Four Principles for Realising Strategy with Innovation

Management Practice
28 Jan
Written By Yuyan Wang

Key Takeaways

Executives often struggle to identify initiatives that are most likely to have the greatest strategic impact.

Why? In large part because of what is not known. Most large organisations generate too little evidence of how inputs translate into strategic objectives and KPIs. This makes it almost impossible to have a more dynamic grip on the company’s investment portfolio and its impact.

Aligning, evaluating, and prioritising initiatives based on outcomes, on a regular basis, is a multi-year journey. It’s a fundamental shift in how everyone in the company thinks and works—acting as one team to deliver to the shared goals. The benefits are evident: shortened cycle time, more value for the money invested.

To make a start, consider the following:

• Create a holistic view of what value initiatives are currently generating.
• Articulate the KPIs initiatives should seek to deliver in order to achieve strategic targets.
• Agree on the value-related data that initiatives should report and how frequently.
• Design a process for allocating talent to the highest-priority initiatives.
• Insist that there is only one way.

Source: Four Principles for Realising Strategy with Innovation, by MIT CISR, September 16, 2021