Mc Farlans Strategic Grid Strategic Grid The strategic

Mc. Farlan’s Strategic Grid

Strategic Grid • The strategic grid was introduced in 1983 by Mc. Farlan, Mc. Kenney and Pyburn in Harvard Business Review's "The Information Archipelago -- Plotting a Course. " • Management can use the grid as a framework to evaluate the information technology (IT) portfolio within an organization.

Strategic Grid • The strategic grid is two-dimensional graph. • The horizontal or X axis measures how IT affects the organization's strategy. • The vertical or Y axis gauges the impact of IT on operations.

The Quadrants • Support: low operational impact, low strategic impact. This quadrant is about local process improvements for individual users. • Factory: high operational impact, low strategic impact. This quadrant is about operational improvements that affect large portions of the firm, and are aimed at improving performance or decreasing cost.

The Quadrants • Turnaround: low operational impact, high strategic impact. This quadrant is about exploiting new technologies to provide strategic opportunities. • Strategic: high operational impact, high strategic impact. IT organizations that have most projects in this quadrant understand that IT can both improve core operations of the firm while simultaneously generating strategic options.

CIO’s consideration • • What project? Setting priorities Who should be ‘in charge’? Outsourcing

reff • http: //visual. placodermi. org/2009/01/14/tool kit-mcfarlans-strategic-grid/ • http: //www. ehow. com/facts_7243529_strate gic-grid_. html