Mark Hurd, CEO of Oracle recently spoke about top business priorities that CEOs should be focusing on. He acknowledged that while tactical details have the potential to change week by week, business success ultimately comes down to three core pillars: strategy, operations and people.

While it may not always be easy, it’s important to do what you can to get those three business priorities right. Changing market conditions, regulatory restrictions, customer expectations, and the generational shift in technology can pose as major challenges to business leaders. However, if you can stay focused on those three core priorities, they will help to guide you and better manage your business.

Let’s breakdown these top three business priorities:

1. Getting the strategy right: It’s important to define a strategy for your company’s vision and a high-level plan for achieving profitable growth and a strong competitive position. A vibrant business strategy should get your company to a market position that others either didn’t see or that follows a path that matches your unique strengths. When you’re defining your strategy, it’s important to have a long-term view instead of focusing on having a shiny, new strategy every year.
2. Getting the operating model right: Operating models are facing numerous challenges in today’s workforce—globalization, non-stop digital innovation and many more. These factors force business leaders to regularly evaluate and update their operating model and how it delivers value to their customers. A few questions to ask yourself when evaluating your operating model include:
   1. What are our company’s core strengths?
   2. Are your product development, sales, marketing, finance, HR, and other teams organized in a way that maximizes those strengths?
   3. Does your company culture enhance them?
   4. Are your IT systems keeping pace with the needs of your people and the demands of your processes?
   5. How does your company generate new ideas and innovations, and how does it retire old processes and products?
3. Getting the people right: Perhaps the most critical challenge that business leaders face is attracting, cultivating and retaining talented people. It’s important to create programs, incentives and a culture that entices potential employees to your organization.

It’s important your team prioritizes as well, so check out these Top 10 Strategic CIO Priorities for 2019.

To learn more about these top three business priorities, check out the full article attached below.