Without a strategy map, many companies expend endless hours planning a strategy, then falter at deploying, communicating, and executing it properly. Strategy mapping is a proven way to turn the complex and often inaccessible strategic plan into an interactive, visual roadmap for the plan’s successful execution.

A good strategy map is:

• A simple, visual depiction of key parts of current strategic plan
• A way of grouping your highest-level objectives by areas, or "perspectives"
• Comprised of objectives that indicate your desired outcomes
• An explanation of cause and effect relationships
• What creates the foundation for good scorecards and effective strategy execution
  

The example above uses the "traditional" perspectives described by Drs. Kaplan and Norton (Financial, Customer, Internal, Learning and Growth). Your organization may require more or different perspectives to accurately represent all of your stakeholders. For example, hospitals often add a "Clinical Quality" perspective, while governmental or non-profit organizations typically include a "Constituent Outcomes" perspective at the top of their strategy map, and often move the "Financial" perspective to the bottom, since profits are not the ultimate goal, but rather provide the resources to meet their missions.                               

The strategy map software capability built into ActiveStrategy Enterprise software enables your organization to arrange the content into a style that fits your unique needs. Within ActiveStrategy Enterprise software, your strategy map will also be dynamically linked to your Balanced Scorecard content. For example, clicking on an objective on a strategy map will take a user to the portion of their Balanced Scorecard that shows that objective, as well as the linked measures, initiatives, and performance data.

Find out more about:

• Building a Top-Level Scorecard
• Cascading Scorecards