Strategic analysis refers to the process of conducting research on a company and its operating environment to formulate a strategy. The definition of strategic analysis may differ from an academic or business perspective, but the process involves several common factors.Strategic analysis is essential if a company has a goal and a mission for themselves. All leading organization who are well known for their achievements have years of strategic planning being implemented at various stages. Strategic planning is a long-term task involving continuous and systematic planning and resource investment. The main question that a company should consider when performing a strategic analysis is: How is the market constituted? How are the active clients in this sector?The Strategy Analysis knowledge area includes the following tasks:
• Analyze Current State: understands the business need and how it relates
to the way the enterprise functions today. Sets a baseline and context for
change.
• Define Future State: defines goals and objectives that will demonstrate
that the business need has been satisfied and defines what parts of the
enterprise need to change in order to meet those goals and objectives.
• Assess Risks: understands the uncertainties around the change, considers
the effect those uncertainties may have on the ability to deliver value
through a change, and recommends actions to address risks where
appropriate.
• Define Change Strategy: performs a gap analysis between current and
future state, assesses options for achieving the future state, and
recommends the highest value approach for reaching the future state
including any transition states that may be required along the way.
Types of strategy analysis :
- Internal strategic analysis
- External strategic analysis
Internal strategy analysis
This analysis organizations look inwards or within the organization and identify the positive and negative points, and establish the set of resources that can be used to improve the company’s image within the market. SWOT analysis is one of the most reputed techniques for internal strategic analysis. There is no better way to benefit from a strategically performed analysis than to use it to detect the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats that your project may suffer. As we all know better now about the SWOT analysis each one of us has done about our company. Specifically talking about TD bank they care proper care to follow SWOT analysis in the company to do better banking everyday.
External strategic analysis
Once the organization has successfully completed its internal analysis, the organization needs to know about external factors that can be a hindrance in their growth. To do so, they need to know how the market functions and how consumers react or behave to certain products or services. Measuring customer satisfaction is a common external analysis method.PESTLE analysis (Political, Economic, Social, Legal and Environmental) is used for external strategic analysis. it includes:
As Sim mentioned, Strategy Analysis has four important tasks: Analyse Current State, Define Future State, Assess Risks and Define Change Strategy.
ReplyDeleteAnalyse Current State: On this phase the organization need to understand the reasons why an enterprise needs to change. The business analyst has the responsibility of working with stakeholders to focus on the area that need the change on the process or even the creation of a need task to optimize the production.
Define Future State: After the first step, the company will draw a plan with all the required steps to make the change happened. All the motivation for the change happed needs to be inform on the stage.
Assess Risks: The phase is responsible to understand the potential impact of this change in the company process and for external forces too. Also, on the part of the Strategy, it’s valuable to understand what stakeholders perceive as rick.
Define Change Strategy: The last step creates alternatives solutions for the change. This just happens if the perception of the change for the project team or stakeholders’ changes too.
Big companies As TD Bank suffers big changes on their process due increase of numbers of employees or investments. The company needs to be prepared to handle this situation. Making this change the company can continue growing.For example from 2002 to today the number of employee doubled.
I want to add more on defining change strategy.
ReplyDeleteTalking about the crucial elements in defining change strategy: solution scope, gap analysis, enterprise readiness assessment, change strategy, transition states and release planning.
Solution Scope: Solution is described as the result of the change which fulfil the needs of the time. Solution scope depicts the limits attached to solution and makes stakeholders understand the impacts of the change. Solution scope is defined in many ways including capabilities, technology, data, resources, functions etcetera.
Gap Analysis: It is the study which defines the difference between the project we have now and what do we expect from our future project. To define gap analysis, we need to know the current state of the project and the future expectations. Gap analysis can help us understand that what are the some things which are preventing the project to be meeting the needs. The gaps will need to be addressed in the future states.
Enterprise Readiness Assessment: Business analysts examine the organisation to assess its ability to make the exchange and to maintain the exchange in the destiny kingdom. The readiness evaluation considers the employer’s ability now not handiest to make the alternate however to use and sustain the answer, and realize cost from the solution. The assessment also factors in the cultural readiness of the stakeholders and operational readiness in making the exchange, the timeline from while the exchange is implemented to when fee may be realized, and the sources available to assist the alternate attempt.
Change Strategy: It is a plan of activities which are used to create the project's final state. Each element of change might not be able to fulfil the changes, so, we may need to implement multiple changes. The preferred change strategy should be selected among:
Organizational readiness to make the change
Major costs and investments needed to make the change
Timeliness to make the change
Alignment to the business objectives
Timeliness for value realization
Opportunity costs of the change strategy
Transition States and Release Planning: In many cases, the future nation will need to be carried out through the years in preference to via a unmarried change, that means that the agency will must function in a single or extra transition states. Release planning is worried with figuring out which necessities to consist of in every release, section, or iteration of the trade. Business analysts assist facilitate launch making plans discussions to assist stakeholders attain selections. There are many elements that guide those choices, which include the
standard budget, deadlines or time constraints, useful resource constraints, training schedules, and the ability of the business to soak up modifications within a defined time frame. There may be organizational restraints or policies that should be adhered to in any implementation. Business analysts assist in making plans the timing of the implementation which motive minimum disruption to enterprise sports, and to make sure all parties recognize the impact to the corporation.
I am going to explain the definition of Future State in more depth:
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of Define Future State is to determine the set of necessary conditions to meet the business need.
All purposeful change must include a definition of success. Business analysts work to ensure that the future state of the enterprise is well defined, that it is achievable with the resources available, and that key stakeholders have a shared consensus vision of the outcome. As with current state analysis, the purpose of future state analysis is not to create a comprehensive description of the outcome at a level of detail that will directly support implementation. The future state will be defined at a level of detail that:
• allows for competing strategies to achieve the future state to be identified and assessed,
• provides a clear definition of the outcomes that will satisfy the business needs,
• details the scope of the solution space,
• allows for value associated with the future state to be assessed, and
• enables consensus to be achieved among key stakeholders.
The future state description can include any context about the proposed future state. It describes the new, removed, and modified components of the enterprise. It can include changes to the boundaries of the organization itself, such as entering a new market or performing a merger or acquisition. The future state can also be simple changes to existing components of an organization, such as changing a step in a process or removing a feature from an existing application. Change may be needed to any component of the enterprise, including (but not limited to):
• Business processes, • functions,
• Lines of business, • organization structures,
• Staff competencies, • knowledge and skills,
• Training, • facilities,
• Desktop tools, • organization locations,
• Data and information, • application systems, and/or
• Technology infrastructure.