About strategic management

Any organization's performance management is an essential component, and it determines whether the organization will succeed or fail.

The majority of businesses have concentrated on using balanced scorecards to monitor performance and guarantee that the desired results are delivered, but there has scarcely been any clear connection to predetermined strategies. Strategy mapping has been instrumental in transforming the development and implementation of corporate strategies in recent years.

Strategy mapping

In a broader sense, strategy mapping is a diagram that is used to provide a visual framework that combines goals specified by a corporation inside a balanced scorecard's four points of view. The process of strategic mapping entails various steps that include specification of suitable goals, selection of value proposition, choosing of customer and financial strategy, execution and planning of the learning and growth strategies. In this paper, primary focus will be directed to the description of strategic mapping process with the reference point being Glacier Inn hotel's case study.

Analysis

Background information on Glacier Inn Hotel

Glacier Inn Hotel was established in Minnesota and was uniquely built using ice. However, one of the major challenges faced by the organization was its failure to meet its set goals and objectives within the first year of operation. The management's move to incorporate strategic mapping was vital in bolstering its financial performance.

Process of strategic mapping

The first step entails specification of the overriding objective, and this entails defining what it takes for an organization to enjoy success. The company has to come up with visions and goals that will ensure that it gains a competitive advantage over its rivals and at the same time enjoy an enhancement in its performance (Murby & Gould, 2005). It has to be measurable and in such a way that it sets a foundation for an improvement in the company's profitability levels. In the case of Glacier Inn, for instance, its goal was to increase its financial performance. The same can apply to firms such as Coca-Cola Corporation, that is, enhance its cash flow, thus bolstering its market share.

The next step entails value proposition, and this aims at choosing a dominant strategy that will lead to an increase in an organization's production process. It is divided into three areas including operational excellence, enhanced customer satisfaction, and organizational leadership. Nevertheless, it is hard for a company to fully focus on the three areas and this implies that it can specialize on one with excellence while remaining sustainable in the others (Armitage & Scholey, 2006). Glacier Inn Hotel selected product leadership as its value proposition to help in enhancing its productivity. In the case of Coca-Cola, it will be necessary for it to select an objective that best suits its mission and vision.

The organization will then be required to choose a suitable financial strategy that is categorized into revenues, assets utilization, and productivity. The value proposition that an organization selects determines the category of financial strategy that it chooses (De Waal, 2013). Management has to ensure that the strategy it incorporates enhances the firm's financial productivity. Glacier Inn, for instance, focused on product leadership and this led to an introduction of new commodities, thus an increase in its revenues. As for productive strategy, it increased its staff members while enhancing proficiency in management.

The next step of strategic mapping entails selection of customer strategies that will help in the attaining of financial objectives. In this case, the company will focus on attracting new customers and retaining those that it already has. It will also aim at increasing per consumer revenues while reducing per consumer costs (De Waal, 2013). Glacier Inn ensured that the threshold level of some of its commodities remained sustainable and uniqueness of its products.

The organization will then execute through the internal perspective strategies. In this step, the organization will have to turn its attention on how to achieve the set objectives in the strategy map. The selected value proposition will be instrumental in this step, in that it will help it in meeting the set goals and objectives. Glacier Inn Hotel, for example, keeps on developing new products and is in the process of designing new marketing techniques that will help it increase its revenue generation.

The final step of strategic mapping entails planning the learning and growth strategies. Here, the organization will identify and close gaps in areas such as knowledge and skills that may end up acting as barriers to the overriding objectives (Murby & Gould, 2005). Some of the components that are vital in this include human capital, organizational capital and information capital. All those gaps that are identifiable have to be corrected appropriately. Learning and growth strategies in the Glacier Inn Hotel include improved staff competency in human capital and innovation suitable for enhanced organizational productivity.

Conclusion

Strategy mapping is an instrumental aspect of any organization in that it plays a critical role in the enhancement of its market share while at the same time boosting its financial performance. It provides a blueprint of what a company needs to achieve in all stages and based on the information on the strategy map and balanced scorecard; the manager can make comparisons on the firm's performance.

References

Armitage, H. M., & Scholey, C. (2006). Using strategy maps to drive performance. Mississauga, Ont.: CMA Canada.

De Waal, A. (2013). Strategic Performance Management: A managerial and behavioral approach. Palgrave Macmillan.

Murby, L., & Gould, S. (2005). Effective performance management with the balanced scorecard. CIMA.