|
Strategy Map Balanced Scorecard Software
Strategy Map Concepts
Our software has the power to easily automate your planning requirements by providing visibility, collaboration, cross referencing and feedback of Balanced Scorecard data into the Strategy Map.
|
|
|
The Strategy Map is the Driver - the Balanced Scorecard is the Engine-Room.
- Reactive ---> Proactive ---> Objective ---> Strategic ---> Visual Map
- We all know what thinking reactively means...
- Particularly at home when a child says just before you leave for work, "I need a written note and some money for today's bus trip".
- As you get in the car or catch the bus late you decide to be more proactive by always asking the night before if there are any special school requirements.
- This Proactive response can be turned into an Objective that you will "Check Regularly about School Events, Notes and Money".
- When you view these kinds of Objectives together, grouping them and linking them and eventually connecting to a Goal, you have a Strategy Map.
- You can make up a Strategy Map for a family at home, or for a major international company.
- THIS is the new kind of visual business picture that everyone is using.
- The Strategy Map is then a new kind of Business Picture that is rapidly becoming the preferred way in which managers will visualise their operations.
- It is not just a Flowchart, not a Data-Flow diagram and not a strict Heirarchy or Cause-Effect diagram.
- The Strategy Map visually defines the Objectives using a perspective-grouped flowchart, sometimes called a Mind-Map.
- In the Strategy Map the Objectives are linked to each other in a Relational manner.
- Eventually the Objectives are linked to a Customer Objective or a Goal.
- Cascading Strategy Map Objectives (available in this software in Mid-2008)
- Many organizations use a multiple Strategy Map system where functional areas are shown in a Parent-Child relationship.
- A Head Office might be the parent with its own Strategic Objectives in a Map.
- A Region or Department may be so different that it needs its own Strategy Map & Objectives.
- A relationship is often defined from the Regional Objectives back to the Head Office Objectives that show how the Objectives are derived.
- -- "This objective is derived (or cascaded from) these Parent Strategy Map Objectives".
- -- When the Cross Referencing is done at the Head Office level it should be possible to see all the derived Objectives in the Child Strategy Maps as well as all the Objective properties.
- The Balanced Scorecard is an Internal-Business-Communication tool that was previously devised by Drs Kaplan and Norton of Harvard University.
- It NOW runs off the Kaplan and Norton defined Strategy Map.
- The Objectives are defined strategically in the Strategy Map and used in the Balanced Scorecard.
- The Scorecard is Balanced because it considers Intangible Assets such as Employee Function, Training and Ability
- (It is not just purely financial).
- The Objectives were divided into four categories called Perspectives.
- The common Perspective names are Customer, Finance, Internal Processes and Research & Development, however sometimes these are renamed or added to.
- The Objectives are broken down into personal targets or responsibilities.
- The targets are broken down into Actions or Initiatives and the Intangible Assets are the individual Intiatives or responses to the Objectives. "What must be done at the lower levels to keep the system running." This is the personal professional training, industry knowledge expertise and experience.
- Employees are assigned relevant Objectives that were defined in the Strategy Map.
- Commonly a more relevant statement (derived from the original Objective) is added in as an additional layer and it is often called a Key Responsibility Area or Critical Performance Indicator or Target or Focus.
- The KRA (or other name) column breaks down the overall objective and defines it for an individual role.
- Often an employee may have several KRA's within the one organisational Objective.
- Organisational Alignment is achieved when the KRA is always a sub-set of the defined Strategy Map Objective.
- The name Scorecard is used because every Objective (through the KRA column) must be measured and scored.
- For example an Objective such as "Exceptional Customer Service" might be measured using a Customer Feedback Form (with Prize) and the actual Score would be the outcome of the Survey data.
- For this example the Employee would define a number of Initiatives (or actions) relating to Improving the Customer Service, and they can have timelines and budgets.
- If you did not measure and score this, how would you ever know if your objective was working and if it should be improved.
- And yet the rest of the organisation and the jobs of its staff could be depending on the person who handles this front-line success.
- The new Strategy Map drives the Balanced Scorecard.
- The Strategy Map now provides the Objective Definitions that are used by the Balanced Scorecard.
- Hence the Strategy Map is like the Driver whilst the good old Balanced Scorecard is like the Engine-Room.
- STRATEGY = Vision, Mission, Core Objective, Values, Policies, Perspectives, Objectives & Strategy Map.
- HR = Strategically Aligned Objectives in the Balanced Scorecard with KRA/Target (or other name) and user defined measurement and assessment columns where each row may have several Activities or Initiatives.
- The Strategy defines "We are THIS type of Organisation".
- The Scorecard defines "HOW are we this type of Organisation".
- The Drill-Down is a cross-referencing tool that takes advantage of the Perspective grouping of the Objectives and the eventual linking to a Goal.
- In the Drill-Down you can cross-reference employee business plans by Objectives and Perspectives.
- The Drill Down can follow the linkage arrows in the Strategy Map.
- If the Objectives are linked to Goals in the Strategy Map then you can call up a Goal and see what everyone is doing and how much it all costs.
- The Digital Dashboard is a Financial Graphical Representation of the drill-down cross referencing and will be provided in our Version 3 software.
- Further Information on this (including diagrams) is covered in our downloadable PDF documents.
|
|
Business Plan Terminology Used in this Software.
- This can be a slightly confusing area...
- The data is all held in a structured form called a database and within this there are smaller databases.
- An Organisation can have a Business Plan and within this the departments and employees can also have business plans.
- Hence databases contain smaller databases and similarly with business plans.
- In the software, when we choose an Organisation we call this as a Business Plan.
- This Business Plan is comprised of a Strategy Map and a Balanced Scorecard.
- A Balanced Scorecard is comprised of departments and employees and each has their own plan.
- The Employee Business Plans are comprised of Objectives and additional data items typically called KRA, Measure, Score.
- Each Objective/KRA/Measure/Score has a number of Actions typically called Initiatives.
- Each Initiative can have additional data items such as timelines and budgets.
- If the timelines are dates they are interpreted to form Gantt Charts.
- Within each Business Plan there are Databases. These are the Measures, Scores, Timelines etc that are standard and can be shared between employees.
- Employees have their own Business Plans and a department or group Business Plan is the sum total of the Employee plans.
- We do not define a business plan for a group or department and then have the employees select their components from that plan.
- This is because the employee roles usually exist before the Balanced Scorecard.
- Also the Strategy Map Objectives are often very broad or general. Selecting them for the Department as well as the Employee represents an additional step.
- When restructing an organisation, it is much simpler to be able to move the employees with their plans attached. So if a department is merged or split-up, so are the plans. If duties are changed, they are easily modified at the employee level.
- In setting up your Business Plans you may prefer to have seperate smaller Business Plans for regional areas or groups. In other words you keep the regional offices as distinct organisations.
- Alternatively you may prefer to have the one large plan comprising all the regional offices, departments and their staff, but then you only have the one Strategy Map and it is not special to each region.
- Some Organisations like to have their overall Strategy Map, with the regions also having their own special-purpose maps.
- You may also wish to copy a business plan and modify it either for a seperate region or else for the coming year thereby keeping the current and previous year's plans unaltered.
|
|
