The purpose of strategy is to provide direction and concentration of effort as organizations continually strive to improve their position or gain the upper hand within the marketplace. Basically, it's a struggle for advantage, and the one with the best advantage wins. It's that simple. On what areas must businesses concentrate? Businesses clearly have to:

 

 

 

 

 

 





     
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  • Gain new advantages that increase or improve customer satisfaction, which will differentiate them from their competitors




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  • Either eliminate or minimize their competitors




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  • Achieve speed to market




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  • Re-engineer business processes for improved competitiveness




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  • Align their organizations to the latest economic trends




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  • Implement the strategy through projects




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  • Evaluate the success of the strategy by measuring project success




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From project management’s point of view, there is no need to manage any project if the project manager has no idea why it’s being done in the first place. It’s crucial for any project manager to address the larger issues of the business strategy and see where the project fits in the overall framework. It isn’t easy—but it needs to be done.

 

 

 

 

Therefore, organizations must focus on project management as the key business driver that will achieve these advantages for them. With sound project management methodology and processes in place, project management is able to support the overall business strategy of an organization with these logical benefits:

 

 

 

 

1. Reduced delivery costs. Project management can provide products and services more cheaply by following a structured and formalized project methodology and by ensuring that excessive costs are not spent without due consideration.

 

 

 

 

2. Quicker product to market. The advantage permits the business to deliver products or services more efficiently than the competitors and the business is able to react more favorably to market demands.

 

 

 

 

3. Focused advantage. The projects will be focused more on the client needs and products, instead of having a solution that does not deliver the expected returns.

 

 

 

 

4. Quality and timely deliverables. Project management builds quality into the products or services right from the start, ensuring that the right things are developed at the right specification.

 

 

 

 

5. Proven customer advantage. Project management gains advantages for their organization by working together with the customer and by accommodating their needs and requirements.

 

 

 

 

Summary

 

 

 

 

Today’s organizations are challenged, as they need to keep pace with competitive markets, client needs, and marketplace trends. Winning is basically about who has the upper hand - either with new technology or quicker project implementations. The only winners will be those executives who are able to reinvent their companies quickly enough to take full advantage of the efficiencies that solid project management practices can offer.