Getting value from committees in business strategy

Why are committees important in business strategy?

Talk of committees can elicit a groan of protest. We've all sat through our share of long and boring committee meetings which seem to draft on forever without achieving anything!

However, well-run committees play an important role in business strategy development and execution.

• They allow you to bring together people with diverse perspectives, knowledge and experience to weigh in on a topic.
• This can improve decision-making whilst mitigating the risk of getting a decision wrong, creating suitable checks and balances.
• Committees can also help to improve communication of and buy-in to decisions and strategies.
• Finally, committees provide accountability and oversight, ensuring not only that strategy processes and strategies are well formed, but also that they are adjusted as and when required.

However, it is also important to ensure the committees don't introduce unnecessary bureaucracy or suffer from 'group think'. A clear mandate, strong leadership and diverse membership are required to prevent these.

StratNavApp.com can help you identify and manager your committees to this end.

Different types of committees

Committees can have:

• legal standing, like a Board of Directors or Audit Committee
• a more internal focus, like an Executive Committee, or
• a less formal, more transitory nature, like a Working Group set up to tackle a specific issue or task.

How to create a committee in StratNavApp.com

To create a committee in StratNavApp.com:

1. Add a Generic Group in the Control quadrant of the Strategy Board.
2. Enter a Title for the committee.
3. Set the Type to Committee.
4. Enter a description for the committee. This could be the committee's Terms of Reference.
5. Select "Add people who belong to this generic group".
6. Either add existing stakeholders or add new stakeholders to the committee.

What can you do with committees in StratNavApp.com

The most important thing you can do with committees in StratNavApp.com is to invite them to well-planned, properly run and well-minuted meetings.

You can invite a whole committee to a meeting - simply start typing the name of the committee, rather than the names of the individual members, when adding attendees to a meeting.

You can also easily send an email to all the members of a committee. Simply click on the email icon at the top of the list of members on the Committee details screen.