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Balanced Scorecard Basics
Balanced Scorecard Basics
The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a strategic planning and management system that organizations use to:
Communicate what they are trying to accomplish
Align the day-to-day work that everyone is doing with strategy
Prioritize projects, products, and services
Measure and monitor progress towards strategic targets
The system connects the dots between big picture strategy elements such as mission (our purpose),
vision (what we aspire for), core values (what we believe in), strategic focus areas (themes, results
and/or goals) and the more operational elements such as objectives (continuous improvement
activities), measures (or key performance indicators, or KPIs, which track strategic performance), targets
(our desired level of performance), and initiatives (projects that help you reach your targets).
Who Uses the Balanced Scorecard (BSC)?
BSCs are used extensively in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. Gartner Group suggests
that over 50% of large US firms have adopted the BSC. More than half of major companies in the US, Europe, and Asia are using
the BSC, with use growing in those areas as well as in the Middle East and Africa. A recent global study by Bain & Co listed
balanced scorecard fifth on its top ten most widely used management tools around the world, a list that includes closely-related
strategic planning at number one. BSC has also been selected by the editors of Harvard Business Review as one of the most
influential business ideas of the past 75 years.
Financial: often renamed Stewardship or other more appropriate name in the public sector, this perspective views
organizational financial performance and the use of financial resources
Customer/Stakeholder: this perspective views organizational performance from the point of view the customer or other
key stakeholders that the organization is designed to serve
Internal Process: views organizational performance through the lenses of the quality and efficiency related to our product
or services or other key business processes
Organizational Capacity (originally called Learning and Growth): views organizational performance through the lenses
of human capital, infrastructure, technology, culture and other capacities that are key to breakthrough performance
Strategic Objectives are the continuous improvement activities that we must do to implement strategy. The break down the more
abstract concepts like mission and vision into actionable steps. Actions that your organization take should be helping you achieve
your strategic objectives. Examples might include: Increase Revenue, Improve the Customer or Stakeholder Experience, or
Improve the Cost-Effectiveness of Our Programs.
BSC Terminology: Strategy Mapping
One of the most powerful elements in the BSC methodology is the use of strategy mapping to visualize and communicate how
value is created by the organization. A strategy map is a simple graphic that shows a logical, cause-and-effect connection
between strategic objectives (shown as ovals on the map). Generally speaking, improving performance in the objectives found in
the Organizational Capacity perspective (the bottom row) enables the organization to improve its Internal Process perspective
(the next row up), which, in turn, enables the organization to create desirable results in the Customer and Financial perspectives
(the top two rows).
Cascading a balanced scorecard means to translate the corporate-wide scorecard (referred to as Tier 1) down to first business
units, support units or departments (Tier 2) and then teams or individuals (Tier 3). The end result should be focus across all
levels of the organization that is consistent. The organization alignment should be clearly visible through strategy, using the
strategy map, performance measures and targets, and initiatives. Scorecards should be used to improve accountability through
objective and performance measure ownership, and desired employee behaviors should be incentivized with recognition and
rewards.
Cascading strategy focuses the entire organization on strategy and creating line-of-sight between the work people do and high
level desired results. As the management system is cascaded down through the organization, objectives become more operational
and tactical, as do the performance measures. Accountability follows the objectives and measures, as ownership is defined at
each level. An emphasis on results and the strategies needed to produce results is communicated throughout the organization.
This alignment step is critical to becoming a strategy-focused organization.
BSC History
The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) was originally developed by Dr. Robert Kaplan of Harvard University and Dr. David Norton as a
framework for measuring organizational performance using a more BALANCED set of performance measures. Traditionally
companies used only short-term financial performance as measure of success. The “balanced scorecard” added additional non-
financial strategic measures to the mix in order to better focus on long-term success. The system has evolved over the years and
is now considered a fully integrated strategic management system.
Adapted from Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, “Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System,”
Harvard Business Review (January-February 1996): 76.
While the phrase balanced scorecard was coined in the early 1990s, the roots of the this type of
approach are deep, and include the pioneering work of General Electric on performance measurement
reporting in the 1950’s and the work of French process engineers (who created theTableau de Bord –
literally, a "dashboard" of performance measures) in the early part of the 20th century.
This new approach to strategic management was first detailed in a series of articles and books by Drs.
Kaplan and Norton and built on work by Art Schneiderman at Analog Devices. Recognizing some of the
weaknesses and vagueness of previous management approaches, the balanced scorecard approach
provides a clear prescription as to what companies should measure in order to 'balance' the financial
perspective.
Kaplan and Norton describe the innovation of the balanced scorecard as follows:
"The balanced scorecard retains traditional financial measures. But financial measures tell the story of
past events, an adequate story for industrial age companies for which investments in long-term
capabilities and customer relationships were not critical for success. These financial measures are
inadequate, however, for guiding and evaluating the journey that information age companies must
make to create future value through investment in customers, suppliers, employees, processes,
technology, and innovation."
BSC Development
The Institute’s award-winning framework, Nine Steps to SuccessTM, is a disciplined, practical approach to developing a strategic
planning and management system based on the balanced scorecard. Training is an integral part of the framework, as is coaching,
change management, and problem solving. Emphasis is placed on “teaching clients to fish, not handing them a fish”, so the
scorecard system can be sustained.
A key benefit of using a disciplined framework is that it gives organizations a way to ‘connect the dots’ between the various
components of strategic planning and management, meaning that there will be a visible connection between the projects and
programs that people are working on, the measurements being used to track success, the strategic objectives the organization is
trying to accomplish and the mission, vision and strategy of the organization.