Hugues Fichet

Information Flow in Project-based Companies: How the Information Flow is Processed in Project-based Companies Compared to Others and How It Affects Strategic Drift Hugues Fichet

How is information flow processed in project-based companies compared to others and how it affects strategic drift? Existing theories concerning strategy, communication and organisation has been confronted in order to create an original lens through which we look at companies. Based on this lens are qualitative interviews led to collect empirical data from two hierarchical levels in four companies with very different businesses. After analysis, the study shows that the strategic drift is well known by companies. Good communication is recognised as a way to tackle this strategic drift and is high on companies' agenda. The project-structure owns several assets (like customization, size and resilience) which make it better to process information flow and which eventually reduce or eliminate the strategic drift. Yet, classical organisations and project-structures seem to create synergy for a company which uses adequately both, regarding the type of business.