What is strategic information management and leadership?

What is strategic information management and leadership? I. Information management • Where it came from and how it works II. Strategy • Conceptions of strategy III. Project and knowledge management • Practices and evaluation IV. Concepts of management • Leadership • Managing stability and change

I. Information management Where it came from We gain a more complete view of “organizing” by taking information and meaning as critical resources Organizations operate on these resources Direct their processes towards them, and Establish relations on the basis of what they learn from them If the organizational environment is described in terms of information, the task of “organizing” is to resolve the equivocality in informational inputs judged to be relevant Weick, K. (1969) The Social Psychology of Organizing. p. 28-9

I. Information management Management: the allocation of resources to further the goals of an organization Resources include capital, people, space and time Given the organization’s goals, the managerial problem is: Deciding what services or products to offer and allocating limited resources to do this It includes the knowledge and practices resolve this problem www.gdargaud.net/Humor/Pics/ManagementEmployees.jpg

I. Information management Why management is so important Organizations have grown in size and complexity They have become distributed The future seems to be one of increasing competition and decreasing budgets Increasing competition increases pressures for operational efficiency It also increases the pressure for innovation and increased productivity Managers will be challenged to maintain reasonable levels of service with fewer resources

I. Information management If information is a critical resource, its management is a critical organizational function Traditional view: islands of information Marketing Accounting Human resources Organization

I. Information management Information resources management (IRM) is a subset of Management Information Systems (MIS) Early 1980s: information, IT, and the people who use them are valuable resources to be managed IRM uses information for the benefit of the organization by exploiting, developing and optimizing information resources It is a managerial link connecting corporate information resources with organizational goals and objectives It is a major strategic responsibility of managerial end users and traditional IS management

I. Information management Information resources management looks for ways to integrate islands of information Marketing Human resources Shared Information Accounting Organization

I. Information management Why IM is important It is an engine driving the information economy It will continue to have a profound impact on productivity management, and competitive advantage It is an integral part of corporate strategy and can be used to gain competitive advantages in the marketplace IM and information resources management affect all functional areas and all management levels in an organization A key to strategy and source of competitive advantage

I. Information management Traditional information management techniques include Formal planning Centralized decision making Standardized procedures Quantitative control systems They are intended to maintain status quo Organizational predictability Operational efficiency They tend to limit flexibility and hamper innovation, creativity and change

I. Information management Modern information management (IM) It has several main requirements Information must be treated as a corporate asset It must be properly used to increase profitability and strategic positioning IM seeks to: Improve operational efficiency Promotes innovative products and services Improves competitiveness

I. Information management To succeed with IM, the responsibility for managing information resources should be extended to all management levels and all functional areas Goal: to unify and integrate existing IT in the company IM should also explore new IT and applications for the company The organization must adapt its overall strategic plan to ensure that IM goals are incorporated IM planning must be aligned with organizational strategic goals The IM plan should apply across the organization

II. Strategy Conceptions of strategy Approaches to strategy can be descriptive or prescriptive How organizations use degrees of freedom to maneuver through their environments Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term It achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and fulfill stakeholder expectations Johnson and Scholes (2001). Exploring Corporate Strategy. Prentice Hall www.qmss.jp/strategy/images/pictures/original/strategy.jpg

II. Strategy Strategic questions: Where is the business trying to get to in the long-term? Which markets should a business compete in and what kind of activities are involved in such markets? How can the business perform better than the competition in those markets? What resources (skills, assets, finance, relationships, competencies, facilities) are required to compete? What external, environmental factors affect the businesses' ability to compete? www.tutor2u.net/business/strategy/what_is_strategy.htm

II. Strategy Corporate: concerned with the purpose and scope of the business and meeting stakeholder expectations Heavily influenced by investors Guides strategic decision-making throughout the business (mission statement) Business unit: how it competes successfully in particular markets Decisions about product mix, competitive advantage, customer needs, exploiting/creating opportunities… Operational: concerned with how subunits are organized to implement strategy (resources, processes, people…)

II. Strategy Strategy as design (60-70s) Seeking a fit between internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats These can be diagrammed A deliberate and reflective process resulting in simple, clear directives used as the basis for action SWOT analysis is one basis of competitive intelligence It is a business development analysis tool Used to compare a product or service offering with current marketplace conditions

II. Strategy SWOT Analysis Internal Strengths Weaknesses External Opportunities Threats

II. Strategy Strategy as planning (60-70s) This is a formal process It is rational and can be broken down into steps Checklists, objectives Plans, budgets Outcomes It assumes that decisions can be made on the basis of complete information The planner becomes a new position in the org chart

