How to Set Up an Office of Strategy Management

Here's a great article brief from Harvard Business Online on why businesses need an Office of Strategy Management or OSM. The article argues that most businesses fail to reach profitable growth because of the strategic disconnect that exists between different departments within the company. How can you solve this? The article says by setting up an OSM to keep everyone on the same page. Here's what you can do.

Create and Oversee Your Strategy management System "Help the executive team select performance targets and identify required strategic initiatives. Initiate and administer your company's strategic performance reporting system. To maintain integrity of performance data, create and enforce uniform organization-wide metrics."
"Incorporate changes in corporate strategy into all documents and tools that the company uses to track strategic performance--such as strategy maps and the Balanced Scorecard."
Align the Organization "Actively manage organizational alignment with corporate strategy. Institutionalize the use of a common strategic performance reporting system by all units. Ensure that business unit and support unit strategies are linked to one another and to the company's strategy."
Communicate Strategy "Through newsletters, CEO speeches, and other channels, communicate corporate strategy, targets, and initiatives to the workforce. Coordinate with HR to ensure that education about the strategy management process is included in training programs."
Review Strategy "Organize and lead monthly strategy-review meetings, briefing the CEO about strategic concerns in advance. Document needed adjustments to strategy and execution identified during meetings and follow up to ensure that changes are implemented. Help the chief financial officer prepare strategy updates for board meetings."
Refine Strategy "Evaluate new strategic ideas coming from within the organization and convey promising ones to senior management."
Manage Strategic Initiatives "Manage strategy-related initiatives that cross unit and functional lines, to ensure they receive sufficient resources and attention. Monitor progress of all strategic initiatives and report on them to top management."
Consult with Key Strategy Support Functions "Planning and budgeting - Work with the finance department to ensure that corporate and unit budgets reflect those established during the strategic planning process and that each unit's budget includes resources needed for the unit's contribution to cross-functional strategic initiatives."
"Human Resource Alignment - See that the HR function manages employee incentives, competency development programs, and annual performance reviews in a manner consistent with corporate and business unit strategic objectives."
"Knowledge Management - Coordinate with the chief learning officer to ensure that the best practices and ideas most critical to the corporate strategy are shared throughout the organization."