Strategy as Data Plus Sense Making

Galliersand Newel from Images of Stragegy !!Myths about strategy

• • That It should align with business stragegy and be rationally planned
    • IT is relatively fixed but business stragegy isnt
    • 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 k exploitation thru reuse

!! Key Characteristics of Data, Informaiton and K

• data is explicit ajd prescriptive
  • Information is interpreted and adaptive
    • K is tacit embedded and seminal
• data is about exploiting
  • Informaiton is about exploring
    • K is about creating
• Data's aim is reuse
  • Info's aim bulding
    • K aim is rebuilding
• Data's approach is following what has bee n done before
  • Amending old receipes
    • Developoing new receipes
• Data is about efficiency
  • effective
    • innovation
• data's apporach to learning is none learnong
  • single loop
    • Double loop
• data set is predtermined
  • constrained
    • flexible
• data is ciontext free
  • Outer contxt
    • inner context
• data encourages direction
  • communication
    • sense-making

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

• the cahracterization of knowledge or knowing suggest k sharing is facilitated thru discourse and dialogue. It sysyems can suppport this like Communities of Practice but IT systems cannot store or transfer K perse. They can store and xfer data that will be interprered in each context by individuals making sense based upon their persponal k 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 sytems has moved onm from standardization of data but increasingly human infrastructure, roles capbilbilites, viewpoints.

IT should focus on collaboration

• Rovers value webs
• ongong and processual
• learning from below and above
• emergent unintended improvised, tinkering
• IT not as the solution or the nanser but a way of captuting data that may be interpreted, purposeful, knowledgaeble and make sense of in indivualized and unique circumstances

See p 192 inclusive framework for info systems strategizing

• • Exploitation strategy - deliberate - codification, processes procedures roles, ERP Systems
  • Exploration stratgey - CoP, Fleible project teams. sharing creating , k brokers
  • IS strategy - HR skills, roles. Socio-technical environment. Info services sourcing