In the modern enterprise, within an organization, we seek to connect enterprise strategy to execution, to deliver value to our customers and the business. Each organization sets out to interpret the corporate strategy, then translate the vision into quarterly goals, and make the many decisions needed to bridge this gap. None of it is easy, and the connections are tenuous.

In this course, we will build out a playbook for this decision making challenge. We start with some assumptions about the structure of the enterprise environment.

We use the term Context to refer to a specific part of the organization where we will connect strategy to execution. From the vantage point of our context, we assume we can see higher-level corporate or line-of-business strategic goals, usually on a multi-year time horizon.

We also assume that a context does not act alone. There are many other contexts across the enterprise, interacting as nodes in a network. Some will be peer contexts, in that we interact with them by delivering or receiving value. Others will be parent contexts that support our context with clear definition (i.e. boundaries), funding, and specific authority and responsibilities.

Lastly, we assume that, outside the local context, we have access to a wide array of business data, and that there is a shared understanding of customers - documented in customer journeys - that we can learn from.

Next let’s turn to how we build our context.

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