Did Somebody Say Strategy?

“New IT” and the Six Business Imperatives

Gartner is espousing business and information technology alignment at their Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2007 in Orlando this week.  They caught my eye in the Wall St. Journal with 3 full-pages outlining the Six Business Imperatives that organizations face and that can be exploited by the right technology & processes.  Here is our take on the first two imperatives (Gartner analyst names are in parentheses):

Getting started with your own Performance Management Revolution

Howard Dresner’s book, “The Performance Management Revolution,” is hitting the bookshelves on Oct. 24.  Howard and John Wiley & Son have given the Business Foundation exclusive access to Chapter 5: “Draw an Accountability Map,” which shows you how to get started on your Performance Management journey.  Read more for why you would want to do this, and for the link to read the chapter:

Sales Operations Performance

How do you measure and plan for the success of sales operations?  While some companies use sales ops as the reporting & analysis arm of sales, others are transforming sales ops to be a strategic partner in the sales, marketing, and customer satisfaction functions: bridging activities and results across those three areas of the business.  So how do you measure success for a smart sales operations team?

Strategy is Just The Beginning: Now You Have to Execute

Much has been written and spoken about on the subject of strategy. You’ll find hundreds, if not thousands that are willing to advise you on your strategy and many more who are willing to criticize it. But it’s a challenge to actually execute on the strategy you have created.

The ingredients that make up the successful execution of a strategic plan are simple: focus and communication.

xPM Maturity Models

There have been a number of BPM, CPM, EPM (and BI) maturity models presented by vendors, consultants, and analysts that show the adoption of systems & processes over time.  These are intended as a high-level diagnostic tool to help an enterprise communicate their current state and their aspirations for becoming a “performance-accountable organization.”  Here is a survey of the more popular models.