Strategic scanning project failure and abandonment factors: lessons learned

Abstract

This article aims to explore factors contributing to the failure and abandonment of strategic scanning projects and operational systems. Thirty-nine projects that were studied using action research methods are analyzed. The results suggest that failure and abandonment are provoked by combinations of factors relating to stakeholders' qualifications and experience, to the management and organization of the project system, as well as to strategic alignment and changes in the organization's internal structure. These factors include poor project impetus, uninvolved management, unqualified people, inaccurate expectations, project mismanagement, strategy misalignment, poor participation, hostile culture, insufficient budget, conflating technical and managerial problems, previous project trauma and underestimated complexity.

Getting a clean shot on a blurred target: Improving targeting for Strategic Scanning through action research in 10 French organizations

“…3. Reduce risks of strategic scanning failure: using the GSS and the target method allows managers to successfully deal with several failure factors for setting up and running strategic scanning that the literature has already identified (Lesca & Caron-Fasan, 2008), such as having no clear or consensual priority, divergent interests among stakeholders, absence of a shared interest, unclear objectives, or a scanning focus that is too wide.…”

“…Strategic scanning has two complementary modes of acquiring data (Lesca & Caron-Fasan, 2008;Vandenbosch & Huff, 1997): one is "focused search", which managers can use when they are already involved in a decision making process and they need reliable and non-ambiguous information to understand the context, choices, and implications of their decisions. Thus, in this mode, a specific question bounds the overall scope of the information search (Choudhury & Sampler, 1997).…”

Improving Environmental Scanning Systems Using Bayesian Networks

“…The main functions of such scanning systems are to gather, interpret, and use pertinent information about events, trends, and relationships in an organization's environment to assist management in planning the future course of action (Aguilar 1967;Lenz and Engledow 1986). With Ansoff's (1975) "Managing Strategic Surprise by Response to Weak Signals" as a flagship article, a substantial body of knowledge on this topic exists, but concepts often lack utility in practice (Lesca and Caron-Fasan 2008). Practitioners perceive the task as a difficult one per se (Aaker 1983) and encounter obstacles in the conceptual design, implementation, and day-to-day operation of scanning systems.…”

Improving the Applicability of Environmental Scanning Systems: State of the Art and Future Research

“…With Ansoff's (1975) article "Managing Strategic Surprise by Response to Weak Signals" as an example, a rich body of knowledge exists, but it often goes unused. Practitioners perceive the task as a difficult one per se (Lesca et al 2008). Some may not even know how to start (Albright 2004).…”