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1. The Strategy Map is an active data table or grid, with a defined row structure, (traditionally) as a top-down-priority format.
Hence, it is constructed in a top-down approach with the most important items being towards the top.
Immediately above the Strategy Map are often the Visionary Statements which also have the most important statement at the top.
Sometimes the Strategy Map has the operational Themes which are placed on the top row, to provide a Visionary Statement compliance layer.
2. Each Layer or Row is called a Perspective and it contains a number of medium-term goals, commonly called Strategic (Balanced Scorecard) Objectives.
An additional Top Perspective Row is sometimes labelled as a Theme, Interface or Result row, in which case the contained statements are not normally directly referenced in the Balanced Scorecard Objectives Grid.
Additionally, some rows are used for sundry comments or notes, which also have no Objectives Grid references. 3. From top down there are 4 common perspectives: Finance, Customer, Internal Process plus Learning & Growth.
Alternatively the bottom row is sometimes called: Research & Development, Organizational Capacity, Employees and Resources or a combination of these.
An extra perspective row is sometimes added to provide a special focus, such as Safety when applied to a Dangerous Environment. 4. Upward pointing arrows are normally drawn between the objectives.
In the top-down defined Objective structure, this indicates either cause & effect or strategic support . 5. The top row or layer is often considered to be the Organizational Public Interface and these Objectives in this row should show support for the Visionary statements.
Inside the map, each row is supported by the layer or row below, as defined by the arrows. 6. These objectives are considered to be replacing the earlier concept known as Critical Success Factors.
However you can still use the CSF term by renaming the text Objective to Success Factor (many people rename the objective to use the terms Goals or Targets).
Also it is possible to add a CSF column into the Objective or Initiative grids. 7. The map objectives with the arrows are also considered to be the replacement for the previously used Value Chain concept which indicated cause & effect or process flow.
Many people consider the Strategy Map to be a group of linked or companion Value Chains. 8. Strategy Maps can often illustrate a primary Critical Success Factor objective, such as a funding goal or an overall product quality issue.
In which case you would expect to see a number of arrows pointing both towards and away from any CSF objective.

Some Strategy Maps may also define Themes or Focus Areas.
These are simply groups of Objectives that may range across multiple rows anywhere in the map, for the purpose of applying a focus.
A theme is any concept that can be represented by two or more Objectives, with names defined according to their common needs.
Themes are often derived from the Visionary Statements as operational requirements.
Common Themes are: "Improve Current Products" and "Create More New Products".
So there will always be some Strategy Map Objectives which are common to both Themes, whilst some may only relate to one theme. However there is no doubt that the use of Themes provides clarity to the Strategy Map. Especially when numeric gauge values are averaged from the Balanced Scorecard Objectives and Initiatives Grid.
Hence the decision to have these as Themes or actual Objectives depends on the aplication, however the gauges are averaged. Some common Themes which are otherwise defined as Balanced Scorecard Objectives are:
Customer/Client Management, Operational Excellence, Stakeholder Needs, Organizational Needs, Innovation Management, Product Innovation, Sales Expansion, Performance management, Executive Enhancement, Compliance & Communication, Brand Development, Fiscal Responsibility & Success, High Quality Programs, Superior Customer service, Accountability & Efficiency, Teaching & Learning Excellence, Human Capital, Information Capital, Organizational Capital, plus just about anything that applies to your business.
Some abbreviations used are: SWAN = Stakeholder Wants & Needs, OWAN = Organizational Wants and Needs, OPEX = Operational Excellence or Operational Expenditure.

As the concept of the Balanced Scorecard progressed, users found that they needed to know the reason for the choice of all Strategy Map Perspectives and Objectives.
To provide improved motivation, management also needed to demonstrate that these medium-level strategic goals are permanent and defendable.
Hence each Perspective and Objective should be backed up by statements that explain and defend their existence.
These became known as 3rd Generation Balanced Scorecard Statements which defines the existence of the actual strategic Perspective and/or Objective.

3rd Generation Descriptive Statements
Perspective	Description or Purpose
Finance	Our stakeholder wants and needs will be fully satisfied through innovative initiatives which will maintain and improve our financial performance.
Customer	We will strive to always impress our customers through innovative product provision, proactive industry knowledge and productive relationships.
Internal Business Process	Our staff will constantly focus on Operational Excellence issues including safety, efficiency and proactivity.
Learning & Growth	To achieve our operational performance, our staff will perform learning based initiatives that will enhance organizational capability.

The Strategy Map Arrows (traditionally) point upwards towards what is (traditionally) the Themes and Visionary Statements.
Plus, the (top-down) Visionary Statements (traditionally) start with the most important goals, and ending with the less critical statements (such as "slogan" or "motto".)
Hence the top Perspective Strategy Map row is closer to the Visionary Statements and is therefore considered as the External Interface to the Visionary Statement Area, to provide a heiarchial system where the more important areas are towards the top.

In the situation where you have Finance as the top perspective row, you are probably focussed on maximising shareholder returns.
The row below will probably be the customers, as this is your source of funding and therefore supports the Finance objectives.
Below this, all rows exist to support the customer.

