Strategic planning is a key process in organizations that involves outlining the future goals and objectives of an organization and determining the strategies and actions necessary to achieve those goals. One important tool in strategic planning is the strategy map.
A strategy map is a visual representation of the key drivers of an organization’s success, showing the cause-and-effect relationship among goals and plans. It helps align organizational goals into strategy and provides clear direction for the organization. In this assignment, you are required to create a strategy map for your selected organization, based on the strategic goal identified in the previous SWOT analysis assignment.
Before creating a strategy map, it is important to review the mission statement of your selected organization. The mission statement is a statement that describes the purpose or reason for the organization’s existence. It provides a sense of direction and guides decision-making in the organization.
In addition, you need to identify and prioritize the stakeholders of your selected organization. Stakeholders are individuals or groups that have an interest or stake in the organization and can be affected by its actions. Conducting a stakeholder analysis helps in understanding the needs, expectations, and influence of various stakeholders.
To conduct a stakeholder analysis, you can refer to the “Stakeholder Analysis” resource from Mindtools. The stakeholder analysis involves four steps: identify stakeholders, determine their interests and influence, assess their power and influence, and prioritize stakeholders based on their power and influence.
Once the stakeholder analysis is complete and the strategic goal is identified, you can create a strategy map using software such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, or Microsoft Visio. The strategy map should include the four required perspectives: financial, customer, internal, and learning and growth. These perspectives represent different aspects of the organization’s operations and help in understanding the cause-and-effect relationship among goals and plans.
The cause-and-effect relationships in the strategy map are described by connecting arrows. These arrows show how achieving a certain goal in one perspective can lead to the achievement of goals in other perspectives. For example, improving employee skills and capabilities in the learning and growth perspective can lead to improved operational efficiency in the internal perspective, which in turn can lead to increased customer satisfaction in the customer perspective, and ultimately result in improved financial performance in the financial perspective.
It is important to note that APA format is not required for this assignment. However, solid academic writing is expected. This means that you should ensure your writing is clear, concise, and logically organized. Use appropriate language and terminology, and support your analysis and recommendations with evidence and examples from reliable sources.
In preparation for this assignment, make sure to read Chapter 11 in your textbook, as well as review Chapters 7 and 8. Additionally, read the article “Business Model Innovation in Practice” by Euchner and Ganguly, and the articles “Business Ethics and the Development of Intellectual Capital” by Su, “Corporate Social Responsibility: A Real Options Approach to the Challenge of Financial Sustainability” by Bosch-Badia, Montilor-Serrats, and Tarrazon-Rodon, “Innovation Agendas: The Ambiguity of Value Creation” by Daniel and Klein, “Intellectual Capital Approach to Modern Management Through the Perspective of a Company’s Value Added” by Survilate, Tamosiuniene, and Shatrevich, and “Stakeholder Analysis” by Gilstein.
In conclusion, creating a strategy map is an important step in strategic planning. It helps align organizational goals into strategy and provides clear direction for the organization. By visually representing the cause-and-effect relationship among goals, operations, and stakeholders, a strategy map helps in understanding how different aspects of the organization’s operations are interconnected and how they contribute to the achievement of the strategic goal.
