Strategic Management Tools

Various strategic management tools are listed

Balanced Scorecard

The Balanced Scorecard is a strategy management framework created by Drs. Robert Kaplan and David Norton. It takes into account your:

• Objectives, which are high-level organizational goals.
• Measures, which help you understand if you’re accomplishing your objective strategically.
• Initiatives, which are key action programs that help you achieve your objectives.

There are many ways you can create a Balanced Scorecard, including using a program like Excel, Google Sheets, or PowerPoint or using reporting software. All in all, a Balanced Scorecard is an effective, proven way to get your team on the same page with your strategy.

Strategy Map

A strategy map is a visual tool designed to clearly communicate a strategic plan and achieve high-level business goals. Strategy mapping is a major part of the Balanced Scorecard and offers an excellent way to communicate the high-level information across your organization in an easily-digestible format.

A strategy map offers a host of benefits:

• It provides a simple, clean, visual representation that is easily referred back to.
• It unifies all goals into a single strategy.
• It gives every employee a clear goal to keep in mind while accomplishing tasks and measures.
• It helps identify your key goals.
• It allows you to better understand which elements of your strategy need work.
• It helps you see how your objectives affect the others.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis (or SWOT matrix) is a high-level model used at the beginning of an organization’s strategic planning. It is an acronym for “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.” Strengths and weaknesses are considered internal factors, and opportunities and threats are considered external factors.

Using a SWOT analysis helps an organization identify where they’re doing well and in what areas they can improve. If you’re interested in reading more, this Business News Daily article offers some additional details about each area of the SWOT analysis and what to look for when you create one.

PEST Model

Like SWOT, PEST is also an acronym—it stands for “political, economic, sociocultural, and technological.” Each of these factors is used to look at an industry or business environment, and determine what could affect an organization’s health. The PEST model is often used in conjunction with the external factors of a SWOT analysis. You may also run into Porter’s Five Forces, which is a similar take on examining your business from various angles.

You’ll occasionally see the PEST model with a few extra letters added on. For example, PESTEL (or PESTLE) indicates an organization is also considering “environmental” and “legal” factors. STEEPLED is another variation, which stands for “sociocultural, technological economic, environmental, political, legal, education, and demographic.”