The background
- No single measures can give a broad picture of the organization health.
- So instead of a single measure why not a use a composite scorecard involving a number of different measures.
- Kaplan and Norton devised a framework based on four perspectives – financial, customer, internal and learning and growth.
- The organization should select critical measures for each of these perspectives.
Origins of the balanced scorecard
R.S. Kaplan and D.P. Norton -”The Balanced Scorecard- measures that drive performance”. Harvard Business Review, January 1992
- -”The Balanced Scorecard”, Harvard University Press, 1996.
- “Kaplan and Norton suggested that organization should focus their efforts on a limited number of specific, critical performance measures which reflect stakeholders key success factors” (Strategic Management, J. Thompson with F. Martin)
What is the balanced scorecard?
- A system of corporate appraisal which looks at financial and non-financial elements from a variety of perspectives.
- An approach to the provision of information to management to assist strategic policy formation and achievement.
- It provides the user with a set of information which addresses all relevant areas of performance in an objective and unbiased fashion.
- A set of measures that gives top managers a fast but comprehensive view of the business.
The balanced scorecard…
- Allows managers to look at the business from four important perspectives.
- Provides a balanced picture of overall performance highlighting activities that need to be improved.
- Combines both qualitative and quantitative measures.
- Relates assessment of performance to the choice of strategy.
- Includes measures of efficiency and effectiveness.
- Assists business in clarifying their vision and strategies and provides a means to translate these into action.
In what way is the scorecard a balance?
The scorecard produces a balance between:
- Four key business perspectives: financial, customer, internal processes and innovation.
- How the organization sees itself and how others see it.
- The short run and the long run
- The situation at a moment in time and change over time
Main benefits of using the balanced scorecard
- Helps companies focus on what has to be done in order to create a breakthrough performance
- Acts as an integrating device for a variety of corporate programmes
- Makes strategy operational by translating it into performance measures and targets
- Helps break down corporate level measures so that local managers and employees can see what they need to do well if they want to improve organizational effectiveness
- Provides a comprehensive view that overturns the traditional idea of the organization as a collection of isolated, independent functions and departments
Basic Concept
The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system that is used extensively in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organization performance against strategic goals. It was originated by Drs. Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business School) and David Norton as a performance measurement framework that added strategic non-financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give managers and executives a more ‘balanced’ view of organizational performance. 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 the Tableau de Bord – literally, a “dashboard” of performance measures) in the early part of the 20th century.
The balanced scorecard has evolved from its early use as a simple performance measurement framework to a full strategic planning and management system. The “new” balanced scorecard transforms an organization’s strategic plan from an attractive but passive document into the “marching orders” for the organization on a daily basis. It provides a framework that not only provides performance measurements, but helps planners identify what should be done and measured. It enables executives to truly execute their strategies.
This new approach to strategic management was first detailed in a series of articles and books by Drs. Kaplan and Norton. 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. The balanced scorecard is a management system (not only a measurement system) that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. It provides feedback around both the internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results. When fully deployed, the balanced scorecard transforms strategic planning from an academic exercise into the nerve center of an enterprise.
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.”
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.
Perspectives
The balanced scorecard suggests that we view the organization from four perspectives, and to develop metrics, collect data and analyze it relative to each of these perspectives:
The Learning & Growth Perspective
This perspective includes employee training and corporate cultural attitudes related to both individual and corporate self-improvement. In a knowledge-worker organization, people — the only repository of knowledge — are the main resource. In the current climate of rapid technological change, it is becoming necessary for knowledge workers to be in a continuous learning mode. Metrics can be put into place to guide managers in focusing training funds where they can help the most. In any case, learning and growth constitute the essential foundation for success of any knowledge-worker organization.
Kaplan and Norton emphasize that ‘learning’ is more than ‘training’; it also includes things like mentors and tutors within the organization, as well as that ease of communication among workers that allows them to readily get help on a problem when it is needed. It also includes technological tools; what the Baldrige criteria call “high performance work systems.”
The Business Process Perspective
This perspective refers to internal business processes. Metrics based on this perspective allow the managers to know how well their business is running, and whether its products and services conform to customer requirements (the mission). These metrics have to be carefully designed by those who know these processes most intimately; with our unique missions these are not something that can be developed by outside consultants.
The Customer Perspective
Recent management philosophy has shown an increasing realization of the importance of customer focus and customer satisfaction in any business. These are leading indicators: if customers are not satisfied, they will eventually find other suppliers that will meet their needs. Poor performance from this perspective is thus a leading indicator of future decline, even though the current financial picture may look good.
In developing metrics for satisfaction, customers should be analyzed in terms of kinds of customers and the kinds of processes for which we are providing a product or service to those customer groups.
The Financial Perspective
Kaplan and Norton do not disregard the traditional need for financial data. Timely and accurate funding data will always be a priority, and managers will do whatever necessary to provide it. In fact, often there is more than enough handling and processing of financial data. With the implementation of a corporate database, it is hoped that more of the processing can be centralized and automated. But the point is that the current emphasis on financials leads to the “unbalanced” situation with regard to other perspectives. There is perhaps a need to include additional financial-related data, such as risk assessment and cost-benefit data, in this category.
Strategy Mapping
Strategy maps are communication tools used to tell a story of how value is created for the organization. They show a logical, step-by-step connection between strategic objectives (shown as ovals on the map) in the form of a cause-and-effect chain. Generally speaking, improving performance in the objectives found in the Learning & Growth perspective (the bottom row) enables the organization to improve its Internal Process perspective Objectives (the next row up), which in turn enables the organization to create desirable results in the Customer and Financial perspectives (the top two rows).
Balanced Scorecard Software
The balanced scorecard is not a piece of software. Unfortunately, many people believe that implementing software amounts to implementing a balanced scorecard. Once a scorecard has been developed and implemented, however, performance management software can be used to get the right performance information to the right people at the right time. Automation adds structure and discipline to implementing the Balanced Scorecard system, helps transform disparate corporate data into information and knowledge, and helps communicate performance information.