Filed under: Intranets
A few weeks ago we ran an intranet strategy workshop for a major bank, helping them to identify approaches for their upcoming business case.
Now we’ve been saying for a long time that strong business cases align closely with top-level organisational and strategic priorities. Beyond just “making information findable” or “creating a trusted source of knowledge”, compelling business cases articulate why senior management should care.
The simplest approach is to co-opt the language used in existing strategies and roadmaps, and then quote that back in the business case. While that’s grossly simplifying what’s involved, it’s not a bad starting point for further work.
The challenge we often encounter is that the intranet team may not have a deep understanding of business priorities and strategies. Or the organisation as a whole doesn’t have a strong focus on long-term strategy. This was not the case in this workshop however!
This is a (sanitised) list of business priorities that were identified in a brainstorming session:
- Ten year plan (ending in 2017)
- Delighting customers
- Number one for net promoter score (NPS)
- “The leading financial services firm in AU/NZ”
- Corporate reputation
- Staff culture goals
- Earning more of our customer’s business
- Sustainability (across a range of areas)
- Target key customer groups
- Corporate values
- “One group”
- Multibrand strategy
- Raising deposits
- HR pillars
That’s quite a list! These are all serious, organisation-wide strategies, with concrete plans and senior management visibility. No shortage of strategies to potentially align the intranet against here.
That there are so many strategies highlights this is a large, vigorous organisation operating in a highly competitive market. This has the potential to make the intranet team’s job easier, although they may have to cut through the “clutter” of so much going on.
What are the corporate goals and strategies in your organisation that you could align with?