The strategic initiatives you charted for your organization may not seem as urgent as they did 12 months ago, before COVID-19 disrupted the economy. And if they do still top your agenda—you may wonder whether you can or should allocate the necessary resources.
As you weigh competing initiatives for the next year, follow these four steps to choose the projects to implement.
Prioritizing your strategic initiatives
during a pandemic
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Before prioritizing your initiatives, it may help to isolate the exact reasons you are reluctant to move the project forward. Are these common barriers stalling your investment?
- Business and industry uncertainty
- Reduced cash flows and declining revenue
- Staffing concerns
Examine each of your projects, and measure them against these key questions.
Does the initiative...
- maximize my return on investment?
- align with my strategic priorities, vision, and mission?
- take into account the changing landscape and potential ‘new normal’?
- prioritize health and safety?
- grow and help my company diversify, reach customers faster?
- help the organization as a whole—not just one business unit?
Rank your projects and assign them time windows. Choose some for now and save others for later—based on their risk and return.
Tier 1 – Immediate term
Zero to 6 months
Tier 2 – Medium term
7 months to 2 years
Tier 3 – Long-term
2 to 5 years
Solve for costs
Review your operations or financials, redefining your corporate costs structure on fixed and variable costs, and lower costs by increasing technology or automation.
How to implement
Ensure you have the tools and skills required to make financial projections, capture critical scenarios, and incorporate the impact of key variables.
Redeploy your people
By shifting your staff from a less important project to a top strategic initiative, you can gain maximum value with no added cost.
How to implement
Lean on your business intelligence process to gain actionable insights on how to redeploy staff.
Postpone projects—but monitor KPIs while you await relaunch
By measuring performance with key performance indicators like liquidity, you can identify when the organization can invest once again.
How to implement
Proactively reassess your plans based on your results and the latest facts—not the projections from the previous month.
Revisit your plan when conditions improve
In the current COVID-19 environment, it is difficult to predict when the business will recover. Volatility works both ways, however. You may be able to relaunch your projects sooner than you expect.
How to implement
Make sure to save the notes from this exercise to prioritize your strategic initiatives when your budget allows. That being said, reassess those priorities against the business landscape when you do return to investing in your strategic initiatives.
The budget sometimes won’t support investing dollars in the immediate term. But consider these workarounds and next steps.
Solve for costs
Review your operations or financials, redefining your corporate costs structure on fixed and variable costs, and lower costs by increasing technology or automation.
How to implement
Ensure you have the tools and skills required to make financial projections, capture critical scenarios, and incorporate the impact of key variables.
Redeploy your people
By shifting your staff from a less important project to a top strategic initiative, you can gain maximum value with no added cost.
How to implement
Lean on your business intelligence process to gain actionable insights on how to redeploy staff.
Postpone projects—but monitor KPIs while you await relaunch
By measuring performance with key performance indicators like liquidity, you can identify when the organization can invest once again.
How to implement
Proactively reassess your plans based on your results and the latest facts—not the projections from the previous month.
Revisit your plan when conditions improve
In the current COVID-19 environment, it is difficult to predict when the business will recover. Volatility works both ways, however. You may be able to relaunch your projects sooner than you expect.
How to implement
Make sure to save the notes from this exercise to prioritize your strategic initiatives when your budget allows. That being said, reassess those priorities against the business landscape when you do return to investing in your strategic initiatives.
The budget sometimes won’t support investing dollars in the immediate term. But consider these workarounds and next steps.
Rank your projects and assign them time windows. Choose some for now and save others for later—based on their risk and return.
Tier 1 – Immediate term
Zero to 6 months
Tier 2 – Medium term
7 months to 2 years
Tier 3 – Long-term
2 to 5 years
Examine each of your projects, and measure them against these key questions.
Does the initiative...
- maximize my return on investment?
- align with my strategic priorities, vision, and mission?
- take into account the changing landscape and potential ‘new normal’?
- prioritize health and safety?
- grow and help my company diversify, reach customers faster?
- help the organization as a whole—not just one business unit?
Before prioritizing your initiatives, it may help to isolate the exact reasons you are reluctant to move the project forward. Are these common barriers stalling your investment?
- Business and industry uncertainty
- Reduced cash flows and declining revenue
- Staffing concerns
The strategic initiatives you charted for your organization may not seem as urgent as they did 12 months ago, before COVID-19 disrupted the economy. And if they do still top your agenda—you may wonder whether you can or should allocate the necessary resources.
As you weigh competing initiatives for the next year, follow these four steps to choose the projects to implement.
Prioritizing your strategic initiatives
during a pandemic
Scroll