Mapping Experiences, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 4. Visualizing Strategic Insight

“There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.”

—Peter Drucker

The Practice of Management (1954)

IN THIS CHAPTER

• A new way of seeing
• Reframing competition, creating shared value
• Reimagining value delivery, organizing for innovation
• Visualizing strategy
• Case study: Identifying opportunities—combining mental model diagrams and jobs to be done

A number of years ago, I facilitated a multiday strategy workshop at the company I was working for. During dinner the director of sales explained his perspective on the workshop’s purpose: “We have to figure out how to get customers for all they are worth.” He gestured as if wringing a towel. “If the towel gets dry, you have to squeeze harder. A good leader knows how to do that, and a good strategy makes it easier.”

He was serious. I was horrified. Our markets are not people “out there” that we shake down for loose change. Customers are our most valuable assets, I thought. We should strive to learn from them so that we can provide better products and services.

The director’s perspective was shortsighted. He believed the sole purpose of our business was getting more sales. That may be fine in the short term, but ultimately this narrow perspective leads to failure.

Companies frequently don’t realize that as a business grows, it must also widen its strategic field of vision. I call this misstep strategy myopia. It happens time and time again: organizations ...