Business Strategy
This section presents a high‐level overview of the strategic planning
process for business. All companies want to formulate technology
solutions that effectively support the business and its objectives. To do
so, the company must first understand its business model, the
fundamentals of its business type (manufacturing, finance, service, etc.),
and its strategy. Only once the company has understood these, should it
begin to focus on its systems. Information systems are only tools that are
used to support a business; therefore, if the tools are not aligned with
business requirements, then its resources (time, money, and people) may
be wasted, triggering an undesirable outcome.
Many businesses establish an overall mission or vision statement—Why
are we in business? Following is a list of companies with their mission
statements:
Amazon—"to be earth's most customer‐centric company, to build a place
where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to
buy online." (Amazon Jobs, 2018)
Marriott—"to be the world's favorite travel company" (Marriott Investor
Relations).
Google—“to organize the world’s information and make it universally
accessible and useful” (Google.com, 2018).
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As you can see, these mission and vision statements are very broad and
overarching; however, to achieve these, organizations need more specifics
with actionable areas to accomplish to help support the mission/vision. In
order to define the goals and objectives, first organizations scan the
environment looking at several factors, such as competition, business
environment, customers, employees, and location. This analysis helps
identify threats and opportunities. A frequent tool used in business is
SWOT Analysis: identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats. The section Does IT Matter? also looks at further methods to
analyze the competitive environment.
This analysis can result in organizations defining business goals and
objectives and the specific actions needed to be successful. When these
objectives are defined, opportunities can be identified to use information
technology to help reach those objectives.
It’s important that technology support the business objectives rather than
drive the objectives. For example, looking back at Amazon’s mission
statement, specific goals and objectives would need to be defined (e.g.,
How can customer‐centric be increased?). One approach is customizing
the user experience so customers feel valued and that Amazon really
“knows” them. A strategic goal might be to maximize the customer’s
experience through personalization of the online shopping experience.
With technology, information regarding customers’ browsing and
shopping habits can be stored and retrieved when a customer returns to
the Amazon site, prompting with messages such as “Hello John—
Recommended Links for You” or “John—Buy it Again,” followed by a list of
recent purchases John has made. The benefits of the information
technology can be increased sales and increased customer loyalty, which
give Amazon a competitive advantage in the online retail arena.
This information would then be documented for everyone in the company
to understand and be able to do their part to support the business
strategy. For example, Amazon might document as follows:
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Mission/Vision: Our vision is to be earth's most customer‐centric
company, to build a place where people can come to find and discover
anything they might want to buy online.
Business Strategy (derived from the Mission/Vision): to be earth's most
customer‐centric company, to build a place where people can come to
find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
• Technology Support: A robust online shopping system would
accommodate millions of customers and products and focus on the
individual customer's searches and buying habits.
• Competitive Advantage: Availability of millions of products would
increase sales, and a focus on the customer would increase customer
loyalty.
Strategic Goal 1: Increase customer‐centricity by maximizing the
customer's experience through personalization of the online shopping
experience.
Objective: Provide customer with at least five other items they might be
interested in based on previous purchases by the end of the first quarter.
Technology Support: The system would store each customer's purchases
and retrieve that information when the customer returns to the Amazon
site, and present a message such as "Hello, John – Recommended for
you" with icons of several items related to his recent purchases.
Strategic Goal 2: Increase the number of items available.
Objective: Add 10% more items to the inventory.
Technology Support: The system would provide the ability to store and
retrieve items for display to customers.
To achieve success, an organization should translate its high‐level mission
into specific objectives so it can align its technology support to those
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objectives. The alignment can provide clear direction and enable all levels
of the organization to work towards maximizing their investments in
information technology.
References
Amazon Jobs (2018). Retrieved from https://www.amazon.jobs
/en/working/working‐amazon
Google.com/About. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.google.com
/about/
Marriott. (2018). Marriott investor relations: Frequently asked questions.
Retrieved from https://marriott.gcs‐web.com/investor‐faqs
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