What Does Strategic Mean?

I'm listening to a presentation by David Chappell from Tech Ed. I'm sure it will result in a few blog posts or comments on the forums! Coincidentally, over the past few weeks we've been talking strategy and long term focus for a number of Internet.com sites including Codeguru. As such, it is interesting to hear David ask the question, "what does strategic mean?"

I'll admit that while I do tend to tie the meaning of strategic to meaning future plans, in truth, it doesn't have to be associated with future actions at all. Strategic tends to be used wrong. David comments that people use the phrase "strategic planning" to mean "long term planning." Of course, what strategic really means is "something that gives you differentiation." Business strategy is about giving yourself competitive advantage. That advantage comes from doing something different from your competitors. David nails this in his talk.

David goes on to discuss how IT is not a critical component to being strategic. As he says, "IT really does matter," and it does! This is because IT really does help companies differentiate what they do. In fact, IT provides innovation for the business. But that is another discussion!



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Just curiuos why all of your recent blogs posted in forum feedback and not in Gen Dev section?

Because I didn't think things through ;) :)

I asked that they be moved to chit chat, but General Developer makes more sense.

Brad!

Indeed as I think chit chat may not get the responses you are looking for!

"David goes on to discuss how IT is not a critical component to being strategic" << I find that remark curious (meaning I'll have to listen to the talk later).... Why can't IT be part of being strategic... if IT is the differentiator from your competition, wouldn't IT then be part of the company's strategic efforts? We have a lot of competition in our industry (construction) ... and as strange as it may seem, we do see IT as part of what sets us a part from other companies in the industry (and based on some things I heard at TechEd, that would seem to hold water) ... Perhaps IT may not be critical all the time for all companies, nor is it usually the only part of it, but I do think that there are some cases where IT does play a major role. Then again, maybe IT is really part of the tactical planning & process that gets things done. Or I'm completely off my rocker.

-tg

I would say that IT is part of the tactics used to advance a strategy. The strategy would be the overall objective. In the case of business, the strategy would be the intended niche that the business intends to fill. What niche it ACTUALLY fills is a whole different matter (MS didn't set out to fill the evil empire niche, nor Apple the 'rabid cult' niche). The tools that they use to position themselves in the niche would be the tactical moves. Since IT would be providing the tools for the positioning, IT would be tactical.

Amazing how one little letter can change meanging. I should have caught that in my proofing of my entry..... "now" is instead of "not". Makes a big of a difference. Doesn't it! :) :S

Thanks for catching that and setting me straight.

I'm reading and seeing more on how IT is now becoming more integrated into the business side of things in order to better understand the business needs so as to make more strategic changes.

Brad!