Strategy Prioritisation Matrix – SKCI Business Strategy Tool

Background

There are numerous strategy prioritisation matrices which all have the singular goal of comparing strategy. 

Matrices vary depending on the type of business or the amount of strategies being compared. 

Here is a standard matrix which can be used by any organisation to help prioritise their strategies.

When To Use The Strategy Prioritisation Matrix

Strategy Prioritisation is an essential part of creating an effective action plan for any organisation. Having assessed your organisation’s goals and values, it is likely that you will have a number of ideas on where you want the organisation to go. 

However, it is unlikely that you have the time or resources to implement all your ideas at once! By using a Strategy Prioritisation Matrix, you can assess the impact of several strategies in comparison with the ease of fulfilling the strategy’s goal. 

This will help narrow down the strategy, or strategies, which will be most beneficial for your organisation.

How To Use The Strategy Prioritisation Matrix

First, it will be helpful to write down all the different strategies that have come out of any analysis or brainstorming sessions you have done previously.

Now that you have a list of ideas, put them into the Strategy Prioritisation Matrix, considering how easy it would be for you to pursue the strategy and how much it will impact your business. 

Once all your ideas have been laid out in a clear structure, you can compare the long- and short-term impacts of the strategies. These questions may help spark discussion:

• Can more than one strategy be feasibly pursued?
• Are any of the strategies interlinked?
• How will pursuing a strategy affect the day to day running of the organisation? 
• Are any of the changes essential? What would happen if they weren’t pursued?
• What is the environmental and social impact of doing or not doing this strategy?

Worked Example 

Below is an example of a Strategy Prioritisation Matrix for the imaginary technology company NewTechNow. We have assessed the impact of several strategies in comparison with the ease of fulfilling the strategy’s goal. This will help us decide which strategies we wish to pursue.

From the table, we can see that NewTechNow has numerous options. Entering the Asian market is a long-term goal which has appeared several times in the strategy analysis. 

As the most difficult strategy (developing a new product which targets Asian market) is connected to a medium difficulty strategy, it may be a good idea to expand into Asia using the original product and then look at developing a new product as a long-term strategy. 

This way the risk is reduced slightly and there is less pressure on resources. 

At the other extreme, it may be that the strategy to ‘Grow sales of existing product ranges in the home market’ is sufficiently simple to execute that it can be done in parallel with the higher risk long-term developments.

How Does This Fit Into The 5KQ Strategy Framework?

SKCI’s unique 5 Key Question (5KQ) strategy framework gives our clients an effective way of managing strategy development. The Strategy Prioritisation Matrix helps solve question three, ‘What are we going to do (differently)?’. It builds on all the information gathered in questions one and two and looks to the future of the organisation.

Our framework allows you to ask the right questions at the right time and provides a clear structure for the development of your strategy. As you will have already gathered insight into your organisation in the previous steps, the Strategy Prioritisation Matrix provides a clear and concise format in which you can compare varying strategies. This will enable you to make informed and logical decisions which will give you an effective business strategy.

Additional Resources

Additional Strategy resources, including blank worksheets in PowerPoint and Word format, are available from the SKCI website: www.skcinv.com/business-strategy-resources