Education and

Consultancy Services

Strategic roadmapping
Practical tools and facilitated support to help
your organisation with strategy development and
communication
• Consultancy
• Executive education
• Public courses
• Publications and case studies
 Education and
Consultancy Services

Strategic roadmapping
What is strategic roadmapping?
Roadmapping uses a graphical approach to visualise an entire strategy on a page. It provides a framework to help
organisations tackle fundamental questions applicable in any strategic context and is used extensively at company,
sector and national levels to align investment and research with strategic goals. Significant features of roadmapping
are its breadth and versatility: roadmaps can encompass a very broad scope of issues and long time frames, whilst at
the same time focusing down on critical details, leading to decisions and actions.

Roadmapping at the IfM

"A practical, The Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) is an international centre of
intuitive and easy to expertise in roadmapping. The techniques have been developed
over many years and have been applied in more than 200
implement process
projects around the world.
that has helped clarify
our R&D investment Roadmapping is used to address a wide range of issues,
strategy." from national research and development strategies to the
Vice President identification of company-level opportunities and threats.
Projects are undertaken by a team of experienced industrial
Technology
practitioners in the IfM’s knowledge transfer company, IfM
Development, global Education and Consultancy Services (IfM ECS). The practitioners
packaging company have worked with governments, multi-national companies and
public sector organisations including: ABB, Airbus, Caterpillar,
Crown, Kazakhstan Government, Mars, Microsoft, Royal Mail, Society of Motor Manufacturers
and Traders, UK Ministry of Defence and Department of Transport.
“Working together
with IfM has been The IfM approach
beneficial to the Working closely with an organisation’s key stakeholders, facilitators design the roadmapping
development of architecture, customise the workshop approach and deliver the roadmap findings. IfM’s
robust methodology highly regarded ‘Fast-start’ roadmapping tools ensure that an initial roadmap can be
developed in a single, one-day workshop. The highly scalable approach can accommodate
for developing the
all the necessary participants, whether six people or sixty. Rapid results are possible, with
roadmap – their skills a completed roadmap delivered in a matter of weeks. By involving all the stakeholders the
and experience have approach helps build consensus across the organisation and wider community.
been invaluable”
Investment Manager Project examples
Australian National Sector level: creating direction for an industry
University IfM ECS was tasked by the Australian Government and Victoria State Government to create a future-
proof strategic plan for the nation’s car industry. The work forms part of an AU$6 billion ‘Green
Car Plan’ to reshape the nation’s car industry. IfM ECS practitioners used roadmapping to carry
out a full review which mapped the technology and manufacturing capabilities and development
opportunities for the country’s automotive industry from the present day to 2025 and beyond.
Among the commercial possibilities identified was the chance for Australia to become a world
leader in green low-emission vehicles – such as electric or hydrogen-powered cars.

www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/roadmapping
"Roadmapping has proven to be a powerful and flexible technique for strategic
planning and innovation. A principal benefit was the communication that
resulted both during the development of the roadmap and afterwards”
Senior Manager, GKN

National support agencies: developing strategic vision

IfM ECS worked with the UK Technology Strategy Board to develop roadmaps for key
innovation platforms. The collaborative project developed a standardised methodology
through a number of pilot applications – for example in the life sciences and built
environment – and then codified these approaches for wider deployment, supported by a
focused knowledge transfer programme. This methodology has been used by numerous
Knowledge Transfer Networks in the UK and many similar agencies across the world to
develop strategies for innovation and research investment.

Multi-national company: picking winners

GKN, a large UK-based multi-national in the aerospace and automotive sector, needed
to ensure its research and development activities were more closely aligned with the
commercial interests of its four business divisions. In particular, the company was keen to try
to identify potential disruptive technologies ahead of its competitors to enable investment
to be channelled into the most commercially viable areas. The roadmapping project was
designed to help GKN identify the earliest date that a disruptive event would happen
and how long a response time the company would need before that date to respond as a
business. The project identified a wealth of potential opportunities and IfM ECS worked with
GKN to develop a capability to ‘pick winners’ – identifying projects that offered the most
potential.

Public sector: spotting future trends

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) sits at the heart of the UK’s National Measurement
System as the main provider of the measurement research programmes and infrastructure,
working with business to ensure the measurement accuracy vital to the UK economy. NPL
wanted to identify future trends and to determine what they might mean for measurement
science. It worked with IfM ECS to identify measurement challenges across eight themes
covering the whole technology spectrum; from the built environment and life-sciences to
transport, security and energy. The roadmaps created as part of the project are posted on
NPL’s website: www.technology-roadmaps.co.uk. Visitors are encouraged to contribute
further comment and ideas through a dynamic discussion forum.

www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/roadmapping
 Education and
Consultancy Services

Institute for Manufacturing

Department of Engineering
17 Charles Babbage Road
Cambridge CB3 0FS
United Kingdom

T: +44 (0)1223 766141

F: +44 (0)1223 464217
E: ifm-enquiries@eng.cam.ac.uk
www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk

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route for new ideas and approaches developed by researchers at the IfM. Industrial
practitioners, with many years of senior management experience, engage directly with industry,
governments and other agencies via consultancy, executive education and events. Their
engagements help to both inform and fund future IfM research.

IfM roadmapping resources

Support with roadmapping can be provided in a number of ways:
Consultancy: senior practitioners work directly with an organisation to identify the project
scope and customise the roadmapping approach to meet the organisation’s needs.
Executive education: in-company courses tailored to the needs of the organisation.
Public courses: an introduction to our ‘fast-start’ roadmapping approach runs three times a year.
Publications and case studies: a number of publications and other resources focused on roadmapping,
including workbooks, text books and briefings are available from the IfM.

Tools for technology and strategy management

Roadmapping forms an integrative approach for the IfM’s suite of tools for technology and strategy
management. It links to a number of key areas including portfolio management, open innovation,
technology intelligence, technology valuation and future scenario development.

Time

Further information
To find out more about roadmapping at the IfM see our website:
www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/roadmapping
Or contact: Nick Mann T: +44 (0)1223 766141 E: ifm-enquiries@eng.cam.ac.uk