategy this would not be possible, projects would have to relate to the true business strategy.

So all of that might sound like someone who has gotten out of bed the wrong side this morning and it is all a bit one sided but hopefully it will make you think and start a debate around what strategies are needed and why.