How do I fulfill my Mission and Vision?

"How do I fulfill my Mission & Vision?"

"I am doing well in my business... I am profitable....yet I am nowhere close to

achieving my mission or vision?"

how often have you heard business owners asking these questions.....

the counter question to the business owners is .... "do you know what measures
drive your mission and vision?"

because it is not revenue and profitability alone, there is more to be measured in

order to achieve your vision and mission

now I present the BALANCED SCORECARD.

Balanced Score Card, as a concept has proved to be very helpful for organisations
to achieve their Vision, Mission and Values. It has helped them have better
control over strategies to be implemented in order to achieve the above.

However, in my experience only large corporations have used this concept to their benefit. Small
and medium enterprises have refrained themselves from embracing it either due to lack of
awareness or fear of implementation failure.

and believe me ... the fear is justified. However, there are reasons for this fear and
for the failure.

one of them being awareness...

Through this article I wish to put forth the concept of balanced scorecard in terms
of what it is, what are its benefits, how do you go about implementing it for your
organisation, what are the implementing challenges and what are the critical
success factors.

This article I feel should be a must read for young and old entrepreneurs who are passionate
about and committed to their vision, mission and values.

What is balanced scorecard and Why Balanced Scorecard?

There are 3 elements to a mission being successful... people, resources and

management.
Whenever there are challenges in fulfilling the mission, it inadvertently is either of the three
elements that is responsible for it.

it could range from

1)people within the organisation not being aware what their company mission is .. to them not
understanding it ...

2) it could be a case of company resources not being aligned to initiatives which are critical to
drive the mission.... and

3) it could be the management not having initiatives or strategies aligned to the mission or even
if they do, there are no ways of measuring their progress

Balanced Scorecard, to large extent, eliminates all the failure modes mentioned
above when it comes to getting an organization to fulfill its mission statement.

Balanced scorecard is a tool used to monitor key performance indicators for a

business, that drive its business objectives, which in-turn drive the mission,
vision and values.

As the name suggests balanced scorecard is like the organisation’s health card, displaying the
key elements and factors therein, which govern the success of an organization and its mission.

It follows a very logical flow....

define your vision, mission and values; arrive at operational strategies or

initiatives that will drive or help you achieve your mission; identify critical
measures (we call it business objectives) which will help you measure your
progress on these initiatives, and; identify key factors (called key performance
indicators) which drive these measures.

The business objectives with their associated KPIs, then need to be categorised
into 4 perspectives; Customer, Financial, Internal Process and Learning &
Development. These 4 perspectives form 4 quadrants of your balanced scorecard.

Performance of these objectives is then measured (KPI performance flowing into

objectives); monitored and reviewed during management meetings using this
scorecard.
A typical balanced scorecard would finally look as below;
Customer Financial
Objective Measure 2009 2010 Trend Objective Measure 2009 2010 Trend
Internal Process Learning & Development
Objective Measure 2009 2010 Trend Objective Measure 2009 2010 Trend

Benefits of Balanced Scorecard

 Ensures focus of the business owner on the mission and the long term vision he is set out
with

 Ensures better control over outcomes

 Sets a good direction to the business

 Is effective in detecting early warning signals

 Promotes data driven decision making culture within the organisation

 Ensures that efforts and resources are utilised towards a common objective

 Gives your mission and vision a tangible / measurable perspective

 Helps plan your next goals

Balanced Scorecard Implementation

Implementing a balanced scorecard is a big challenge today for most

organizations. However, if some key factors are accounted for before the kickoff, I
am sure you would be able to address the fear to a large extent

Ask these questions ...

 Do we have the right measurement systems? - if not then set them up first

 does the management believe it is going to help the company? - if not then sensitize them

 do employees understand the importance of the tool and how it would help them as
well….if not make them see the bigger picture

 is there a skilled resource dedicated to this project with necessary support?

 has the estimated return on investment (time, effort and money) been calculated?

 is there an appropriate governance structure for this project?

If you are able to arrive at a positive response for all the above questions, your Balanced
Scorecard deployment should be successful

I would strongly recommend business owners to explore this tool to ensure their
organisation is closer to achieving its goals.