Case Study: Strategy Mapping
A leading technology company invested heavily in creating a new market strategy, working with a well-known strategy development firm. Even so, the leaders of different divisions and project teams continued to argue and to hold very different interpretations of how the strategy was to be implemented. Employees throughout the organization viewed the discord at the top as reflecting weak leadership and poor executive teamwork. The leadership team chose strategy mapping as a mechanism to help align both themselves and the rest of the organization.
Through interviews and a brief questionnaire Metrus consultants were able to identify where the leadership team members’ interpretation of the strategy differed and where conflicting market and organizational assumptions were driving divergent perspectives. This information was then shared with the leadership team during 1 1/2 - day leadership session. During this session key differences in perspective were resolved and the team was able to develop a series of agreed-upon hypotheses concerning the cause-effect relationships among various components of the strategy. These relationships were next captured in the graphical diagram below. The team went on to develop precise definitions for each component in the map that served as the basis for evaluating the degree to which the strategy was being effectively executed.
Strategy Map
Finally, the map and definitions were used as the basis for communicating messages about the strategy to employees, as well as a focal point for quarterly reviews held by the leadership team to evaluate strategy execution. Of particular value was the role that "driver" elements in the map served as leading indicators, providing early warning to the leaders if core capabilities they expected to drive financial performance did not improve. Minutes of these quarterly reviews were posted on the company intranet to inform employees on a regular basis were the organization stood in terms of executing the strategy. Increased understanding of the strategy and its execution lead to much greater employee involvement in executing the strategy and to an acceleration in both top- and bottom-line financial improvements.
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