Strategy as Data Plus Sense Making

Galliers and Newell from Images of Strategy

Myths about strategy

• • That It should align with business strategy and be rationally planned
    • IT is relatively fixed but business strategy is not
    • Align with what - customers, internal, external etc
    • Examples like Sabre show IT as gradual enhancement, interactive, emergent as new opportunities are developed

Myths that use IT to support knowledge management

e.g. ERP systems as best practice can only lead to convergence and the best to hope for to be as good as but not better than your competitors - exploit or explore; efficiency or innovation

• the myth that IT can store, transfer and facilitate knowledge exploitation thru reuse

Key Characteristics of Data, Information and Knowledge

• data is explicit and prescriptive
  • Information is interpreted and adaptive
    • Knowledge is tacit embedded and seminal
• data is about exploiting
  • Information is about exploring
    • Knowledge is about creating
• Data's aim is reuse
  • Info's aim building
    • Knowledge aim is rebuilding
• Data's approach is following what has bee n done before
  • Amending old recipes
    • Developing new recipes
• Data is about efficiency
  • effective
    • innovation
• data's approach to learning is none learning
  • single loop
    • Double loop
• data set is predetermined
  • constrained
    • flexible
• data is context free
  • Outer context
    • inner context
• data encourages direction
  • communication
    • sense-making

Information is context-dependent and requires interpretation. Interpretation depends on individuals justified belief that allows them to interpret data and take action

• the characterization of knowledge or knowing suggest knowledge sharing is facilitated thru discourse and dialogue. It systems can support this like Communities of Practice but IT systems cannot store or transfer Knowledge per-se. They can store and xfer data that will be interspersed in each context by individuals making sense based upon their personal knowledge or their wisdom gained from past experiences

• IT can bolster buyer bargaining power
• IT reduces barriers to entry
• Rivalry intensifies
• reduces costs

Towards a more inclusive framework for IS strategizing

IS systems has moved on from standardization of data but increasingly human infrastructure, roles capabilities, viewpoints.

IT should focus on collaboration

• Rovers value webs
• ongoing and processual
• learning from below and above
• emergent unintended improvised, tinkering
• IT not as the solution or the answer but a way of capturing data that may be interpreted, purposeful, knowledgeable and make sense of in individualized and unique circumstances

See p 192 inclusive framework for info systems strategizing

• • Exploitation strategy - deliberate - codification, processes procedures roles, ERP Systems
  • Exploration strategy - Communities of Practice , Flexible project teams. sharing creating , knowledge brokers
  • IS strategy - HR skills, roles. Socio-technical environment. Info services sourcing