Academy

Join the Intrafocus Academy

If you like our free strategy resources then join the Intrafocus Academy for additional material

Strategy Workshop

A three-session workshop based on the Intrafocus Strategic Planning Process (SPP)

Balanced Scorecard Certification

A five-day master class and certificate as a Balanced Scorecard Professional

Strategic Plan Audit/Review

Let us take a look at your strategic plan to check it contains all the elements needed in a good plan

Resources

Strategy & KPI Resources

A library of resources for anyone interested in strategic planning and KPI management

Strategic Planning Process (SPP)

Our next generation Strategic Planning Process based on the Balanced Scorecard Methodology

Blog - Intrafocus Insight

New articles published every two weeks, join our mailing list and keep up

Our Customers

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Software

Spider Impact KPI Software

Intrafocus is the only EMEA authorised reseller of Spider Impact® from Spider Strategies®.

Spider Impact - Video Guides

From getting started all the way through to integrating into back-end systems.

Spider Impact - Documentation

Everything you need to know to set up Spider Impact, configure and import data

My5 KPIs - On your PC, Mac & Phone

Keep your key performance indicators to hand with the My5 KPIs universal application

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STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS

Step Five - Projects

 

Projects can only be defined after your objectives have been set

Measures
Projects
Communication

Click on each step above for a full description

Projects and Actions

Activities that come as a result of a strategic planning process usually take two forms – remedial actions (things that fix a problem) and strategic projects (to promote change).

Remedial activities are sometimes called ‘quick-wins’. They are low cost actions that might have a big impact. needless-to-say, executives love quick-wins.

Strategic Projects

Strategic projects tend to be longer-term activities. They are initiatives that cause change and have a significant impact. Even with all your objectives, KPI’s and targets in place, they are not going to make a difference unless there are some projects in place to drive change.

Generating projects

Creating your projects should be relatively easy – at this point you have created the foundation and improvements that are the basis of your strategy. That is; vision, purpose, priorities, objectives, measures and targets. During this process you will have been thinking about how to make change happen, even if it has only been in your sub-conscious. So write out the list. Believe me, once you start, you will not be able to stop. That’s fine at this stage, the more the better. It may be that you describe a couple of quick wins or identify a golden nugget or two. Don’t be overly descriptive, but this requires more than labels or post-it notes.

Next comes selection, there are a multitude of selection methods you could use, for example; simple voting, Boston matrix, paired comparison. We favour a scored selection criteria based matrix. It has the advantage of being much more impartial than other methods.

Develop a set of selection criteria – things such as Implementation Cost, Operational Cost and Strategic Benefit.  These will help you determine what is most important and therefore automatically prioritise your initiatives, solve any funding issues, and create an engine that drives your strategy forward. 

Once you have prioritised down to a small number of projects, get your project manager involved to scope out the detail. All projects should be managed properly using a formal project management process.

 

To get the most out of this workshop download the Strategic Planning Workbook, the Strategic Plan Summary one-page presentation and the Strategic Plan Template from the Intrafocus website.

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