Strategy Dashboard
for Improved Strategy Management and Planning

In a simple business scenario, one branch of strategy is driven by a large operational project. In this case, the key measure is the amount of effort being reported. Another branch describes a significant revenue opportunity. Long-term financial viability compared to the initial business plan is the most important factor. Of course, each branch of strategy is linked to numerous key performance indicators which monitor the key business processes. To make the mental arithmetic even more complex, each high-level strategy has a varying amount of importance to the organization as a whole. StrategyBlocks uses “Strategic Health” as the method by which all these variables can be integrated and weighted accordingly into an overall measure of success.

So we are faced with a complex environment for performance management of strategy, we need to create a number of custom views of strategy specifically tailored around the variables that are relevant to my role in the organisation. Those variables may be progress (effort), risks associated with strategy, financial value returned (vs. anticipated), KPI’s, strategic priority, or strategic health.

As the CEO or Director, you will be looking at the strategic health of our overall vision and the primary strategies needed to deliver it. Your operational strategy can display “progress” as the default view, whereas its neighbour may show “net present value”, the next a KPI etc. As the head of a department you can also use filters to hide strategic themes unrelated to your role and draw attention to your area of responsibility. In this role perhaps the KPIs of your direct reports is important plus the aggregated progress of the effort that your team has invested. Any of these custom views can be bookmarked and saved for later reference.

You may need a number of different views or bookmarks to track a diverse range of strategic initiatives, all requiring a different method to measure success. What you need to do is to rapidly run through each of your personal bookmarks to see an updated picture of strategic execution and take the appropriate action. Execution of strategy fails due to a lack of visibility and understanding at a specific point in time, because after that it is often too late.