ABSTRACT
The traditional bodies of knowledge in project management have little to say about organisational strategy. This is somewhat surprising, given that the organisational appetite for projects is on the increase. Indeed, projects seem to consume an ever-expanding proportion of organisational resources, whilst anecdotal evidence points to a persistent yet unbridgeable gap between intention and execution. While the need for an explicit link between long-term strategy and immediate actions may appear obvious, they point out that their own survey reveals that 50 per cent of organisations fail to link strategy to short-term plans and budgets. Strategic plans require coordinated action that often extends beyond organisational boundaries, functions and business units. Kaplan and Norton reflect that in their original conception of scorecards they encouraged companies to select initiatives independently for each strategic objective. Strategic initiatives may be justified on a stand-alone basis in different parts of the organisation, leading to strategic drift over the duration of the initiative.
