Creating a digtal stratetgy

In today’s business environment, almost every company relies on varying levels of digital business activities as part as it everyday operations. Depending on its operational and growth needs one or many digital components may need to be developed increase its competitive edge. Like most strategy engagements, finding the correct digital strategy often starts by asking “what is the problem we are trying to solve.”

• How will this enhance our company’s capabilities?
• How will this strategy create value for our customers?
• How will the changes be measurable?
• What are our competitors doing?
• What are our weakest areas?
• What does our company do better then everyone else?

Startegic Vision

Strategic vision represents what your company wants to be in the future. The vision should contain both strategy for both now and in the future. Where is your company now? Where do you want it to go? What would your company look like in terms of scope, business model, and ecosystem?

The vision should define the strategic objective(s) of the company, which should be specific, measurable, and time-bound.

• Double customer base in next 5 years
• Move all data operations to the cloud
• Develop a suite predictive analytics tools for our customers in next year
• Increase Net Promotor score from 60 to 80 by developing customer service bots to answer customer questions.

SWOT & Competitive Analysis

Performing situation analysis of where your company is in relation to the market place and its competitors is essential to determining what initiatives should be pursued to achieve the company’s strategic vision. The analysis should uncover which initiatives makes the most sense based on current and future capabilities.

• Analyzing market competition
• Identifying competitive advantages
• Identifying customer segments

Initiatives 

After determining how you company plans on generating more value for its customers in the future it is now time to select the type of capabilities & services will connect your companies’ customers with your business. These capabilities & services should be formulated into initiatives based on capabilities, infrastructure, and technologies that the company currently has or builds as part of the strategy.

Prioritization 

Once a list of possible initiatives has been defined, the strategy team should vote on the best ideas and prioritize which ones should be pursued first based on factors such as complexity, risk of failure, and cost of execution. Every part of the strategy should be back with financial justification and clear business benefits.