Strategic issue management as change catalyst

Abstract

Purpose

Under high turbulence conditions, a company's periodic planning cycle needs to be supplemented with a dynamic, real‐time, strategic‐issue‐management system. This paper aims to investigate this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study of a prominent Australian healthcare organization shows the eight steps for how its management used the strategic issue management (SIM) process to identify, rank and address strategic issues in a rapidly changing business environment.

Findings

The paper finds that, for companies entering a period of turbulence, the tracking, monitoring, and management of strategic issues become s imperative so that the corporate, strategy, and capability do not fall out of alignment.

Practical implications

The company's survival may well depend on having a well‐developed process for decision‐makers to rapidly put forth critical rebalancing responses.

Originality/value

In the SIM approach, external issues are manifest as opportunities and threats, and internal issues as strengths and weaknesses. Issues are viewed in the context of the environment, strategy, and capability (E‐S‐C) framework. A 3×3 strategic issue priority matrix is used to map the level of urgency and potential impact of each issue.

Citation

Perrott, B.E. (2011), "Strategic issue management as change catalyst", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 39 No. 5, pp. 20-29. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878571111161499