Perspective Row	Objective Destination	Interfaces
Finance	These Objectives are here to define your external interface.	1. Strategic Visionary Statements 2. Banks 3. Stakeholders
Customer	Objectives must support the finance rows.	Customer Sales = money. Finance Objectives can succeed as planned.
Internal Business Process	What we have to do to achieve our customer objectives	All customer objectives depend on these processes.
Learning & Growth	What we will do to support improvement to our Internal Processes	Improve our products and processes by research and learning.

This model may be suitable for a customer focussed sales or service organization, plus some government organizations.
1. The Organisation declares that their primary external interface is the customer and everything they do is Customer focussed.
2. The Sales-Finance Income link is assumed. So you automatically get increased profit from improved sales to better quality customers.
 - Shown here the Finance Perspective supports the customer level.
 - Some Finance Objectives may not point any higher, in which case they would be supporting the Visionary Statements.

Perspective Row	Objective Destination	Interfaces
Customer	Improved customer satisfaction and loyalty creates greater income, which leads to better development.	How does the customer see you? Would the customer recommend you to others? What more does the customer want?
Finance	Define Sales Improvement targets.	Budget support for the sales team.
Finance	General Financial outcomes.	Improve Efficiency & Stakeholder Dividends.
Internal Business Process	What we doing to do to achieve our Finance and Customer Objectives.	All customer objectives depend on these processes.
Learning & Growth	What we are doing to support improvements to our Internal Processes	We must improve our products and processes by research and learning.

For a government department or Service Organisation, then this may be more suitable.
The Organisation decide to position the Finance layer rows further down in the map and create an extra perspective for Project Funding.

Your Strategy Map depends on your own industry knowledge.
The creation process is done by surveying the bigger picture and making value judgements based on how the layers work inside your organization.
It is natural that most people will have difficulty designing & creating Strategy Maps, this is often because their initial focus is reactive or specific.
In creating a Strategy Map, you are taking a real-world multi-goal situation and forcing this into a layered structure.
It can be helpful if you focus on one perspective layer or row at a time, whilst referencing the examples provided in this website.

1.	Determine your initial focus for each Perspective Layer, starting at the top and working down.
2.	Consider the relationship with the other adjacent layers.
	- How does this layer exist?
	- Is the layer in the correct position?
	- Should any Service Level Agreement support contracts be defined?
3.	When you have defined your layers and know why they exist, the Objectives in each layer row will fall into place, according to their need to support the layers above.
4.	Improve what you have created over time with assistance from work associates.
5.	Add 3rd generation statements to describe why you have defined that Objective and where it is heading.

So when you have broken down the Map into layers or rows, it becomes easier to create & define each row of Objectives - based on what needs to be supported above.
- Looking at each perspective row, we can decide what needs to be done from a bigger picture framework.
- Remember that it is not normally the job of the Strategy Map to get involved in the applied processes.
  - This is the role of the Balanced Scorecard, which defines how each strategic objective applies to a specific employee.

Keep the Objectives broad so that they can be assigned to people from multiple departments, this allows them to effectively engage and collaborate.
The Objectives are "Strategic" because they are part of a larger carefully-planned format.
The employees may use this to build success-orientated communication links within the organization.
Often you may find that some or your Objectives seem to have more of a project flavour and hence they would naturally have a specific time focus.
- They may be important this year but be changed or removed the following year.
One option might be to make them a bit more abstract or general so that the Strategy Map Objective is unchanged for three years.
- Then add a comment row, plus include the specific details either as an additional column in the Balanced Scorecard Objectives, or as a specific row in the Initiatives Grid.
Alternatively you might choose to merge these in with some other more permanent Objective.
You can then use a KPI/KRA to define the objective goal.
Hence you may have avoided the difficult task of changing the organizational Strategy Map in the future.
- You have assigned the KPI or KRA to deal with this project task.
- The allocation and the Initiative activities can be varied from year to year.
The Primary Immediate Outcome of the Objective Definition Process is to Improve Staff Focus - by regular programmed collaboration on each objective:
   - 1. Staff should form teams from different departments to focus on each Shared Objective.
     - The Balanced Scorecard software should show who else in the Organization is working towards this Objective.
   - 2. Objective Teams should provide presentations to other staff and take pride in their work.
   - 3. You should expect improved Objective Collaboration, Engagement and Performance.
Always try to avoid maintaing a focus on specific departmental functions, because this limits total collaboration and sustains departmental restrictions & reservations.
Each Department Role and Objectives should simply be the total of all its Employee Roles and Objectives.
As staff are relocated or promoted plus departments are restructured or created, the group responsibilities lie with all their shared Strategy Map Objectives as defined in their Balanced Scorecard.

This presentation defines how some people would create a Strategy Map.
There are as many methods and map styles, plus there are industry groups and categories.
We hope that this is useful as a guide for creating you own Strategy Map.
In producing this presentation we have used Layer & Row Theory to define what a Strategy Map actually is, and to position it inside the overall Strategic Plan.
We believe that once the rows are carefully defined, if is much easier to create each objectives within each row.
We provide the following example objectives with the warning that it is industry standard practice not to copy existing definitions.
It is highly recommended that you maintain a focus on your own industry environment and work from this platform, and only use the examples as a guide.
You can expect to create repeated versions of your Strategy Map or Project Map, before it become the final product and is good enough to attach your Balanced Scorecard.
Every Organisation needs its staff to "Think Strategy", so that they are always aligned with their Primary Strategic Themes and Visionary Statements.