ie ' Developing a a; a Strategic, One of the dangers of most method- ologies used for strategic planning is that they tend to prevent their users om a variety of factors that would. te " raise the costs of competition. dsvi ; —" With innovation, there should be Ad li 41. constant ; In this, the sec- € ond of five col- | umnsjon SEČI stem, ' search for innovative ideas—to i. from seeing the strategic-systems OpPOLL ea Martin improve products, services, production tunities. The reason is aa Pe are de discusses the — technigues and so on. Innovation may cerned with TE pak Ba a, business risks of — be used offensively to pre-empt competi- rate functions. ee se, ae building strate- tion or defensively to lessen an advan- is concerned wi Ni pike ket gic information | tage the competition has. rate functions s systems. Growth may be geographical expan- in the corporation. tru janje Sb Strategic SYS- eš; 'sion, expansion within an existing t Many strategic p gies are derived from IBM's Business p vems oltenei Systems Planning (BSP). Methodologies sei tory; vertical expansion of a product; E s ; > guire a corpora- sta line Or diverafcaton by,a | adding new. pb di: sob), MARTIN ae rman nje bi -nessina Moe tuki, : EN oi, PR RRAE U different way. %/%% s- it | ma They are imnovative in the sense that ta5 ki ja: an entrepreneur is innovative. Not all" | se business innovations succeed, just as not, EH si all entrepreneurial startups succeed. na či And some strategic systems have failed.i" ksi ja Federal Express, for example, reaped -%" F ji x great benefits from the innovations that: He led to its basic business, but: it failed " No E. ore — when it attempted to innovate ZapMal. > Po>io ZapMail was a system for using elec- "4 mu tronic transmission combined with: the ke MR ib vi! Federal Express computer-controlled de: ŠE livery fleet for delivering documents iri hi il — an hour or So. The strategic thrust, that o nopresenicc NE a Vera expen:? a so RASA ŠE the American yfitikes Sabre sy stem: Bi NE, OS ' for travel agents had failed, that would srb — have been disastrous for American Aire. | lines. American spone »3bo, million nto- Ai KILA ješ kg, ži nij si 3 ne, M.« CI j k 3 i ad s ko mp OR i k m ka nave pa smuč J s] po? pi ke na PTH. Z si k i " ] Sr ! Fi i na Rž; y J z neje s Pi meč | ša mia Te a ga lj z ip UN Ta j sa x z Ag i EO! " aj a. ZE ERI RRSOH 4 K aje ' H FE Fa x 4 o MEA id 4 ee dm pne o "m k, je 3 o m" 4," Va maš k Meri o. sli - di pas o . z. t- Ee US xE > be x F obe Comp v takes a usiness ris But. PERINVA AT ne? h j za x - ra ij t PA —I ih ie si Se, a z a K sb rami g s m sa ŠI . de s ke a, " u s - - i m |e Pu MN" a— 4 a e "m aii bi » mij ih upi m - ) mi Bom cil pi Nea k mo ano Ra aaa a s 4", h k z PR a ' - pe ri nu" . adi a 4 yeč zle? - ie A ee A O PA a Re ej ei o rar jna k ae o Mia maj i kle PE ska nie 4 P za PET bt —% La o ti , pa ik] Em i ašalna a aa dai Ka ob eki: S oda Ja KV Pad, Mo s% — FEak ia. S ne Hi BRA. ši si, alu : j m" udi, ure ira a > paša. s J aa, . ; I te H selila - ne zdi A | Fa nM di a Š sija se Mi mia ga F no dla P.A - Ju a sj k Z NJA oe ur Nas Ma x ur da i - m na ; i Pi Fi k [s nomi a ni Paof Li i tali -. neač Mi ne na CE HR aj En ai k ii" a lita SPI h man ao NA ui ne v a he € hali Nč š - sa. m Ver Pi ee pn an di a Re o Em Ia a Z aaa Ne Ma EME EO i a Me Pi ta ei v Ma ee 4 " Be sti KE a ati ič ma sen TRI KJ La na za aa ka na Ria: s, k a ML je a pe bj : toe se .- oa VAM rei mi a:, J SRAMOTE SE ALEEO ZaeG ] a : z, Ms a DE zip s s zobek s 4d PA done s! 1 a res of vadi Growth defi be prsa pin his book IStrate vi offensively, or.it may be done to zne jih the sales from nei ri uki € with different names that are used by sei - large. consulting or accounting firms are si de Mi | often variants on BSP. The ideas of BSP V Ti! H Li a ka HIŠE a adi mi cu Pra PA «, Pom. z ia ' h | | les Doanjeica za m njim zak, . sa ke a tje a! ; J i gi ie R rana ; čan, to Eh its pake Or. Nem! ake : o S yst sO 5 Planning, D IBMs BSP manual "? product line more complete or side use- su stal es that its objective is "to provide an ,/ ful This, again, may be an offensive — information systems plan that supports 361 strategy to pre-empt competitjori, or it aii — either teri or defensive. There is'' thus a matri ix of possibilities, as the ac- g shows. . ;. :. — Companying 1igu! a — the business's short- and long-term in- ; o dn, the first. case of. differentiation, a 1 may be defensive to lessen an pm formation needs and j is integral with the Corp oration can move to differentiate