TABLE OF CONTENTS Why leave strategy until so late in the book? Normally the order of an IT book would include strategy right after the introduction. I have left strategy so late because of three things: firstly almost no-one will be reading this from a start-up situation. They have current realities that need to be dealt with. I remember a paper I read in the early 1980s that talked about what new managing directors and presidents do when they take over an organisation. I have tried to find the original reference but without success, so the following diagram (Figure 13.1) is based on my imperfect memory.
As you can see when a manager comes into a new position, their first change is invariably a small one based on putting out existing fires or dealing with pressing problems. But they then need a period of between 6 and 18 months to investigate the root drivers of the organisation, and only then do they make the radical strategic shift that everyone has been expecting from day one. Of course this is a vast generalisation, but I have seen it happen this way enough times to allow it to guide me. Strategy emerges from an increased understanding of the environment.
Secondly it is too easy to get into strategy and stay there. A very small percentage of the success of any organisation is based on having a good strategy. It is true that this percentage is...
