Strategic Business Analysis
Strategic Business Analysis is about becoming involved earlier in the lifecycle, before the business case, and bringing critical analytical thinking to the table, allowing for effective execution later on.
- Focus is on the business outcomes
- Change is led by the business
- Requires an expansion of skills & competencies
- Requires analysis at the strategic level to be embedded in business transformation programs
Role of Strategic Business Analysis
- Strategic business analysis is critical to achieving improved business results. It helps businesses shift from strategy to execution by facilitating the development of guiding strategies.
- It gives the company the ability to articulate and accelerate its change. However, it is carried out as part of a strategic endeavour that is necessary to achieve the intended business result.
- The strategic initiatives can be thought of as a multi-streamed program or a series of projects that work together to achieve the targeted business objective.
- Furthermore, it entails outcome-focused thinking, which entails framing the scope of the transformation, articulating the business need/outcome, and shaping the transformation agenda while simultaneously understanding the business context, business challenges, and the complexities of the internal and external environments.
- Additionally, strategic analysis necessitates a thorough examination of all facets of the company. Business analysis, change leadership, and programme and project management are all used. It concentrates on the “what” and “why” of solution implementation rather than the “how.”
When does Strategic analysis happen?
- This happens immediately after identifying the strategic initiatives in strategic planning, and prior to creating the business case, conducting procurement, and implementation for a business program or project.
- Secondly, Strategic analysis establishes and provides the foundations for the program and its work-streams or projects. It enables business change and initiates the building of business capability. However, this analysis is commonly neglected by organizations in their haste to move from strategy to delivery, however, statistics show us that it is vital for successful solution design and delivery. It is common to find that the first thing a business requires is a timeline for delivery, skipping past strategic analysis.
- This frequently results in incorrect assumptions, rework, delay, and not achieving business outcomes because the requirements are based on the current rather than future requirements and design. The business change led delivery leads to more successful outcomes. The business change led delivery begins with strategic analysis.
- Strategic analysis requires investment in thinking: creatively, critically, visually, as well as analytically. Further, it deals with concepts and abstracts, rather than an ordered logical sequence. It is about listening and interpreting the many different views and eliciting the patterns and themes.
- It is about identifying the core business problems that the business needs to address. These problems are often deep in the organization with many practices being constructed to work around these problems. Those engaged with strategic analysis need to be able to ‘peel away the onion’ and identify these core business problems.
For More Visit – Strategy Business Analysis
