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Developing strategies

A strategy describes the steps and components, and how they are achieved, leading from individual projects, through objectives to goals, and then the vision. Thus, each goal is operationalised by designing a strategy as a relatively detailed description of measurable objectives and projects. See the following diagram.

The relationship between components making up a strategy
(Note: this is an elaborated scheme — it may not be necessary to implement all steps or components)

Each goal will be operationalised by designing a strategy as a detailed description of:

• the goal served by the strategy

• the measurable objectives — each objective will be operationalised as one or more projects

• the projects — each project may be operationalised by one or more sub-projects, or tasks.

A strategy is thus a detailed description of the constituent goal, objectives and projects, which together are designed to achieve the goal, and ultimately the vision. It is a plan, ie a description of how:

• to get from where you are — described by the regional profile

• to where you want to be — the goal and the vision.

A strategy does this by articulating one or more complementary objectives each with one or more projects, and may be implemented by drawing up a detailed action plan (see Step 7.)

It may be useful to consider developing strategies to cover two or more time horizons, for example:

1. the short term (1-2 years), focusing on the here and now and what can be initiated and implemented quite rapidly. This will build immediately on the regional profile to exploit existing assets and opportunities which are likely to be able to attract or develop eWork relatively quickly.

2. the longer term (2 plus years), devising a strategy which requires effort and resources to create an environment conducive to attracting and/or developing eWork opportunities in relevant sectors and activities in the future. The latter could include strategies for tackling present labour market, skills/training, organisational and infrastructure deficiencies.

Objectives: are realistic, measurable targets of how and when each goal (or part of a goal) is to be achieved. Objectives should be realistic, feasible and measurable (so it is possible to know whether or not they have been achieved), and again there should not be too many objectives for each goal. See example objectives and approaches.

Projects: are manageable units of effort each with its own time horizon, resources (inputs including funding), activities and outputs which can be measured against the objective it serves. Projects may be broken down into sub-projects, or tasks, and are designed to transform the opportunities and resources which the region has into achieved objectives and hence goals.

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© 2002, Institute for Employment Studies