From a process-oriented perspective, strategy management is one of the foundational business processes. It involves deliberate and purposeful planning of initiatives aimed at achieving objectives and delivering the intended results.
Companies invest significant time and effort in regular strategic sessions and team-building activities, yet roughly two-thirds of all initiatives either fail to reach completion or are delayed to the point of losing relevance. Why does this happen? Often, companies simply do not understand the essence of the strategic management process, its components, and how they interconnect.
There is no perfect model of strategic management, but there are several common mistakes that organizations tend to make in this process.
Key Management Pitfalls
Misunderstanding the Cross-Functionality of Business Processes
Most key business processes in organizations are cross-functional. This means that managers at different levels of the hierarchy and in different functional areas are involved in processes aimed at delivering cumulative results. For top management, strategy and development are top priorities, whereas for middle managers, the focus is resolving operational issues to achieve planned outcomes.
When change-oriented processes are not synchronized across different hierarchical levels, this leads to duplicated efforts and a lack of logical alignment among planned initiatives. Coordinating initiatives “top-down” and “bottom-up,” as well as “left-to-right” and “right-to-left” within a single process, is a critical task for ensuring a holistic approach to planning and implementing change.
A cross-functional business process consists of the following elements:
- Strategic planning and goal-setting
- Problem identification
- Organizational project management as a tool for achieving goals and solving complex problems (troubleshooting)
- Project portfolio management
- Program management
- Project management
This process can be visualized as follows:
Everyone Forgets About Problem Management
Problems exist in every organization, and this is completely normal. However, few realize that problems need to be not only addressed but also systematically managed.
A company will inevitably face the need to eliminate bottlenecks in current operational management that prevent or significantly limit its ability to implement strategic initiatives. In practice, this means solving problems that are a priority for each organizational level. Often, it is not even clear what constitutes a strategic task versus a problem that needs resolving.
Problem identification typically involves:
- Defining the problem situation
- Determining influencing factors
- Selecting the approach to resolve the problem: simple problems are handled within operational management, while complex problems are addressed through project management.
Managing Priorities and Constraints
The absence of a clear connection between initiatives and actions — that is, the execution of programs and projects — along with chaotic prioritization (“everything is important for us”), typically results in wasted effort. Moreover, it is obvious that no company has unlimited resources, whether human or financial. Separate functioning of strategic and project management areas may appear operational, but the results often fall short of expectations. This is usually due to a lack of real resource management and the absence of project prioritization based on value, effort, and cost. Consequently, budgets and timelines are allocated inaccurately or are misaligned with what is actually required to implement ideas and drive change. Bringing intentions in line with reality occurs through portfolio management, which balances the flow of incoming initiatives with available financial and human resources, ensuring that the right actions are taken in the right sequence and adequately supported with funding and teams.
Lack of Integrated Project Management
Having a formalized and well-structured process for managing projects and programs is essential for a company to move forward consciously and efficiently. Very often, even the most brilliant intentions fail due to the inability to physically implement them — caused by poor organization of the process, its absence, a lack of tools, or insufficient qualifications of project and program management personnel. Program and project management processes in modern companies are as vital as financial management processes. These are the processes that deliver real results planned during strategy development and problem identification — and this is where most challenges arise.
Inability to Respond Quickly to Influencing Factors
Internal and external factors, as well as the digital environment and market competition, instantly reveal gaps and weaknesses in process and project management. Modern business conditions require rapid response and a clear, regulated process of “idea — result — next idea.” Such speed and flexibility are possible only when the process is well-tuned, including all its elements, people, and management IT tools.
When processes are properly structured and managed, staff are motivated and trained, and modern information systems are used correctly, a company’s efficiency increases dramatically — enabling ideas to be translated into reality quickly and effectively.
Vlad Berezin
Business Development Manager, SMART business
20+ years in business, project, and sales management. President of the Project Management Institute (PMI), Kyiv Chapter, 2007–2012. Practical experience in implementing projects for ERP, HR, marketing, organizations, EPM, PPM, BPMS, and business process management (BPM).
