Summary

Architecting a Balanced Scorecard requires organizations to master four techniques – effective strategic mapping, selection of the right strategic measures, selection of the appropriate strategic targets and choosing the right strategic initiatives.

This article focuses on the first aspect, namely, choosing strategic objectives and developing the Strategy Map that captures the causality between and within strategic perspectives and the logic of the strategic objectives.

Our first event on Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) was held in the capital of Norway, Oslo on the 22nd and 23rd of April 2008. It was an exciting two-day program.  The first day consisted of presentations given by some of the leading experts in the EPM field. On the second day it was a course given by the leading author Paul Niven and assisted by Dennis Barnhart, president of Barnhart & Associates. The Course “Executing the Strategy with the Balanced Scorecard: Step-by-Step” is based on Niven’s successful series of Step-by-Step” books.

The event was a co-arrangement with Scandinavia’s biggest Performance Management conference – the Soria Moria 2008 Conference.

Summary

When oil and gas giant StatoilHydro launched its business support unit, Global Business Services (GBS), it quickly created and implemented a cascade of balanced scorecards for three levels: 1. GBS 2. Functional shared services lines, and 3. Departmental levels. Scorecards at each level contain five perspectives shared throughout the enterprise. Led by Rune Skjæveland, vice president of strategy, finance and control, GBS is working toward its vision of becoming a world-class provider of business services by 2012. To that end, the company also ties the balanced scorecard to individual performance, including bonuses. 

The scorecard is StatoilHydro’s core tool for aligning performance from the corporate level all the way down to the team level. In this abridged version of a case study that appears in the report: The Finance Function: Global Solutions for Global Challenges (1), senior executives from StatoilHydro describe how usage of the Balanced Scorecard is core to attaining that vision.

Summary

Summary

A large number of companies successfully use some form of Balanced Scorecard to drive their performance management. One reason for this probably lies in the fact that the bottom line of a company is actually fairly easy to describe.

However, building and implementing a Balanced Scorecard Management System within a public sector organization presents a challenge that is different from what private sector organizations encounter. For instance, public sector organizations typically need to place ‘customer’ as the top strategic perspective as opposed to ‘financial’.

Summary

Architecting a Balanced Scorecard requires organizations to master four techniques – effective strategic mapping, selection of the right strategic measures, selection of the appropriate strategic targets and choosing the right strategic initiatives.

This article focuses on the second aspect, namely, choosing strategic measures.

In the scorecard hierarchy, metrics follow strategic objectives and initiatives. Metrics play the crucial role in the Balanced Scorecard system – they serve to monitor progress toward strategic objectives, and in doing so test the efficacy of the strategy.

Summary 

Listen to this webcast to hear Paul discuss Balanced Scorecard implementation issues and tips with performance management specialist Stacey Barr. You’ll learn how to avoid implementation traps, how to ensure executive sponsorship, what’s the best way to cascade the Scorecard, and much more.

Summary

During a recent international speaking tour, I had the opportunity to chat with CEOs in a number of countries on issues impacting them, including: the business climate in their region, the opportunities they foresee, and the challenges on the horizon.