What is a Strategy Map

Summary

A strategy map is a powerful management tool that visually represents an entity's overall strategy. It connects objectives through cause and effect relationships, grouping them into perspectives like financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth. Developed from concept maps, mind maps, and flowcharts, strategy maps became popularized by David Norton and Robert Kaplan in 2000. They illustrate how objectives within different perspectives work together to achieve higher-level goals. These maps often feature color-coded shapes to track progress, offering an intuitive understanding of relationships and helping communicate strategies effectively.

Takeaways

• 😀 A strategy map is a management tool used to communicate an entity's overall strategy in a one-page diagram.
• 😀 The strategy map groups objectives into clusters and links them through cause and effect relationships.
• 😀 Strategy maps are part of a family of data visualization tools, including concept maps, mind maps, and flowcharts.
• 😀 Flowcharts, concept maps, and mind maps each have rich histories dating back to the early 20th and late 20th centuries.
• 😀 Strategy maps were popularized by David Norton and Robert Kaplan starting in 2000, through a series of articles and a book.
• 😀 The strategy map emphasizes multiple layers of clusters, horizontally grouping objectives into perspectives (e.g., financial, customer, internal processes, learning and growth).
• 😀 Vertically, objectives are grouped into themes such as efficiency, service, quality, and operational excellence.
• 😀 Perspectives and themes form a matrix where objectives are plotted with cause and effect links.
• 😀 Objectives in strategy maps are typically represented by shapes like rectangles or ellipses, with colors indicating achievement levels (red, yellow, or green).
• 😀 The key purpose of a strategy map is to visualize and communicate the logical flow of an entity's strategy through objectives linked by cause and effect relationships.
• 😀 Strategy maps help model relationships beyond initial intuitive mapping, offering insights into how objectives influence each other to achieve overarching goals.

Q & A

What is a strategy map?

A strategy map is a management tool used to communicate the overall strategy of an entity. It is a one-page diagram that groups objectives into clusters and connects them through cause and effect relationships.

How is a strategy map related to other data visualization tools?

Strategy maps are part of a family of data visualization tools that includes concept maps, mind maps, and flowcharts, all of which represent mental structures with nodes and links, used for organizing information.

What is the historical background of the tools related to strategy maps?

Flowcharts were first popularized by Frank Gilbreth in the 1920s, concept maps were introduced by Joseph Novak in the early 1970s, and mind maps by Tony Buzan since the mid-1970s.

Who popularized strategy maps?

Strategy maps were popularized by David Norton and Robert Kaplan, who introduced them through a series of articles and a book starting in 2000.

What sets a strategy map apart from other visualization tools?

What sets strategy maps apart is their emphasis on multiple layers of clusters, with objectives grouped into perspectives and themes, connected by cause and effect relationships to illustrate a strategy’s logical flow.

What are the main perspectives used in strategy maps?

The main perspectives used in strategy maps are Financial, Customer, Internal Process, and Learning and Growth, which are taken from the traditional balanced scorecard framework.

What are the themes that can be included in a strategy map?

Themes in a strategy map can include efficiency, effectiveness, service and quality, impact in the community, environmental concerns, and operational excellence.

How do objectives get linked in a strategy map?

Objectives in a strategy map are linked through cause and effect relationships, with the development of workforce skills, for example, influencing the achievement of operational excellence, which in turn influences customer satisfaction and profitability.

What shapes are typically used to represent objectives in a strategy map?

Objectives are typically represented by shapes such as rectangles or ellipses in a strategy map.

How is the achievement of objectives measured in a strategy map?

The achievement of objectives in a strategy map is measured using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which are used to assess how well the objectives are being met. These objectives can be color-coded to reflect their level of achievement (e.g., red, yellow, or green).