II. Strategy Strategy as positioning (70-90s) Organization’s situation reduced to a generic position The range of possible positions is derived from the history of military strategy A formalized analysis of the competitive environment It is heavily data driven The role of the planner shifts to analyst Popularized by Porter in the 80s The value-chain is an important concept This is the basis of many consulting companies

II. Strategy Porter’s five forces framework determines industry attractiveness and long-run industry profitability Threat of entry of new competitors Depends on barriers to entry Threat of substitutes, lock-in and switching costs Buyer’s bargaining to create demand Supplier’s bargaining power to set costs Degree of rivalry between existing competitors A range of factors determine the intensity of competition

II. Strategy Porter’s five forces model www.tutor2u.net/business/strategy/porter_five_forces.htm

II. Strategy Joan Magretta: What executives can learn from revisiting Michael Porter Magretta explains the significance of Porter's work for corporate strategic thinking She emphasizes the importance of the firm's value proposition and its value chain as bases for sound strategy ~ Does her explanation make sense when considering the rivalry between Microsoft and Apple? ~ Why, for Porter, is bigger not always necessarily better?

II. Strategy Porter’s frameworks provide an economic foundation of competition and strategy The fundamental relationships between profitability and the choices companies make as they compete Strategy is linked to financial performance but is not simply marketing It must make clear what a firm will not do The sign of a good strategy is that it deliberately makes some customers unhappy Allio, R.J. and Fahey, L. (2012). Joan Magretta: what executives can learn from revisiting Michael Porter. Strategy & Leadership, 40(2) pp. 5 - 10

II. Strategy Competitive advantage: compared to rivals, you operate at lower cost, command a premium price, or both This ability arises from the activities in the value chain It is the result of specific choices about the value chain, that shift relative price or relative cost in your favor A value proposition requires a specifically tailored value chain to deliver it Good five forces analysis allows you to see through the complexity of competition It opens the way to actions that can improve performance

II. Strategy Porter finds no systematic evidence to support the view that industry leaders are the most profitable firms Economies of scale are exhausted at a relatively small share of industry sales Companies only have to be ‘‘big enough,’’ which rarely means they have to dominate Pursuing size means they are likely to damage their own performance By cutting price to gain volume, by overextending themselves to serve all market segments, and by pursuing overpriced mergers and acquisitions

II. Strategy Price competition: a sustainable low-cost strategy with a value chain rivals can’t easily copy or neutralize When they imitate each other’s products and services, price is the only dimension on which customers choose The real point of competition is not to beat rivals, or win a sale - it is to earn profits Customers are just one player, with suppliers, existing rivals, potential entrants, and producers of substitutes Sustainable profitability means creating economic value, using resources effectively to meet customer needs

II. Strategy Strategy as a social process (80-00s) Formation involves the pursuit of the common interest It is rooted in cultural processes This means that the successful strategies of one organization may not translate to an organization in another culture Strategy as an environmental reactive process (80-00s) Organizations are reactive and the demands of the environment are key factors in strategy formation Contingency theory

II. Strategy Strategy as configuration (90s-00) This is an integrative approach Organizations are configurations that face different situations and environments Strategy formation varies with the unit and situation Planning in times of stability Entrepreneurship in times of change Power in times of conflict and confrontation The implication is that organizations are transformed as they shift from state to state

III.Project and knowledge management Project management practice, generic or contextual: A reality check Based on a survey of 750 project managers, Besner and Hobbs found that some elements of project management practice were generic and others varied significantly by application area They focus on the tools and techniques that vary by project type and application area ~ Why do project managers in different types of situations use similar tools? ~ What is the value of this type of study for the field?

III. Project and knowledge management The focus here will be project management Importance of the book: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) Generally accepted to define “good practice” The knowledge, tools and techniques applicable to most projects most of the time How they put in action knowledge and competencies Understanding practice is a key to theory building about the profession Besner, C. and Hobbs, B. (2008). Project management practice, generic or contextual: A reality check. Project Management Journal, 39(1), 16-33.

III. Project and knowledge management A generic view of project management www.mpmm.com/images/project-lifecycle.jpg

III. Project and knowledge management static.flickr.com/50/134931180_347671be56_o.jpg

III. Project and knowledge management Which of the tools and techniques are generic and which vary across application areas? To what extent does organizational support for the use of these tools and techniques vary? This research provides a snapshot of current PM professional practice Research shows that organizations categorize projects to apply different tools to different types There is variability of PM practice by project type, application area and other contextual factors How much and what kinds?

III. Project and knowledge management Managers were surveyed in four main project areas Engineering and construction, business services, IT and telecom (largest), industrial services Out of 70 tools, 23 were limited to extensive use Progress report, kick-off meeting (not in PMBOK), PM scheduling software, GANTT chart, scope statement 14 were in less than very limited use Monte-Carlo analysis (PMBOK says frequently used), PM simulation software, Pareto diagram, critical chain methodology, decision tree One reason is lack of organizational support

III. Project and knowledge management Differences in use depended on degree of maturity of PM in the organization Older companies, larger projects (>1 million), more involvement with external customers Significantly more frequent use of most of the tools Otherwise, the rankings remain stable Some tools are used more often for well-defined projects There is also variation across the project types What does this mean for project managers?

