Audit your business strategy

How to audit your business strategyAndrew CareyWhy conduct a business strategy audit?Nearly all the major initiatives undertaken by corporate executives today are called“strategic”. With everything having high strategic importance, it is becomingincreasingly difficult to distinguish between the many priorities and imperatives that areinitiated in organisations. When everything is clearly strategic, often nothing strategic isclear. When everything is designated as a high priority, there are, in reality, nopriorities at all.However, when the overall strategic direction is clearly understood by everyone in yourorganisation, the following benefits occur:• organisational capabilities will be aligned to support the achievement of yourstrategy• resources will be allocated to different business processes in priority order -according to the importance of that process and its contribution to competitiveadvantage• your company or organisation can excel in the market place or in itsbusiness/commercial sector.The purpose of a strategy audit is to arm managers with the tools, information, andcommitment to evaluate the degree of advantage and focus provided by their currentstrategies. An audit produces the data needed to determine whether a change instrategy is necessary and exactly what changes should be made.Defining a Strategy AuditA strategy audit involves assessing the actual direction of a business and comparing thatcourse to the direction required to ...