Initial Questions:

How do critical milestones contribute to successful implementation of strategic initiatives of an organization?

My Response

Critical Milestones Strategic Management

Critical milestones play an important role in the successful implementation of the strategic initiatives of the organization. They help to create practical plans by considering the strategic requirements of the organization. The milestones can incorporate the budgets and financing, Management responsibilities, deadlines, shareholders, business-specific programs, and concrete terms for business which are essential for the beginning of the business. The milestones help the strategic planners to analyze the requirements of the strategic initiatives and also assess the business initiative viability which can help in making the necessary adjustments for the preparation of goals and strategies.

The critical milestones also help the management to analyze the performance of the organization and accordingly make changes to the plans. This helps in an effective response to strategic initiatives. The planning related to the milestones assists in the requirement of testing as well as the feasibility of the project. The purpose is to make sure that the initiatives are taken in the right direction and preceded towards the successful accomplishment of the strategic initiatives by the organization.

The milestone planning helps in the success of the strategic initiative by reducing the error occurrence and evaluating the probable predictive results. This will also help in modification if there is a need to complete the task of successful implementation of the strategic initiatives. For example, if an organization begins a new business venture then there is a need to define the milestone which includes the business plan, product, product evaluation, competitive analysis, customer demand, market penetration, and many more. Considering all these critical milestones, the organization is able to implement the strategic initiatives for the accomplishment of the objectives (Block & MacMillan, 1985).

References

Block, Z & MacMillan, I. (1985). Milestones for Successful Venture Planning. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/1985/09/milestones-for-successful-…

Student’s reply,

Respond to this:

Good post! No doubt, critical milestones are significant in the operational and strategic management of a business. I work for an engineering firm that utilizes a job-costing system, along with critical milestones that guide the engineers and designers through the project. The job-costing financial system allows managers to track the hours put into the project compared to the estimated hours created by the client, and they compare those figures to the milestones to check how the project is fairing. More specifically, I work in quality assurance and we use these milestones to quality check the project at 30%, 60%, 90%, and Final Issue; which nearly guarantees that we will have a top quality product to present to our clients. Does your company, or a company you would like to work for, utilize a similar process?