Strategic Issues in IT

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Strategic Issues in IT
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Contact Detail

• Colm O Suilleabhain
• Email cosuilleabhain_at_gmail.com
• Websitehttp//pmcmnotes.com

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Aim of the course

• The aim of this module is to develop strategic
  analysis and planning skills in students
• Critical Thinking and Reasoning

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Module Outcomes

• Understand the nature of Strategy
• Look at some tools to help us formulate
  strategies
• Look at interesting trends in IT
• Provide a solid analytical approach to Strategy

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Assessment

• Assignments
• 25 - Group Assignment
• 25 - Individual Assignment
• Examination
• 50 - 3 Questions answer 2

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Contact

• Contact Hours
• 2 hour lecture G028
• Wed 6.30pm-8.30pm

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Lecture format

• Lecture on the Paper (assigned the week before)
• 30 Mins
• Class Discussion Weekly Topic (assigned the week
  before)
• 30 Mins
• New Material/ New Paper assigned
• 50 Mins
• Guest Lectures/Presentations (hopefully)

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Culture

• Discussion in class
• Research by students out of hours
• Reading material before class
• Writing reports
• Presentations

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Practice when writing papers

• Reference your work
• Use Harvard system of referencing
• Guide available here http//libweb.anglia.ac.uk/re
  ferencing/harvard.htm

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Reading list

• What is Strategy?
• Porter, Michael E 1996 What Is Strategy? Harvard
  Business Review, Nov/Dec96, Vol. 74 Issue 6,
• Porter, Michael E. Kramer, Mark R. Strategy and
  Society The Link Between Competitive Advantage
  and Corporate Social Responsibility.. Harvard
  Business Review, Jun2007, Vol. 85 Issue 6,
  p136-137
• Prahalad, C. K. Hamel, Gary. The Core Competence
  of the Corporation. Harvard Business Review,
  May/Jun90, Vol. 68 Issue 3, p79-91
• Book
• Porter, Michael E, 1998 Competitive Strategy
  Techniques for Analyzing Industries and
  Competitors Chapter 1 The Structural Analysis of
  Industries
• Porter, Michael E. 1985 Competitive Advantage
  Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance
  Chapter 1 Competitive Strategy The Core
  Concepts
• Porter, Michael E. TOWARDS A DYNAMIC THEORY OF
  STRATEGY." Strategic Management Journal 12
  (1991) 95-117

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Reading List

• Views on Strategy?
• Markides, Constantinos C., A Dynamic View of
  Strategy, Sloan Management Review, Spring99,
  Vol. 40, Issue 3
• Markides, Constantinos C, "Strategic Innovation,"
  Sloan Management Review, volume 38, Spring 1997,
  pp. 9-23
• Markides, Constantinos C, "Strategic Innovation
  in Established Companies," Sloan Management
  Review, volume 39, Spring 1998, pp. 31-42.
• Utterback, Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation.
  Cambridge, MA Harvard Business School Press,
  1994. ISBN 0875847404.
• Sloan Management Review have a selection of
  articles on Strategy, read the reviews on this
  link http//sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/strategy/ and
  pick a few which support your opinions on
  strategy.

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Reading List

• Strategy Process
• Mintzberg, H. Lampel, Joseph. Reflecting on the
  Strategy Process. MIT Sloan Management Review,
  Spring99, Vol. 40 Issue 3,
• Mintzberg, H. "Patterns in Strategy Formation,"
  Management Science, volume 24, number 9, May
  1978, pp. 934-948
• Mintzberg, H. and A. McHugh, "Strategy Formation
  in an Adhocracy," Administrative Science
  Quarterly, volume 30, June 1985, pp. 160-197
• Mintzberg, H. and J.A. Waters, "Of Strategies,
  Deliberate and Emergent," Strategic Management
  Journal, volume 6, July-September 1985, pp. 257
  272
• Mintzberg, H. Structure In 5's A Synthesis Of
  The Research On Organization Design, Management
  SCIENCE Vol. 26. No. 3. March 1980

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Reading List

• The Delta Model
• Book
• Hax, Arnoldo C. and Dean L. Wilde. The Delta
  Project Discovering New Sources of
  Profitability. New York, NY Palgrave, 2001.
  ISBN 0333962451.
• Hax, Arnoldo C. "Achieving the Potentials of Your
  Organization - How to Overcome the Dangers of
  Commoditization." MIT Sloan Working Paper No.
  4260-02. (September 2002).
• Hax, Arnoldo C. Wilde II, Dean L. The delta
  model Adaptive management for a changing world..
  MIT Sloan Management Review, Winter99, Vol. 40
  Issue 2, p11-28, 18p
• Shapiro, Carl Varian, Hal R. The Art of
  Standards Wars. California Management Review,
  Winter99, Vol. 41 Issue 2, p8-32, 25p

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Reading strategy

• Technology Strategy
• McGahan, Anita M. HOW INDUSTRIES CHANGE.. Harvard
  Business Review, Oct2004, Vol. 82 Issue 10,
  p86-94,
• Book
• Christensen, Clayton. "How can great firms fail?
  Insights from the hard disk industry." Chapter 1
  in The Innovator's Dilemma. Cambridge, MA
  Harvard Business School Press, 1997, pp. 3-28.
  ISBN 006052199.
• Defining a strategy for Motorola. "The Way of the
  Warrior." The Economist, 2004

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Reading List

• Websites
• www.cio.com
• http//knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu
• www.news.com
• www.silicon.com
• www.siliconrepublic.com

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What is Strategy ?

