Assignment No. 1. 1. A strategy map is a strategic planning tool that shows the big picture of how each department's performance contributes to achieving the company's overall strategic goals. Study the example of the strategy map illustrated in your book in detail. And draw another strategic map for any hypothetical organization. The more enriched the map the better it will be. Also provide a brief description and explain the map in your own words. Guidelines for attempting the assignment: 1. Submit the soft copy of the assignment before the deadline on Blackboard. 2. It should be typed. Font: Times New Roman Size: 12 Left Indent (APA Format) 3. The Word count should be between 500-800 words. STRATEGY MAP The strategy map provides an overview of how each department's performance contributes to achieving the company's overall strategic goals. It helps the manager understand the role his or her department plays in helping to execute the company's strategic plan. Figure 3-8 presents a strategy map example, in this case for Southwest Airlines. Recall that Southwest has a low-cost leader strategy. The strategy map for Southwest succinctly lays out the hierarchy of main activities required for Southwest Airlines to succeed. At the top is achieving company-wide, strategic financial goals. Then the strategy map shows the chain of activities that help Southwest Airlines achieve these goals. For example, as we saw earlier in this chapter, to boost revenues and profitabil- ity Southwest needs to fly fewer planes (to keep costs down), maintain low prices, and maintain on-time flights. In turn (further down the strategy map), on-time flights and low prices require fast turnaround. And, fast turnaround requires motivated ground and flight crews. The strategy map helps each department (including HR) visualize what it needs to do to support Southwest's low-cost strategy. Managers can access their companies' strategy maps while on the go. They can use the Active Strategy Company's Active Strategy Enterprise to create and automate their strategy maps, and to access them through iPhone or similar devices. CHAPTER 3 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY AND ANALYSIS 83 FIGURE 3-8 Strategy Map for Southwest Airlines Strategy in Brief Low cost leader, high-quality customer service, operational efficiency Strategic/Financial Results Profitability Source: Based on Team CHRYSALIS. com, accessed July 2006; http:// mcknightkaney.com/Strategy Maps Primer.html, accessed August 3, 2011; http://www.strategymap.com.au/ home/StrategyMap Overview.htm accessed August 3, 2011 Lower costs Increased revenues More customers Customer-Based Results Required to Produce Desired Strategic/Financial Results Low fares On-time flights Fly fewer planes Minimize meals and frills Internal Business Processes Required to produce Desired Financial Results Minimize plane tumaround on ground Highly engaged ground crews Organizational and Employee Capabilities Required to support Desired Internal Business Processes Supportive, high-performance HR practices Managers use special scorecard software to facilitate this. The computerized scorecard process helps the manager quantify the relationships between (1) the HR activities (amount of testing, training, and so forth), (2) the resulting employee behaviors (customer service, for instance), and (3) the resulting firm-wide strategic outcomes and performance (such as customer satisfaction and profitability).20