III. Project and knowledge management Innovative practices for IT projects The authors interview 57 project managers and find that when involved in difficult projects, respondents develop "creative and entrepreneurial" strategies for completing these projects Traditional PM practices were points of departure ~ What has changed in PM work that has led to what the authors call a new realism among project managers? ~ To what extent do project managers use the PMBOK when faced with difficult projects?

III. Project and knowledge management Project managers’ performance is improving over time Despite projects that are becoming more complex technically and organizationally Realism and a common diagnosis: PM has weaknesses Inattention to the importance of customers Narrow definition of PM with asingle-minded focus on a fixed set of tools and techniques largely derived from the PMBOK Leads to a more innovative type of PM practice Reich, B.H., Sauer, C. and Wee, S.Y. (2008). Innovative practices for IT projects. Information Systems Management, 25(3), 266-272.

III. Project and knowledge management They interviewed 57 PMs who use these practices when The client or project organization is complex Requirements are not well understood Changes in industry or business strategy occur Technology is immature Goal definition Challenge the customer (who is not always right) Goal clarity, matching goals to deliverables, improving the business case Deliver value early instead of at the end

III. Project and knowledge management Project set up Create a resilient team by playing a more active role in selection Hire team players from their own networks Double up the team with people who can cover for each other Prepare for the unknown Practice low-stakes problem solving Prepare and think through worst-case scenarios Set up “lifelines” and “connectors”

III. Project and knowledge management Project set up Train the sponsor Get to know sponsor's goals, constraints, competence level Help him/her understand the big picture Focus the team on business value Make sure they see the value for the sponsor and can link goals to deliverables Plan for post-delivery Be ready to deal with post-implementation issues

III. Project and knowledge management Project execution Adaptively re-plan Make rapid adjustments to the project plan as the circumstances change Use meetings to focus attention Foreground problems and determine who will solve them Create a culture to encourage dissent Empower and delegate

What is “strategic information management and leadership”? • Information management • Where it came from and how it works II. Strategy • Conceptions of strategy III. Project and knowledge management • Practices and evaluation IV. Concepts of management • Leadership • Managing stability and change

IV. Concepts of management What is leadership A quality involving the ability to influence others and to mobilize them into action An ability to think creatively in non-routine situations Having a vision and the ability to communicate it to followers There have been a number of approaches that have tried to explain it However: the quality of leadership is essential to the survival of most groups and organizations

IV. Concepts of management The importance of effective communication www.savagechickens.com/images/chickenclear.jpg

IV. Concepts of management Theories of classical leadership Trait theories: developing a checklist of qualities of leaders Vitality, stamina, intelligence, competence, self- confidence, assertiveness… Research is mixed on the importance of a fixed set of personality traits across situations Behavioral theories: developing a checklist of leadership activities grouped into styles Concern for task objectives; concern for people, directive leadership; participative leadership

IV. Concepts of management Situational theories: understand the changing contexts within which leadership is exercised Contingency: style and extent to which they can exercise control in the situation What matters: relations between leaders and followers, structure of the task, power involved in position Research indicates that cultural variables make a difference and these are beginning to be accounted for in this approach May be gender differences as well

IV. Concepts of management Action-embedded transformational leadership in self-managing global information technology teams The authors investigate software development teams to understand the role of leadership in self-organizing teams They uncover a new type: action-embedded transformational leadership ~ What are the conditions under which this type of leadership is most effective? ~ Have you ever experienced this type of leadership and if so, what is your perspective on it?

IV. Concepts of management Distributed, self-organizing and self-managed teams are becoming much more common Question: how leaders emerge and strategically influence systems development in self-managing global IS development teams? Self-managing teams: interdependent individuals with collective authority and responsibility of managing and performing relatively whole tasks to achieve group goals Globally distributed with a high degree of decision- making autonomy and behavioral control Eseryel, U.Y., and Eseryel, D. (2013). Action-embedded transformational leadership in self-managing global information technology teams. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems..

IV. Concepts of management Transformational leadership: provides a mobilizing vision, encouraging people to transcend self-interest Idealized influence: degree to which leaders are admired, respected, trusted; charismatic leadership Inspirational motivation: provides meaning and challenge, team spirit, envisions attractive future Intellectual stimulation: prompts followers to question assumptions and be creative Individual consideration: the extent to which followers’ potential is developed by attending to individual needs, learning opportunities

What is strategic information management and leadership?