its " .achleved by the competition. "|". business plan." - product or services from those of its "" "" The technology that makes new stra-. competition. The move to make a prod- . tegic thrusts possible is very different - uct stand out from its competition is an šl now from when Baron de Reuter or Bar- oflensive strategy. A defensive strategy ' on de Rothschild used carrier pigeons to is designed to improve the product to .,,' gain a competitive advantage. Tod: | reduce the differentiation achieved by ... - technology keeps changing, consta. itly competing products. % "opening up new possibilities. Type: | -As for the cost thrust, there are many ' technology that support ati information types of thrusts to reduce the cost o£fa. Aki Si BSP defines "environment" as those — things that lie outside the scope of the ' planning study: the economy, govern- ment regulations, labor, consumerism, competition, industry position, industry trends, suppliers and technology. The BSP manuals instruct planners to ignore these environmental f actors when Con- ' PAGE 35 Vision for Business concerned with competition, technology, suppliers, customerS, industry trends and, in general, factors that facilitate new, competitive thrusts. Rather than use a planning method which excludes these factors, it is desirable to specifical- Iy focus on them. ln general, it is desir- able strategically to focus on how the enterprise might be changed, rather than to solely examine and model what a a, observes that the use of computers in corporations evolved from traditional data-processing (MIS) sys- ' tems to management-support systems (MSS) and now needs to evolve to stra: tegic information systems (SIS). Tradi- tional data processing systems processed predefined transactions to produce predefi ined results. They included pay: roll, invoicing, purchasing, inventory control, accounts payable, accounts re ceivable and so on. Management: support systems were designed to satisfy the in- formation needs of managers and assist in the decision-making process. They provided guery facilities, "what-if' capa- bilities, spreadsheets and decision-sup- port tools. Wiseman says that many traditional data-processing, veterans resisted the emergence of MSS, refusing to admit their existence. Others argued that they were merely extensions of existing MB systems. Similarly, many of today s sys- tems planners are ignoring strategic-in: formation systems and concentrating solely on the functions of today's enter: prise. MSS systems were often built by peo- ple who differed culturally from those who built traditional MIS systems. MIS developers learned to observe what was happening, to draw charts of it and to design systems to replace existing proce- dures. MSS developers, on the other hand, had to satisfy information needs of managers and professionals, which ' were not observable and not expressed with precision. Some MSS systems were built by end users or planning staff in an information-center environment. Wiseman suggests that strategic-infor- . mation systems should be conceived and designed by a different group in a cor- poration than that, which designs MIS or MSS. Strategic-information systems are not designed by observing existing func- tions but by inventing new functions. They reguire a different type of creativ- ity and business acumen. People good at conceiving SIS differ culturally from most of tne people who design tradition: al MIS or MSS. Once specified, SIS might be constructed by the professionals who construct other systems. Next week, well look at strategic ap- PERNE of personal computers. M The J ames Martin Productivity nas an information service updated guar- terly, 1s avatlable through High Pro- ductivity Software Inc., of Marble- head, Mass. (617) 639:1958. For infor- mation on seminars, please contact (in the United States and Canada) Tech- nology Transfer Institute, 741 10th St., Santa Monica, Calif. 90402 (213) 394: pen isted tie de d SLA 8305. In Europe, contact Savant, 2 či EJ BLE sb A uc e BSP study. New St., Carnforth, Lancs., LA5 9BX | roduct, A KA CA | [O te | 4 ZAČ r z (; a Hg? DrOGRss A Company, may,also manipu:, ,, chart.;., ia aa A ali Neli sd (aH o, > Strategic systems Vision is s Very much United Kingdom (0524) 734 505. oe Gi UP aaa EJ: | S nei al šraMo raje: ib! fe bi J HU Miti 4 | či (! | TE AE TE Aa REJE | ne Š ih | zultat | zs] | IM ! i! ih fa gi, vii | ! SRASA H : psi NA O sis na RES k teč daš or ko elitna S SA EN ivo ..- a oi O Sai SE, Ee, vb bi MU NE V NNETICEV