• A strategy is a long term plan of action
  designed to achieve a particular goal.
• The branch of military science dealing with
  military command and the planning and conduct of
  a war

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What is strategy?

• A strategy is the basic idea of how the struggle
  of a specific campaign shall develop, and how its
  separate components shall be fitted together to
  contribute most advantageously to achieve its
  objectives.
• A company's overall plan of development.
  Corporate strategy can be more formally defined
  as a comprehensive plan or action orientation
  that identifies the critical direction and guides
  the allocation of resources of an entire
  organization.

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What is strategy?

• Competitive strategy is the search for a
  favourable competitive position in an industry,
  the fundamental arena in which competition
  occurs. Competitive strategy aims to establish a
  profitable and sustainable position against the
  forces that determine industry competition
• Porter, Michael E. 1985 Competitive Advantage
  Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance
  Chapter 1 Competitive Strategy The Core
  Concepts

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Management

• The process of using organizational resources in
  an effective and efficient manner to achieve
  organizational objectives.
• This process involves planning, organizing,
  leading, and controlling.

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Functions of Management

• Planning
• Setting goals and objectives
• Setting action plans --strategic, tactical,
  operational
• Organising
• Determining work activities
• Determining work group structures
• Assigning activities to positions and people
• Creating authority/responsibility.

• Leading
• Guiding and motivating subordinates
• Leading orgl resources to objectives
• Controlling
• Establishing standards
• Monitoring performance
• Taking corrective action

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Planning

• The process of anticipating future events and
  conditions and determining the courses of action
  necessary to achieve organizational objectives.
• continuous process
• creates a blueprint of action
• defines checkpoints for making comparisons
• What should be done
• By whom
• Where
• When
• How

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Planning Process

• Deciding in advance whats to be done in the
  future.
• Planning is a process which has a series of
  steps.
• Is the most important function since everything
  stems from it.
• Three kinds of planning--strategic, tactical, and
  operational.

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Planning Process

• Planning Process
• 1. Understand the organisations environment
• 2. Determine the organisational mission
• 3. Establish goals -- only loosely at this point
• 4. Determine the planning premises through SWOT
  Analysis
• 5. Establish goals and plans -- strategic,
  tactical, operational

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Strategic Planning
The process of determining an organisation's
primary objectives, allocating funds, and then
initiating actions designed to achieve those
objectives.
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Strategic Planning

• Broad guides to thinking.
• The responsibility of and set by top management.
• Statements of where the organisation wants to be
  in future.
• These plans tend to be 3-5 years out and turn
  your goals into reality.
• Pertain to the organisation as whole rather than
  individual departments or divisions.
• Involves decisions where to invest major
  resources--resource allocation.

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Tactical Planning
The process of defining implementation activities
that the organisation must carry out to achieve
its objectives.
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Tactical Planning

• Guides to action or getting things accomplished.
• More specific and not as broad as strategic.
• Shorter term than strategic-- usually a year in
  length.
• Focus on one part of overall strategy.
• Based on strategic plans and established by
  middle management
• Describe what the subunits of organisation must
  achieve.

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Operational Planning
Creates the work standards that guide
implementation of tactical plans such as choosing
specific work targets and the right employees to
carry out plans.
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Operational Planning

• Shortest term of all the planning and are based
  on tactics.
• Most specific of goals.
• Concerned with this month, this week, or today.
• Describe very specifically the results of
  departments, work units, and individuals.
• Responsibility of first line supervisors and are
  action steps for daily and weekly plans.

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Adaptive Planning

• Planning at any or all levels- strategic,
  tactical, operational.
• Planning with enough flexibility to adapt to
  changes in your business environment.
• Involves anticipating future events that might
  alter your existing plans.

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Contingency Planning

• The determination of alternative course of action
  to be taken if an intended plan of action in
  unexpectedly interrupted.
• Process
• 1. Develop your plans - considering contingency
  events.
• 2. Implement plan and formally identify
  contingency events.
• 3. Specify indicators of contingency events--a
  sign that the event is about to take place.
• 4. Develop contingency plan and implement it if
  contingency event occurs.

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Management Levels
Supervisory
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Management Planning Levels
Strategic
Tactical
Operational
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Goals
All planning is based on goals. Like planning
there are 3 levels -- strategic, tactical,
operational Goals are desired future
states. What you want in the future.
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Operational Effectiveness vs Strategy

• Doing the same as the competition, but more
  efficiently
• Hypercompetition a self inflicted wound?
• TQM, benchmarking, outsourcing, partnering,
  re-engineering, change management

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What is strategy?

• Strategy is creating fit among a companies
  activities.
• The success of a strategy depends on doing many
  things well - not just a few - and integrating
  them .

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Strategic Positioning

• Performing different activities from rivals, or
  performing similar activities but in different
  ways.
• Examples
• SouthWest/Ryan Air
• Ikea
• Apple

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Important of getting strategy right

• Only 16 of the 100 largest U.S. companies at the
  start of the 20th century are still identifiable
  today
• 59,608 businesses filed for bankruptcy in the US
  from July 2009 June 2010
• Success is transient........