Strategy Maps with Balanced Scorecard

Synopsis

90% of business strategies fail due to poor execution, according to Business 2 Community, which means effectivestrategy maps are especially important for the ultimate success of a business. With our Strategy Maps with Balanced Scorecard collection, you can document and hone in on your priorities, as well as visualize your organization's plans implementation, so that all team players understand how to work together and know where they fit in.

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Slide highlights

To create greater long-term value for shareholders, the business must constantly work on improving its revenue growth and productivity. Use slides, such as this one, if you need a specific map for financial measures and drivers.

Bottlenecks and a lack of clarity hide opportunities for process improvement. Process mapping, on the other hand, helps to gain more visibility into operations. This slide lets you easily create and share process map with your team.

Take advantage of the Balanced Scorecard indicator dashboard. Note that the dashboard is adopted more to operations, so in it, the process starts with the determination of pertinent metrics and control of their value.

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Application

Michael Gunther, the founder of Collaboration Business Consulting, suggests keeping in mind the following when mapping out your strategy:

• Strategic plans don't solve problems - as natural problem solvers, leaders often subconsciously choose tactical strategies to find solutions. "There's a certain level of comfort in trying to solve problems versus determining what types of risk your company needs to take to achieve the next level of financial performance. Instead of focusing on solutions during strategic planning, focus on increasing the company's odds of success," Gunther says.
• Ensure the strategic plan is outward-focused - the main purpose strategic maps should serve is identifying the ways in which the venture wants to position itself in the market, taking in consideration the target customers' needs and preferences
• Determine where your company exists – determine your target customer and market. When you have these two factors figured out, list strategies that will help you and your team to attract and retain those customers. Gunther says: "Include conversations on how to roll with an evolving marketplace, how to fill unmet needs of key stakeholders, which market dynamics will impact the company, and identify opportunities in the market for the company's products/services."
• Establish achievement goals – one important stop on your map should be creating a compelling value proposition for the target audience. This is when you should focus on setting clear goals, rather than creating tactics. Here, consider the drivers and barriers of acquiring new business, determine customer perception of your company versus its competitors, then establish a positional stance and decide which best practices can be employed.
• Stay straightforward – strategic maps should be brief and precise. Keep your map to one page and include only the key choices that will be important for the company's revenue drivers.
• Use clear logic – list the processes that your venture needs to change to achieve the main strategic goal. Add the information about the target audience, the industry's shifts, the Competitive Landscape Analysis (Part 1) and your company's realistic capabilities. When your map is ready, move on to your implementation plan. "The implementation plan should answer the following questions […] What do we hope to accomplish and why? How will we plan to accomplish this task? How can we incorporate measurement tools to ensure the goal is achieved?" Gunther says.

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Case study

Nike

Nike uses strategy maps to incorporate leadership responsibility into its day-to-day business practices. "As we try to integrate corporate responsibility, it's really about systematic change in terms of how we do our contract manufacturing and the decisions that go into it," Lee Weinstein, Nike's spokesperson told Strategy Maps with Balanced Scorecard.

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As a part of the initiative, Nike implemented a Balanced Scorecard strategy approach, which means that contract manufacturers are being evaluated based on health and safety, as well as environmental and labor-management standards. Although Nike reviews its unique balanced scorecard criteria monthly, the company Director of Global Apparel and Corporate Responsibility, Mike McBreen, admits that the most challenging part of the process is establishing the performance measures. "We are communicating the set of measures by which we hold ourselves accountable," McBreen said. And in one of his corporate responsibility newsletters, McBreen wrote that business partners meeting Nike's goals will witness increased, higher-margin business and industry recognition for better performance.

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