Mapping the Business Landscape
Thought Leadership Forum - IPMS - Basle Switzerland
John Bolden, TLIR Group
“A Map of the Business Landscape Provides a Firm Foundation for Establishing Direction and Making Decisions about What Is, What Will Be and What has to Happen in Between…”
Here’s an example of an ancient map… Notice that there are many expanses of white spaces, particularly in the interior region. Notice also the drawings of imaginary creatures in the white spaces! Why fill in white space with assumptive imaginings? Because no one knew specifically what was there, everybody guessed…
White space replete with imaginary dangers is an excellent metaphor for what we see as a significant void that exists in virtually every business; the absence of a clear, concise and meaningful view of how business functions (processes, systems, information sets and work flows) interconnect, intersect and interrelate across the business...
White space in today’s business environment is not so much that which is unexplored as that which is forgotten or overlooked or ignored or taken for granted…
The reason for white spaces in today’s business environment is not hard to pin down; over time a myriad of diverse initiatives created, updated, tweaked, eradicated and rebuilt systems, processes and work flows across the business. With so much change occurring every day; what was changed and how it fits into the big picture got lost in the rush to build, renew, reinvent…
Quite a Conundrum!
The need for speed is paramount yet the absence of clear, concise maps of the landscape slows progress and hinders attainment of objectives…
With a map of the business landscape in hand; initiatives to transform, reinvent or improve the business will be far less likely to take the wrong route, far less likely to venture into unexplored places and far less likely to find out too late that what were assumed to be mere molehills turn out to be insurmountable mountains...!
No matter what your next business improvement might be; merger, acquisition, divestiture, information technology, process reengineering, consolidation, corporate/subsidiary interlock, outsourcing, new economy (e-commerce, e-business), shared services, etc. clear, concise maps provide management with the means to easily see, understand and grasp the real implications of what is, what will be and what has to happen in between…
A map brings significant benefits to any one business improvement initiative; looking beyond any particular business improvement initiative, the value to the enterprise as a whole is orders of magnitude greater by virtue or providing a firm foundation for establishing direction and making decisions as to sequence, priority, budgetary and resource allocations across, between and within any and all corporate transformation initiatives.
A map of the business landscape not only aids management in making the right decisions; it enables business units / project teams to avoid collisions, eliminate duplicate effort, reduce organization vs. project conflict and sets the scene for the enterprise to truly exploit the very significant inherent in reusability of assets, knowledge and outcomes from previous business improvement initiatives across the enterprise …
The good news…
Establishing the means to identify, assess and resolve potential contention between multiple projects, to identify and use reusability to advantage and to balance the need for speed with the need for certainty is neither overly expensive nor time consuming!
Feel free to explore with me how this might happen…
John Bolden
RMA, Mil C, F-IICM, F-IPMS, C/MBB-ISSSP
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