The Process Of Strategy Mapping

There are a gazillion companies out there, but some stand out. Whether it is because of their popularity, affiliations, history, profile or service, one factor simply makes or breaks a company; it’s strategy management process.

(P1.1) In formulating a business strategy, it is a crucial factor to determine what the organization’s mission, vision, objectives and core competencies are because it sets an idea on what the organization should do and what purpose do they have in the industry to contribute to their customers. It also helps what markets should they target and what action should they plan to have a competitive advantage.

A balanced scorecard is a method company’s use to measure their performance. It includes objectives, strategies, and tactics. This paper will contain two strategic objectives for each of the four balanced scorecard areas (shareholder value or financial perspective, customer value perspective, process or internal perspective, and learning and growth perspective) for H & R Block. It will also have two strategies for every objective, one tactic for each strategy, and two methods to monitor and control the overall strategic plan for H&R Block.

Strategy is a set of complicated tactics formulated by the executives of a company directed towards the achievement of company’s goal (Salmela, 2002). It is about all the path ways that a company would follow to reach its ultimate goal. It is a company’s strategy which helps to identify what it does better than the other companies in the industries, which may be different from what it does best. For successful strategy formulation and implementation, a company should know the needs of customers and should have knowledge of its competitors. Through a good strategy a company would identify that opportunity which makes it different from the others (Thompson, 2005).

Processual approach: Strategy is produced in an incremental fashion, as a 'pattern in a stream of decisions'. Fuzzy approach: Companies sometimes adopt an incremental approach to change. What's different between these two approach?

A Balanced Scorecard is, “A set of four measures directly linked to a company’s strategy: financial performance, customer knowledge, internal business processes, and learning and growth” (Pearce & Robinson, 2009, p. 202). Healthy Place needs to develop a balanced scorecard in order to assist in defining the company’s mission, values, vision, and SWOTT analysis. Herein, the four perspectives, financial performance, customer knowledge, internal business processes, and learning and growth will be discussed as they relate to the Healthy Place mission, values, vision, and SWOTT analysis.

The strategic planning process begins by reviewing the organizations mission, vision and values. Clarifying the mission, vision, and goals at the beginning strategic planning process can help align fragmented entities (2 p. 293). The mission statement identifies the organizations reason for existing and how it is unique in comparison to other organizations (A p. 294). It is a short, concise and clear statement that serves as a rallying point for the organization (4 p. 752). The mission provides clues about the types of services that can be expected from the organization (A). Failing to check new projects against the mission can cause an organization to get into trouble (A p. 294).

Strategy does not end with formulation and implementation. It is constantly evolving and being analyzed for effectiveness and measured to ensure it is continuing to meet the original intent of the organization. Some of the means used to measure strategy include financial ratios, market analysis, and balance scorecards. (Strategy as Work-in-Progress: Keep Looking Ahead) Of these, financial ratios are important but tend to review strategy in a historical sense whereas the balanced score card has the ability to look at how the customer perceives you and what must be done to excel in the industry. (Strategy as Work-in-Progress: Keep Looking Ahead)

The first step to analyse strategy is to perform a SWOT analysis. As Daft and Marcic (2011) believe “Formulating strategy often begins with an assessment of the internal and external factors that will affect the organisation’s competitive situation.” (Daft and Marcic, 2011, p.155). So this is where I will begin the analysis.

With this information a key question to ask when conducting a strategic analysis of Maverick Lodging can be formulated. Does the current balanced scorecard completely parallel the overall objectives and strategic goals of the organization? The answer is no. Maximum differentiation will not be produced. As a result, growth will not be maximized. This represents the main issue with the case discovered by this strategic analysis. The following issues are all responsible for the failure of the balanced scorecard to reach the company’s strategic targets.

An organisation’s strategy plays an important role of providing direction of where company wants to be and how best to allocate the company’s resources to meet its objectives. The formulation of business strategies has evolved over the years and has been made more difficult in recent by the uncertain operating environments and global financial crises.

Financial objectives relate to the financial performance targets management has established for the organization to achieve. Strategic objectives relate to target outcomes that indicate a company is strengthening its market standing, competitive vitality, and future business prospects.

Strategy literature offers many techniques and models suited for systematic strategic analysis. The SWOT analysis, the PESTEL analysis, the Five Forces analysis framework are the prime examples of techniques that can be adopted for strategic analysis. This assignment will use PESTEL and Five forces model to analysis the environment of CRH plc.

A strategy is said to be a plan that is made for the long term success of a product or brand. It is extremely important to have a strategy in order to figure out a direction towards which any company is able to focus all its resources efficiently and achieve desired outcomes. Formulating effective strategies is a considerably long process in itself that combines analysing several factors, situations and issues that are already present in a company and looking to improve on them alongside trying to implement various innovations and ideas to collectively create a direction towards which they can move and direct the resources available to them.

Organizations successful at strategy implementation effectively manage six key supporting factors :     1.  Action Planning