Driving Strategic Results: How to Balance Strategic and BAU Work

Balancing strategic initiatives with day-to-day business operations, often called Business-as-Usual (BAU), is a common challenge for many organizations. Striking the right balance ensures that while businesses maintain operational stability, they also continue to innovate and achieve their strategic goals. 

In this article, we’ll explore the dynamics between strategic planning and BAU activities to help you integrate both effectively.

BAU, or the full form of Business-as-Usual, refers to the regular, ongoing activities that ensure a business continues running smoothly. Some common BAU activities are: 

• Customer service
• Maintenance
• Administrative tasks
• Network monitoring
• Bookkeeping
• Production 

All of these are essential for maintaining stability and delivering consistent results. 

In project management, BAU differs from project work in that it focuses on maintaining current operations rather than introducing change or innovation.

While projects are temporary and designed to achieve specific outcomes, BAU activities are repetitive and ongoing, ensuring that the business continues to operate efficiently. 

For instance, in a retail company, BAU might involve inventory management and day-to-day customer service, where as the project might focus on implementing a new e-commerce platform to enhance the customer experience. 

That said, BAU and strategy management can overlap and affect one another. For example, when implementing a new e-commerce platform, some early difficulties could affect the customer experience. This could lead to your customer service team being busier than usual and needing help troubleshooting the issues customers are experiencing. 

Now, how do you balance the strategic and BAU? Here are some ideas and tips that can help:

• Prioritize tasks: Use a prioritization matrix to categorize tasks based on impact and urgency, ensuring high-priority strategic projects get attention while maintaining essential BAU operations​. Do not focus the work on outputs. Focus on outcomes.
• Create a resource plan: Develop a detailed resource plan that outlines required resources, costs, and timelines, addressing potential conflicts between strategic and BAU needs​.
• Leverage resource management tools: Utilize software to track resource availability and project demands, enabling informed, real-time decisions that balance strategic and operational activities​.
• Apply resource leveling and smoothing: Adjust schedules and workloads to prevent over-allocation, maintain a steady workflow, and prevent burnout among team members.
• Monitor and adjust: Regularly review resource allocation and project progress, making adjustments as needed to keep both strategic initiatives and BAU aligned with organizational goals​.

Quantive StrategyAI can help you manage this process. With real-time analytics assessing KPIs and performance as you roll out a new strategy, you can continuously understand what’s going right and what you need to adjust to balance BAU activities and strategic initiatives. 

BAU activities and routine operations are the backbone of any organization, keeping things running smoothly. So, while strategic initiatives help you move forward and innovate, it’s still important to be able to identify these essential daily tasks that also play a significant role. Here are some common BAU activities and examples in different industries: 

IT and Technology:

• Regular software updates to ensure security and functionality
• Network monitoring to prevent and address disruptions
• User support for troubleshooting and resolving technical issues
• Routine system backups to safeguard data and prevent data loss​

Healthcare:

• Patient scheduling to manage appointments efficiently
• Daily rounds and patient monitoring to ensure ongoing care
• Updating medical records to maintain accurate patient information
• Routine cleaning and sterilization of medical equipment to ensure safety​

Retail:

• Inventory management to track stock levels and reorder products
• Restocking shelves to keep popular items available
• Processing customer transactions to facilitate sales
• Maintaining store cleanliness and organization for a positive customer experience​

Manufacturing:

• Equipment maintenance to prevent breakdowns and ensure smooth production
• Quality control checks to maintain product standards
• Managing production schedules to meet deadlines and optimize resources
• Regular safety inspections to ensure a safe working environment​

Overall, both strategy and BAU tasks play key roles in any organization. It’s important to remember not to get too caught up in just driving strategic results. Instead, recognizing the importance of both is what will create long-lasting success. 

By effectively prioritizing tasks, allocating resources, and integrating strategic and operational goals, businesses can maintain stability while pursuing growth and innovation. 

Plus, using strategy management software like Quantive StrategyAI can ensure you make organized strategic decisions while continuously tracking performance and assessing the impact of the changes you implement. 

Quantive StrategyAI helps organizations align their strategic and BAU activities by providing real-time insights and data-driven decision-making tools. 

With Quantive, you can manage strategic projects and day-to-day operations in one integrated platform, ensuring your team stays focused and aligned with your organizational goals. 

Contact us today to learn how Quantive can help you balance strategic initiatives and BAU for optimal results.