Building Strategy Maps, Part Three: The Importance of Time-Phasing the Strategy

The failure of singular strategies--"Chainsaw" Al Dunlap's cost-cutting and the huge value creation of dot-coms based solely on the promise of future profits--shows definitively that creating shareholder value isn't enough. The point, says David P. Norton, is sustaining value creation. This involves the careful balancing of long-term and short-term goals--the sub-strategies that comprise a company's overall strategy (operational effectiveness, customer management, and product innovation). By complementing the short-term with the long-term, companies create a time-balanced agenda of action and value. In Part Three of this series on strategy mapping, Norton analyzes common threads among some 50 companies that time-phased their strategies.