Minding the Machines

CHAPTER 2Strategy

How to assess organizational readiness, identify gaps, establish an attainable roadmap, and properly articulate a value proposition and case for change.

Peter Drucker defined strategy in the 1950s as “a pattern of activities that seek to achieve the objectives of the organization and adapt its scope, resources and operations to environmental changes in the long term” (Drucker, 1982). This was updated in the 1960s by Alfred D. Chandler to "the determination of the basic long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals" (Chandler, 1962). There have been several academics and business leaders before and since who have offered subtly different definitions on what can be a nebulous field of study. Regarding analytics strategy, I offer the following simplified definition: strategy is a set of guiding principles for how to achieve a goal.

Strategy can be perceived, and not without some element of truth, as a precursor to the real work. This malignment has not been helped by the vapid vernacular and abstractions that can sometimes accompany discussions around strategy. Without a sense of drama or an appeal to the emotional drivers in people, strategy can seem distant to many. Almost everybody has sat through dry strategy sessions and come away feeling neither compelled nor edified by the contents. New operating models, organizational designs, and 13-point ...