Strategy Maps for Public Sector Organizations / Government

Strategy Mapping Public Sector Organizations
Alan Kennedy
Strategy maps can be created for public sector organizations because there is a framework of strategies common to all for-profit, not-for-profit, and public sector organizations.
I make the case in my book, The Alpha Strategies, Understanding Strategy, Risk, and Values in Any Organization, that the differences among these three different types of organizations is not the lack of sales or shareholders or "profits" across all three.
- Public sector and not-for-profit organizations may not have "sales" - but they do have "users".
- Public sector organizations do have a shareholder. It is usually a Ministry, or the government itself (i.e. municipality, or provincial or federal government) or "members" designated in the enabling legislation. Not-for-profits have members.
- As for profitability, public sector and not-for-profits measure "break-even", typically with no requirement to factor in income taxes because they are exempt from them.
So I would argue that the mapping is the same but the terminology in it changes.

The Main Difference is the Top Perspective
Tomaz Solberg, Member
I would say strategy maps work perfectly for government or non-profit organizations, but with a different perspective at the top. The gola of these organizations is not to generate profit, therefore, the financial result is not the most important thing.
The top perspective is the place to describe the organization´s goal or purpose. it could be something like: "Environmental Impact", "Promotion of Education", "Public Health Impact", etc.
Now, measuring the impact of such organizations on this goal, that´s the real challenge...
And discussing it is the most important factor for appropriate management for most such organizations.

Strategy Map for a Social Security organization
zouheyr ayas, Member
I'm working on a Balanced Scorecard for a social security organization, I think that you can customize the strategy map with your own most important objectives, in my case financial and customers are on the top.