COOPERATIVE UNIVERSITY OF KENYA

BADM 3106: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

LECTURE FIVE – STRATEGY MONITORING AND

EVALUATION
Strategy Monitoring and Evaluation

Lecture Objectives
By the end of this lecture you should be able to:
Introduction to strategy Monitoring and Evaluation

Strategic control: This relates to management efforts to track a strategy as it is being

implemented, detects problems or changes in its underlying premises and makes necessary
adjustments. Two main questions guide this process:
• Is our organization moving in the right direction?
• How are we performing?
Strategy monitoring entails evaluating the strategy to determine if it yields the anticipated
results as espoused in the organizational goals. This involves:
• Determining what areas of the plan to measure and the methods of measuring those areas
• Comparing the anticipated results with the actual ones.
• Making inference which will enable the organization to understand when and how to adjust
the plan to adapt to changing trends.
Strategy evaluation entails reviewing and appraising the strategy implementation process
and measuring organizational performance.
 Introduction to monitoring and evaluation
Implementation control- a process designed to assess whether the overall strategy should
be changed in light of the results associated with incremental actions that implement the
overall strategy. The key aspects include:
• Monitoring strategic thrusts (major competitive moves directed at strategic targets)
• Milestone reviews (points in time of major parts of the bigger strategy
• Operational control systems which may focus on budgets, schedules and key success
factors – steps include setting standards of performance – measuring actual performance -
identifying deviations from standards set and initiating corrective action.
• Balanced scorecard methodology – enables the firm to clarify their strategies, translate
them into action and provide quantitative feedback on the outcome of the strategy. BSC
components are Financial, Customer, Internal perspective and Learning and growth.
 Purpose and Role
• Strategies are forward looking and are designed to be accomplished over
several years in the future.
• The future is ascertain but controls help organizations to operate with that
in mind so that to remain on track.
• Monitoring and evaluation combined is what enables top management
track a strategy as it is being implemented, detecting underlying problems,
circumstances and taking necessary action or adjustments.
• The actions taken relate to the central goal of ensuring survival, growth
and improved competitive position
Monitoring – monitors inputs which lead to monitoring of processes
followed by monitoring of outputs -
Evaluation – Strategy (what was planned) – Outcome (what was achieved)
and functioning (how was it achieved)
Purpose and Role
Monitoring Levels
Top (Corporate)Level
• Ensures achievement and impact and provision of inputs. Their main
concern is to devise strategy and allocate resources.
Middle level
• Concerned with getting desired output with inputs utilized. They have to
supervise and provide support and also take timely corrective action.
Operational Level
• Supervision of actual operations and ensuring that planned activities are
being carried out as per schedule
 Purpose and Role
Role
Attribute Monitoring Evaluation
Main focus Collecting data on progress Assessing of data at critical stages of the strategic
plan or programme
Sense of Sense of progress Sense of achievement
completion
Time focus Present Past -future
Main question What is happening now to reach our goal? Have we achieved our goal?
Attention level Details Big picture
Inspires Motivation Creativity
Periodicity Continuous throughout the whole process Intermittent at the beginning or end of a significant
milestone
Supports Implementation of a plan Designing the next planning cycle
Sills required Management Leadership
Output processing Progress indicators to be monitored Evaluation results need for discussion, processing and
closely by few people interpretation by all stakeholders
Process and Tools
How to carry out Monitoring and Evaluation
Key features
• Programme Framework: Start with the analysis and systematically lay
out all the aspects of the strategy that need to be addressed
• Identify key elements to monitor and evaluate
• Determine and describe the measures to be used for monitoring and
evaluation
• Develop M&E framework and action plans including data collection,
analysis, reporting and dissemination of findings
 M&E Process
The strategic plan document contains a monitoring and evaluation plan. The plan attempts to
answer questions that guide the process.
• It helps the players to know how they are going to collect data that will be used to track
indicators.
• It seeks to address the subject of how data will be analysed and how the results of data
collection will be disseminated to the stakeholders.
Step 1
Identify goals and objectives by focusing on what is being solved and what steps shall be
undertaken to solve the problem. It should also address how the staff will know that the
problem has be solved
Step 2
Define indicators. These are the ones for measuring progress and the outcomes. The question
this answers is whether the activities are being implemented as planned .
The outcome indicators help track how the activities made a difference (the desired change)
Step 3
Define data collection methods and timeline. Type of data gathering methods based on need
and how often will particular data recorded to track indicators
 M&E process
Step 4
Identify M&E roles and responsibilities
The role of management is determined with inputs from team members so that
they can be on one page knowing which indicators are assigned when the
members can expect a report.
Step 5
The one responsible will create an analysis plan and reporting templates if the
are not there. These will then be filled up appropriately
Step 6
Plan for dissemination and reporting with clear description of how and to whom
data will be disseminated. This makes it clear how the same will flow to the staff
and stakeholders information about success and progress
This also captures how this information will be used by staff to make
modifications and corrections where necessary
 M&E Process
The tools used for collecting data include:
Qualitative tools
• Observation, focus groups etc
Quantitative Tools
• Surveys/questionnaires
• Registers
• Administrative records
• Case studies
• Attendance sheets
Other methods
• Biophysical measurements
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Impact flow diagrams
• M&E wheels (spider web)