Although the term “strategic initiative” might sound like inflated business jargon, it’s far from useless. A strategic initiative is a compass that guides businesses and targets future goals.
It speaks to the PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), which says all projects must be strategically aligned with the organization’s business strategy.
But a strategic initiative is more than one project, it encompasses many projects working together to serve the needs of the larger corporation. Strategic initiatives are large and complex, requiring a program manager to steer that big ship.
What Is a Strategic Initiative?
A strategic initiative is a set of actions that are taken by a company toward the improvement of its operations or the completion of its strategic goals and its overall strategic plan. Strategic initiatives operate on three tiers. They have to address the company’s vision, speak to the benefits of stakeholders and work towards growing the company while aligning its various segments.
Another way to look at strategic initiatives is that it’s the instrument that helps deliver on the company’s vision. It takes the abstract and makes it practical by putting it into practice in the real world. In this definition, a strategic initiative can be a project or a number of interrelated projects, which is known as a program in project management.
For example, one strategic goal of a retail company might be to increase its market share by 10% in the upcoming years. One strategic initiative to achieve such goals might be to expand its distribution channels online, which would involve several projects such as creating a website and establishing a logistics management framework to support its online operations. These strategic goals and initiatives are usually documented on a strategic plan, which is a document that explains what a business is set to achieve in the next three to five years.
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Strategic Plan Template
Use this free Strategic Plan Template for Word to manage your projects better.
Why Make a Strategic Initiative?
Organizations will want to develop strategic initiatives because it gives them a way to achieve specific objectives. It can also be a means to close the gap between the target of a program and its current performance.
Strategic initiatives are also helpful for executives who want to have a framework by which they can review all their projects in the program, define various impacts on the program and then focus on only those projects that can deliver immediate and measurable changes.
It’s all about improving the way an organization operates. Strategic initiatives are not about remaining complacent: they seek to get the greatest return out of the various projects in your portfolio.
Differences Between an Initiative, Goal, Objective & Vision
Strategic initiatives can be confused with other strategies. For example, a strategic initiative is not a strategic goal.
Strategic Goals
A strategic goal is part of strategic planning. A strategic goal is set by the company to identify what they want to accomplish in a business strategy. It is a more general endpoint that speaks to the company’s needs.
Strategic Objectives
Strategic initiatives differ from strategic objectives in that the latter is like a strategic goal, only much more specific. They, too, are set on the long term, but they take the broader vision and break it down into specific plans and projects.
Objectives are benchmarks that are designed to be measurable and realistic. They take the mission statement of the company and translate it into more practical terms.
Strategic Vision
A strategic vision might seem closest to a strategic initiative, but there are differences between these two terms as well. The strategic vision is more an overview of where the company wants to be over the next number of years. It supports the strategy, but presents an ideal, though achievable outcome.
The major difference between these terms and strategic initiatives is that a strategic initiative includes a scope statement, budget and even a start and end date.
How to Make a Strategic Initiative
There are five steps to a well-made strategic initiative.
Step 1: Set a Goal
Before you get started, you have to know what it is you’re starting. There are likely dozens of fronts on which you can wage your strategic initiative. But the more things you try to improve, the less likely you’ll be improving any of them.
Therefore, take the time to think about what you have the capacity to confront and the resources to execute over the long term. Boil your list of strategic initiatives down to just one that will have the most positive impact on the program or business.
Step 2: Set Objectives
As noted, objectives are specific, measurable and realistic long-term goals. This is the time to set them in the strategic initiative process. Think of them as milestones that mark the end of one phase and the start of a new one.
Step 3: Set the Strategy
This is the part when you take your objectives and figure out how you’re going to achieve them. It could be one or many ventures, such as monitoring program metrics to see where greater efficiencies can be created or training your team or sales force to produce a better product or service and get that out to a larger customer base.
Step 4: Set Up a Plan
Plans are the same, even when planning a strategic initiative. You want to start with a larger deliverable, which is your objective, and then break it down into smaller and smaller tasks, which are then given duration and placed on a schedule.
This plan should be transparent in that it’s visible for your entire project team, so everyone is working in congress. They need to know what their project roles and responsibilities are for the success of the strategic initiative.
Step 5: Execute the Plan
Once you have the strategy and the plan, you have to get the team on board. With their buy-in, the whole thing becomes a reality. They are accountable for executing the plan. Program managers will give them direction, monitor their progress and regularly meet with them to get feedback and make sure the plan is on track.
Strategic Plan Template
As stated above, strategic initiatives should be aligned with the larger strategic plan of your organization. This free strategic plan template for Word is a good starting point to gather the different elements that you’ll need to consider to make a strategic plan for your business.
Strategic Initiatives and ProjectManager
Even if strategic initiatives are more than just a project, managing them is like a project. ProjectManager is software that organizes everything in your project and has the tools managers and their teams need to see a strategic initiative to a successful conclusion.
Roll Out Implementation Plans
Program managers can add start and end dates to each task on the task list, link dependencies and then assign team members to those tasks. Team members can collaborate and work better together. They can comment, tag other project members, who are notified by email and can then collaborate on the task.
Resolve Bottlenecks and Track Issues
Bottlenecks will ruin even the best laid strategic plans. ProjectManager avoids those delays with its kanban board view, which keeps teams focused on one task at a time, only delivering new tasks when there is the capacity and resources available. Also, program managers get transparency into the team’s progress.
Track Progress with Dashboards
There are going to be other issues that arise, and the sooner they are identified, the sooner they can be resolved. ProjectManager helps you find them with its real-time dashboard for a bird’s eye view.
Related Content
- Strategic Planning in Business
- Strategic Project Management: Planning Strategic Projects
- Strategic Planning Models: An Introduction to 5 Popular Models
- How to Create a Strategic Roadmap for Your Organization
- Project Alignment: Aligning Your Project to Business Strategy
ProjectManager is all you need to realize your strategic initiative. The cloud-based project management software helps program managers plan, monitor and report on the strategic initiative while giving teams the collaborative platform they need to better execute it. Try ProjectManager today with this free 30-day trial.
