Maps for Learning

How to illustrate business processes for immediate understanding

Money Maps are among our most popular products. Why? Because they allow people to comprehend an entire business process in about one minute. We have two standard maps that illustrate basic financial concepts — or we can create maps that are 100% customized for your company. These maps can illustrate any business process clearly and powerfully. Is one picture really worth a thousand words? Take a look at the maps shown here...

Standard Money Maps

The Roads to Profitability Map

The Roads to Profitability Map (at the right) illustrates all the typical expenses that come out of revenue before profit is determined. This map for learning provides spaces for your own revenue, expense, and profit numbers, based on a scale of 100.

Our research has shown that most people believe that a company retains 50% to 80% of revenues as profit. One glance at this map will show them the true picture. Your employees will immediately comprehend where the money comes from, where it goes, and how much is left over.

This approach to teaching has been employed with great success in a variety of companies.

The Difference Between Profit and Cash Map

One of the problems with running a successful business is that most expenses have to be paid before cash comes in from the sale. Cash may not be received from customers for 60 to 90 days after a sale has been made, but many cash outflows need to be immediate (try telling an employee that she'll get her paycheck in 90 days).

This is why cash is king — a concept that is well understood by those who pay the bills. But those who don’t see the cash inflows and outflows often don’t understand the difference between profit and cash. This map shows clearly how cash flows out weeks and months before any cash is received.

We have found that this map provokes lots of “aha’s!” Employees, managers, and leaders finally comprehend why cash is so critical to the health and growth of their company.

Pricing: Individual size: 8½ x 11 • $80 when you buy just one map • 20% discount when you buy 2 to 20 • 30% discount when you buy 21 to 50 • 40% discount when you buy 51 to 100 • Over 100, please call for pricing Call (818) 591-5955 to purchase money maps with your credit card! Poster size: 48” x 60”, laminated • $500 when you buy just one map • 20% discount when you buy 2 to 5 • 30% discount when you buy 6 to 10 • 40% discount when you buy 11 to 20 • Over 20, please call for pricing Call (818) 591-5955 to purchase money maps with your credit card!

Customized Money Maps

If standard money maps are so successful, imagine what customized maps could do for your company. We can create a map for any business process in your firm—not just financial flows, but any process. Your input is critical in creating these visual tools. The finished product is a result of an intense collaborative effort.

What processes might you want to illustrate in a map? You could create a map that:

• Educates everyone about the strategy of the organization and how they fit into its achievement
• Illustrates where the revenue dollars go and how much is left over as profit
• Demonstrates the impact everyone has every day on the bottom line
• Outlines a process and flow that links people, departments, and results
• Highlights the roles people and departments play in the business activities of the organization
• And more!

These are just a few examples. You can decide on the most important concepts, flows, or links in your business and we will create maps that illustrate these key processes.

The maps are then used in training classes, in meetings, as reference tools, and as displays. Clients have developed a map for one purpose, like a training class, and then discovered that it was also a great tool for their new employee orientation, for their quarterly meetings, or simply to post in the lunchroom.

One company put up two copies of the same map. One map showed the company’s target numbers. On the other, managers write the actual numbers from their own branch. For each critical element, people can see how close they are, or how far away from, the target numbers.

Concepts Found in Our Business Process Maps

The business process maps developed by the Business Literacy Institute include illustrations of money flow, activities, processes, and more. Here are just a few ideas that we’ve created for our clients:

Financial concepts. We've illustrated the difference between cash and profit, the flow of the income statement, the money-making process, the sources and uses of cash, and the movement of investor dollars.

Life cycles. We've illustrated a customer life cycle, a day in the life of an employee, and ongoing manager responsibilities.

Business processes. We've illustrated the manufacturing process, service process, departmental process, product development, workflow, products and target customers, and pricing impact.

Big picture. We've illustrated the organization's strategy, departmental relationships, products and services, and competitive and sales issues.

Customized Money Maps are high-impact visual training tools. Research has shown, and we have found in the hundreds of classes we have taught, that visual tools add a powerful dimension to learning. This is because they provide what is needed for long-term retention: the framework, the details, and the connections to the learner. Money Maps provide those elements in an accessible, imaginative, and focused way.

The maps not only provide the "big picture." They can also give an employee a sense of where he or she fits in that big picture. We have learned that this perspective can lead to questions like, "How could I do my task better?" or "How could my department improve this process?" Customized Money Maps often stimulate better performance.

Call us to talk about creating your own Customized Money Map.