Synopsis:
The Balanced Scorecard translates a company's vision and strategy into a coherent set of performance measures. The four perspectives of the scorecard--financial measures, customer knowledge, internal business processes, and learning and growth--offer a balance between short-term and long-term objectives, between outcomes desired and performance drivers of those outcomes, and between hard objective measures and softer, more subjective measures. In the first part, Kaplan and Norton provide the theoretical foundations for the Balanced Scorecard; in the second part, they describe the steps organizations must take to build their own Scorecards; and, finally, they discuss how the Balanced Scorecard can be used as a driver of change.
From the Author:
How to use measurement systems to implement strategy.
We originally developed the Balanced Scorecard to improve performance measurement systems. The Balanced Scorecard retains financial measures, such as return-on-capital-employed and economic value added, and supplements these with new measures on value creation for customers, enhancement of internal processes, including innovation, to deliver desired value propositions to targeted customers, and the creation of capabilities in employees and systems. As companies developed and used their Balanced Scorecard, they soon made it the centerpiece of their management systems. Innovating companies today are using their Balanced Scorecards to (1) gain consensus and clarity about their strategic objectives, (2) communicate strategic objectives to business units, departments, teams, and individuals, (3) align strategic planning, resource allocation and budgeting processes, and, (4) obtain feedback and learn about the effectiveness of their strategic plan and its implementation. The book describes, in detail, the construction and use of the Balanced Scorecard as a strategic management system. Detailed case studies of how Chemical Bank, Mobil, and United Way of Southeastern New England are using their Balanced Scorecards can be obtained from Harvard Business School Publishing (1-800-988-0886).
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.