Strategy translation

Now Business leaders

What is strategy translation

“Translate strategy into outcomes” is no longer just a buzzphrase. Strategy translation is now a set of steps to go from strategy to architecture. The architecture will combine technology and business innovation and will have the potential to generate strategic outcomes in terms of business process performance, customer value, and financial performance.

Pradeep Henry has created many kinds of resources to do strategy translation.

That too many companies jump in feet first without fully assessing fitness for purpose or potential strategic opportunities seems to be at the heart of what you’re saying – and I think that’s right. C-suite executive

What's in it for stakeholders

CIOs, CDOs, CMOs, business leaders

• Execute strategy through technology
• Innovate business/technology
• Encourage top-down situations (strategy looking for ideas) as well as bottom-up situations (ideas looking for strategic-fit)

Client partners, account managers, project managers

• Tech-spend viewed differently by customer organization as the new investments are for strategic projects
• Translate customer organization's business strategy into implementable architecture
• Deliver strategic outcomes (rather than just technology)

Business analysts

• Make higher-value contribution through strategy translation
• Bring one's own ideas to life through Integral discovery-and-design
• Enjoy career advancement and fulfillment

CIO articles on strategy translation

What experts say

To align with the true needs of the business, companies should force themselves to follow a strategy-driven approach. Kevin Knowles, Deloitte

I’ve been analyzing technology spending in Global 3,500 companies for more than 20 years. One dynamic has remained consistent: Many companies spend on technology and fail to generate returns or positive impact on their business … Naked technology (that is, software without business change) wipes out productivity improvements, hurts return on investment, and dulls the bright edge of well-conceived strategies. George Colony, Forrester Research

Projects completed “successfully” by project management standards (on time, on budget, to spec) have been considered failures because they did not address a business need. J. Kent Crawford, Seven Steps to Strategy Execution

Few organizations, however, exploit the potential competitive advantages from aligning and integrating their intangible assets. Kaplan & Norton, Harvard Business School