Ten Strategic Execution Trends for 2015
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Real-Time Planning Is Mission-Critical
Planning in advance for projects will never go out of style, but the velocity of business requires flexibility to make adjustments on the fly. -
Leading Indicators Take on Greater Prominence
Traditional planning is all about assessing historic indicators, but the use of leading indicators encourages a more forward-facing perspective. -
Project Management Tackles Enterprisewide Tasks
Enterprise Project Management Offices are gaining respect for lending an enterprise view to challenges and for delivering detailed lines of sight into specific business areas. -
Cultural Differences Foster Collaboration
When working with teams representing multiple nations, a combination of diverse cultures advances globally minded business thinking. -
IT Takes a Seat at the Influencers' Table
More than ever, the IT organization aligns with business to adopt a consultative role, helping their company adjust to rapid change. -
Agility Dominates
Leaders provide only the high-level goals and allow agile teams to determine their own execution. This decentralized process is particularly appealing to Millennials. -
The "Organizational Surfer" Rules the Day
Assigned to no single department, the surfer moves throughout the company as needs dictate, combining institutional knowledge with the power to troubleshoot problems and spark innovation. -
Everyone's a Designer
No longer limited to product developers, design thinking accelerates strategic execution, while producing rich data sets. -
Value Trumps All
In the past, decisions were about solving problems and containing costs. Today, execs consider which decisions will produce the most value, especially when responding to external changes. -
"Just Do It!"
Collaboration and strategizing are still important, but management encourages teams to avoid slowing things down by over-thinking, so that they can get ahead of change.
Project teams will deliberate less and plan in real-time more. Companies will recognize a cultural difference as a point of strength, rather than a source of confusion. And, more than ever, IT will emerge as a leading influence on the critical decisions that drive organizational success. These and other developments are among the following top 10 "strategic execution trends for 2015," as adapted from a list compiled by IPS Learning. Above all, the trends speak to the increasing need-for-speed mindset that CIOs and other executives must adapt to keep up with the pace of technology and market changes. "As business continues to accelerate, flexibility and speed of strategic execution become ever more important," says Tim Wasserman, chief learning officer of IPS Learning and program director of the Stanford Advanced Project Management (SAPM) program. "Smart, high-performing organizations have already structured themselves to react more quickly to external and internal shifts. They view the future as a possibility, change as an opportunity and their strategy as the tool to get them there." IPS Learning partners with a variety of academic institutions, associations and organizations, including the Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD), to advise organizations on how to achieve better growth and smarter innovation.