Where should strategy sit?

by

I was taking with one of my friends earlier this week about the placement of the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) in his very large organization. I was initially surprised that she (the CSO) doesn’t report to the CEO, but instead into the COO. But once my friend explained that this particular executive is more focused on rolling out common processes and standards across their enterprise than she is focused on developing a strategic vision and executing strategic initiatives, it made more sense. Apparently all the visioning and even strategic execution is happening in pockets throughout the rest of the organization, and the people doing those kinds of activities stay very far away from this CSO.

So really, this particular executive just has an inappropriate title, a title that gives professionals focused on strategy a bad name, since expectations are set and not met. I’ve got to say, I don’t really see a true strategy officer reporting anywhere but directly to the CEO. Yes, a strategic program director or transformation officer could report to the COO if the Ops group is the central group that drives change through the enterprise. But the person or group responsible for visioning needs to have both the visibility and the autonomy to do that effectively. And that likely requires being outside of Operations.

So I got to thinking about what this all means for a technology organization within the larger enterprise. Specifically, IT or technology organizations with hundreds of people, can justify a role focused on strategy for their group. And CIOs sometimes wonder where it should live, especially if it doesn’t justify its own direct report to the CIO. Once again, I’d be very hesitant to lump it into any group more focused on execution (i.e. PMO, Operations, Development). It could be combined with performance management (i.e. organizational scorecards, not HR performance). The other likely place to put it is with the architecture group, assuming the architecture group is operating strategically, setting an overall vision, versus just defining standard technologies and processes.

READ MORE

The Magic of Mortals

The Magic of Mortals

Daily we wake up to new developments in automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Across sectors and industries, automated solutions prove highly successful in surpassing the capacity of the human brain for certain tasks, improving...

read more
Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leaders have been trying to crack the code on talent development for years. Recent studies have shown, however, that strength-focused leadership [read: intentionally elevating the qualities that already come naturally to us] is the clear winner for developing talent...

read more
Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

  Listen to any earnings call or executive presentation and you will likely hear the terms “top line” and “bottom line.” These are words used to describe a business’s performance. According to Investopedia, the words are defined as follows: Top line refers to the...

read more
Your Personality Is Showing

Your Personality Is Showing

There I was, minding my own business one evening, digging into my organization's SEO performance (as one does), when I came across something interesting. Search terms related to "MBTI" — or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel...

read more
Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Hello. My name is Monique, and I’m a change manager who hates change.   After years of receiving “consulting therapy” from various mentors, I am now able to say these words out loud and proudly. But for a long time, it felt more like an admission of guilt. I mean, who...

read more
Creativity as a Cure

Creativity as a Cure

The topic of creative solutioning has been front and center these days as we talk more and more about organizational adaptability in the face of dynamic and uncertain times. For example, I recently read about a project that got me thinking about specific priorities...

read more
Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Big news over here as we close out the year - we have been acquired by Pariveda, a 750-person consulting firm in 12 markets across North America! We are now “Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company” and I’ll be serving as the Managing Vice President continuing to lead...

read more
Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Dallas, December 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pariveda, a leader specializing in solving complex technology and business problems, announces the acquisition of Thought Ensemble. With the addition of Thought Ensemble, Pariveda now provides holistic business strategy,...

read more
Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

It was about a year ago that we first started hearing about Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (SB19-085) and I knew it was going to be national news. We’d just gotten past the “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, and our lovely state was trying to break new ground...

read more