feeling lost in an uncertain world? Why not try a map…
So, as we explored earlier in this newsletter, the world is a brittle place. Surviving in times of geopolitical instability, environmental unrest and soaring inflation for any business is a challenge.
We’ve explored what good leadership means for the individual, but what about leading as a team? In this article, we’ll look into how to align a leadership team behind a common vision – and how creating a specific, bespoke map helps us understand one of the key drivers of complexity for any organisation in 2024: stakeholders.
In 2024, organisations are being stretched in multiple different directions. Not only is the operating landscape changing, but so are customer needs and expectations. Now, organisations need to not only deliver shareholder needs, but also adapt to the ever-changing expectations of:
The customer (seeking more sustainable, convenient, personalised solutions and omnichannel presence)
The regulatory boards (enforcing tighter environmental and data protection standards)
The investors (prioritising sustainable, longer term value creation)
The labour market expectations (demanding better work-life balance, flexibility and career development)
In other words, businesses can’t rely on only maximising shareholder value. To adapt to this changing business landscape, organisations need to update their purpose. But this can be overwhelming. Where do you start? We recommend looking at your ‘Triple Bottom Line’ (otherwise known as the 3Ps):
People: By looking at your impact on people, organisations can increase employee satisfaction, foster a positive workplace culture and build strong relationships with all stakeholders.
Planet: By understanding your impact on our planet and adopting sustainable practises, organisations can not only contribute to making the world a better place, but they can also improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance brand reputation – leading to increased market competitiveness (and long-term profitability).
Profit: Of course, profitability ensures the long-term viability and sustainability of any organisation – which, in turn, permits it to reinvest in people and planet (whilst also delivering both short and long term returns to shareholders).
The Triple Bottom Line approach should work as a self-reinforcing circular loop: by updating your purpose to describe how you create value for people, planet & profit, organisations ensure they better meet the needs of all their stakeholders, whilst also meeting the expectations of their shareholders.
With a refreshed and resilient purpose in place, the next stage is to engage your team, getting them describing how they and their teams contribute to the success of the organisation. This is where a strategy map comes in.
The strategy map was developed by Harvard Business School’s Robert Kaplan and management consultant David Norton. As they put it, a strategy map ‘give[s] employees a clear line of sight into how their jobs are linked to the overall objectives of the organization, enabling them to work in a coordinated, collaborative fashion toward the company’s desired goals.’
A strategy map is a visual representation of the things your organisation must do well in order to execute its strategy successfully. Part of the balanced scorecard approach, it’s a tried, tested, and extremely influential tool.
The original intent of the strategy map was to overcome the short-termism of managing through budgets. It tells the story of how an organisation creates long-term economic value: by leveraging its customers, processes, and people. However, while the benefits of Strategy Mapping are well established, it needs rejuvenating for the sustainability era. It needs to have the triple bottom line at its core.
A triple bottom line strategy map follows the same logic, building on the original by further expanding our understanding of how business creates value. The strategy map loses none of its effectiveness in describing the causal chains up and down an organisation. Nor in charting the stages through which strategic objectives are achieved. But the strategic objectives are realigned to embrace a sustainable, stakeholder-driven form of growth.
Fundamentally, the value of the strategy mapping process is not the one page of output, but the discussions among the leadership team and how they translate it into the business. Creating a good strategy map requires gathering inputs in advance, drawing on external expertise, pre-positioning participants, getting the right people in the room and allowing enough time for debate. It’s definitely not an exercise best done by your strategy team and/or advisors in a room by themselves. Done well, the process can bring the team together, make objectives clear, improve understanding of linkages and trade-offs, and provide a visual tool to share with others in the company.
Putting objectives on a strategy map might not make them easier to achieve, but taking the time up front to bring clarity to your strategy will pay off in multiples when it comes to delivering alignment, measurement and improved performance against the organisation’s triple bottom line.
To find out more please get in touch / +44 (0) 20 7298 7878
