Timeline Chart

We used a time line chart again in a recent steering committee document for one of our a-connect projects. They can be quite powerful to summarize key information in a succinct way, This information could relate to a specific product line or business unit, to key events of an acquisition target, or to the history of a company’s presence and growth in a geographic market. Time line chart allow you to group information in various ways. The example below distinguishes between internal and external events:

Other ways to structure and group relevant data points:

• On the external side: PEST (political, economic, social, technological), Porter 5 Forces, etc.
• On the internal side: 4Ps (product, promotion, place, price), etc.

I also find it helpful sometimes to overlay the relevant revenue picture (by product line, region, company, etc.) behind the time line chart, to put the key elements in perspective visually.

Note that there are ways to automatically create time line charts in MS Excel (see link - https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelArticles/create-a-timeline.html).