This method follows on from doing a Value Exchange Ledger for your Business/Enterprise aka Value-based approach for enterprise strategy).
So you have identified the value elements you want for your current business focus. You might have had trouble coming up with just a few. What to do when there are many, and they seem to be related to each other in some way?
This is where a Value Map for your Enterprise can be useful. It illustrates:
- which value elements are the input into, or raw material for, creating another form of value
- which value element may be dependent on a chain of other value elements
- how value created at ‘the end of the line’, like financial value, can have many other forms of hidden value that inform or instantiate its creation.
Here is an example of an Enterprise Value Map for our sister enterprise, Questo.
Method
- Gather all the Business Owner value elements you chose. There is an assumption that you have selected value elements that are constrained to a time period, for example, 3 months or 12 months – whatever fits your strategic planning cycle.
- Prepare a description for each of the value elements. This description should be in words that are relevant to your enterprise and to the particular time/situation you are defining this particular form of value. In the image above you can get a taste of what this might be. Write on a sticky note and append to each card.
- On a large flat surface, organise the value element cards in relation to each other. Be sure to allow some space between each of the cards to add sticky notes on which you can draw arrows, to show the flows in/out for each value element. (Hint: Use small rectangular shaped sticky notes for these. Or you could even use arrow-shaped sticky notes!)
- Play around with the layout of the elements. Be open to insights and fresh perspectives that may emerge. There is no right or wrong answer – it only has to make sense to the business owners in this initial form. (It’s another matter about if, and how, you want to communicate this Value Map to other enterprise stakeholders.)
- Determine a tangible measure for key value elements. Key value elements are typically those at the end of the line of a chain of value elements. The measure is a way for you to know ‘how much’ of a particular value element you seek. Write these on sticky notes and append to your map. (Hint: Use a different colour sticky note than your definition.)
- Take a photograph to capture your ‘rough’ Value Map. If it makes sense to do so, then transfer the information to a nice digital form as illustrated in the image above.
- Add this artefact to your collection of strategic planning documentation.
- Option: Share the value map with key stakeholders to develop a shared understanding of the upstream/downstream flows of value creation in your enterprise, and discuss the implications for future business activity and priorities.
- Translate your insights and the details into a strategic plan – we can recommend the Business Motivation Model method for creating such an artefact.
TIP: Do the activity above over the space of a few days, especially if doing it with people who are not familiar with the approach. Why? It can take some time to get your head into this type of thinking – so accommodate that level of initial sense-making. It’s also good to literally sleep-on-it so your brain can process the input and make new connections. Then you can come back with fresh eyes, and even fresh perspectives about what to add, remove or refine.
For additional context of an approach to strategic planning, see where the Value Map sits in Business Strategic Planning Architecture suite (PDF).
Your Enterprise Value Map could be extended to represent a consolidated view that includes customer value elements and employee value elements. Some colour coding can be useful when creating a digital consolidated version to show which stakeholder group’s value is represented in the map.
This work by Quello is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License so it can be freely shared with attribution to the creator (Quello); it cannot be used for commercial purposes; and it cannot be modified.