Strategy maps allow organisations to describe and communicate their strategies succinctly to close the gap between creation and successful implementation of strategy.

Pioneered by Balanced Scorecard founders Robert Kaplan and David Norton, strategy mapping is an effective and powerful initiative that can help keep a company at its competitive peak.

The tools, techniques and steps provided in this guideline enable organisations to effectively and efficiently conduct their own strategy mapping initiative and to implement strategy where others have failed.

This tool provides an integrated view of the development of a strategy map through the following steps:

1. Specify an overriding objective 
2. Choose the value proposition 
3. Choose the financial strategies 
4. Choose the customer strategies 
5. Execute through the internal perspective strategies 
6. Plan the learning and growth strategies

Steps 1 through 4 address the question 'What do we want to accomplish?

Steps 5 and 6 address the question 'How do we plan to accomplish our objectives?

Companies will find strategy maps a compelling way to think about, agree upon, and communicate their strategic initiatives to various stakeholder communities.

Strategy maps also form the appropriate basis for : 

• Balanced Scorecard performance measures 
• linkages to appropriate management and validation techniques 
• allocating resources to initiatives and strategies that support its value propositions and overriding objectives