Strategy or Projects? That’s Not the Question

Why your organisation needs both

strategies and projects

FEATURED PAPER

By Pascal Bohulu Mabelo

South Africa

The eternal dichotomy: strategy versus operations

Ever since “strategic” has come to signify “important,” executives, managers, and people in general will fancy anything (e.g., office, dossier, mission) to which the term strategic is attached. “Last week, we enjoyed a strategic lunch with two local clients,” you hear some say in glee. Many fellows think a strategy is the alpha and omega of organisations; hence, the more strategic, the better the status or pay—they revile anything seen as nonstrategic.

Thinking of organisations this way is like observing a dog and assuming its front legs are more important than the back ones. It is not until you see a dog with broken back legs that you realise how essential both sets of legs are for movement. Operations are crucial to organisations.

Even so, there often is a tug-of-war between strategic and operations personnel in many organisations. Everybody prefers participating in strategic matters (e.g., strategy formulation) rather than operational issues (day-to-day business). Effective middle management is required as a hinge between the company executives or top managers (white collars) and the delivery personnel (blue collars). This layer translates strategic decisions into actionable projects and ensures the smooth running of operations.

Organisations are organisms composed of many parts that are all needed to function well for their whole body to prove effective in achieving their intended purposes. Thus, organisations will require strategy and operations; and operations are established or improved via projects.

Why do organisations need a strategy?

During their existence, many organisations will aspire to move from a current alpha status to a more desirable, more viable, and competitive beta status. This transition will involve “change;” however, organisational strategy is the starting point of any “business change” initiatives. Such changes may seek to establish or catch up with best practices, if not gain or sustain a competitive advantage.

A strategy is like a competitive game in any organisation. The three basic elements of such strategy are as follows:

• Objectives:
  The “ends” or what the strategy is trying to achieve;
• Scope:
  The “business domain” in which the organisation will operate, or their envisioned customers, offerings and locations, and any vertical integration (if applicable);
• Advantage:
  The “means” to secure a fair win in that competition.

In practice, it is about figuring out the organisation’s, (i) status (e.g., its capabilities, strengths, weaknesses, etc.); (ii) its desired position (as informed by opportunities and threats in the external environment); and (iii) the most viable course to move the organisation to that position. So, strategy is about organisational direction and scope, but notably, “what ought not to be done or engaged in.”

Like it was said, “If you don’t know where you are going any road will lead you there,” and you will get there fast! Sadly, many organisations would rush to invest in human capital, machinery, and so on, without first establishing where they are and where they ought to be going thence.

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How to cite this work: Mabelo, P. B. (2024).  Strategy or Projects? That’s Not the Question: Why your organisation needs both strategies and projects, commentary, PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue VIII, August. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/pmwj144-Aug2024-Mabelo-strategy-or-projects-thats-not-the-question-2.pdf

About the Author

Pascal Bohulu Mabelo

Johannesburg, South Africa

Pascal Bohulu Mabelo, MBA, MSc (Industrial), BSc (Civil), Pr. Eng, Pr. CPM, Pr. PMSA, PMP, has more than 25 years of professional experience and possesses a wide range of technical and managerial skills on large and complex infrastructure projects. He has worked in large infrastructure projects as a design engineer, project/programme manager, project consultant and project management executive. Pascal was honoured to serve as the national chairman of Project Management South Africa (PMSA), the leading Project Management professional association in Southern Africa.

Pascal has published the book: “Managing Engineering Processes in Large Infrastructure Projects” (Cambridge, 2021); he has also published, “How to Manage Project Stakeholders—Effective Strategies for Large Infrastructure Projects” (Routledge, 2020) and “Operational Readiness—How to Achieve Successful System Deployment” (Routledge, 2020). Through various publications, journal articles, and conference presentations, he assiduously promotes the application of Systems Thinking and/or Systems Engineering principles, concepts, and practices to unravel complexity in Large Infrastructure Projects (LIPs) to address their persistent risks of failure and their massive, even pernicious, cost and schedule overruns.
His other papers can be viewed at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/pascal-bohulu-mabelo/

Pascal is currently a Director and Principal Consultant at E 6 Project Consulting or E6PC; for comments, further information, and clarifications he may be contacted at Consult@e6pc.com.