Project and portfolio management

SmartSuite for the Chief Strategy Officer

The Chief Strategy Officer sets strategic direction and the planning cycle: objectives and key results, strategic initiatives, the roadmap and the reviews that keep execution aligned to strategy. They connect strategy to the portfolio and report progress to the CEO and board.

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Reports to:

Chief Executive Officer

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What you own

The Chief Strategy Officer sets strategic direction and the planning cycle: objectives and key results, strategic initiatives, the roadmap and the reviews that keep execution aligned to strategy.

Lead strategic planning and the annual and quarterly planning cycles
Set objectives and key results and cascade them through the organization
Prioritize strategic initiatives and align the portfolio
Run strategy reviews and course corrections
Analyze market, competitive and performance data
Report strategy progress to the CEO and board

Reporting lines

Who this role reports to, who reports to them, and the peers they work with most.

Reports to

Chief Executive Officer

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Direct reports

Head of PMO

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Works closely with

How SmartSuite supports this role

Lead

Planning. Cascades objectives and key results from company to team with progress rolled up automatically.

Benefits. Links strategic initiatives to the projects that deliver them and the outcomes they move.

Reporting. Produces strategy review dashboards and board updates from live OKR and initiative data.

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Products this role uses most

Strategy & OKR Management

Define strategy, align OKRs, and track outcomes with progress rolled up from the initiatives and projects that deliver them.

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Strategic Roadmapping

Plan and visualize strategic initiatives over time with roadmaps linked to the programs, projects, resources, and priorities that deliver them.

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Portfolio Management

Prioritize investments, align initiatives to strategy, and track outcomes with portfolio dashboards that draw on project, program, and financial records.

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Budget Planning & Management

Plan, allocate, and track budgets with a current view of financial performance and spending.

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Industry reference

OKR practice as set out in Doerr's Measure What Matters, Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard and the PMI's Standard for Portfolio Management frame the strategy-to-execution cycle, and listed companies carry disclosure duties on strategy and risk under securities law and the UK Corporate Governance Code.

Related roles

Chief Executive Officer

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DEEPEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Explore Further

Guides and definitions from the GRC Knowledge Center and the What-is glossary, chosen for this role.

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What's new

What is Portfolio Strategy Alignment?

What is Initiative Management?

What is Strategic Planning?

What is Business Strategy?

How to Turn GRC From a Compliance Cost Center Into an Operating Advantage

What CEOs Need to Know About Connected GRC

Frequently asked questions

What does the Chief Strategy Officer own in the planning cycle?

The Chief Strategy Officer owns strategic direction and the planning cycle: the annual and quarterly planning rounds, the objectives and key results and their cascade through the organization, the prioritization of strategic initiatives and alignment of the portfolio, the strategy reviews and course corrections, the analysis of market, competitive and performance data, and the reporting of strategy progress to the CEO and board. In SmartSuite that cycle runs in Strategy & OKR Management, Strategic Roadmapping and Portfolio Management.

How does SmartSuite help a Chief Strategy Officer cascade OKRs?

SmartSuite cascades objectives and key results from company level to team level in Strategy & OKR Management, with progress rolled up automatically. The officer sets the company objectives, functions and teams set the key results that contribute to them, and the roll-up shows at any time how far each company objective has moved and which contributing results are behind. The cascade is maintained in one place rather than in a set of departmental spreadsheets.

How are strategic initiatives connected to the projects that deliver them?

Strategic initiatives are linked to the projects that deliver them and to the outcomes they are meant to move, so the officer can see for each initiative which projects are under way, how they are progressing and whether the outcome is responding. Portfolio Management holds the projects the Head of PMO and Portfolio Manager run; Strategic Roadmapping holds the sequence the initiatives follow, so alignment of the portfolio to strategy is visible rather than asserted.

How does the officer run strategy reviews and course corrections?

Strategy review dashboards are produced from live OKR and initiative data, so each quarterly review starts from the current state: which objectives are on track, which initiatives are slipping and where key results suggest the strategy is not landing. Course corrections made in the review, reprioritizing an initiative or changing a key result, are recorded in the same place, so the next review can check whether the correction worked.

How does the Chief Strategy Officer report to the CEO and board?

SmartSuite produces board updates from the same OKR and initiative data used in strategy reviews, so the officer's report to the Chief Executive Officer and board is a view of progress rather than a narrative prepared separately. Budget Planning & Management connects initiatives to the budgets the Chief Financial Officer governs, and the Chief Operating Officer's operational KPIs sit in the same system, so strategy, money and operations are reported from one record.

How quickly can a planning cycle start running in SmartSuite?

New customers can start with SmartSuite Onboarding, a guided four-week program around one or two priority workflows. For a strategy office the first workflow is the planning cycle: load the company objectives and key results for the current period, the strategic initiatives and the projects that deliver them, and let teams add their contributing results. The cascade and roll-up work from the first quarter, and the roadmap and portfolio links can be added as the officer aligns the initiatives. Existing project tracking by the PMO continues; SmartSuite links it to strategy.

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