Summary

Headquartered in Norway, Statoil is an integrated oil and gas company operating in 32 countries with 25,000 employees. Through 2006, Statoil ran a series of pilot initiatives to become a budget-free enterprise, following in the path of a previous daughter company, Borealis, which was a pioneer of the Beyond Budgeting movement.

With a clear understanding of extremely dynamic nature of today’s business environment and the limitations of a static budget concept, Statoil realized the need for tools that could help it address the key actions of target setting, forecasting and resource allocation. By focusing internal discussions on the key question of ensuring the best possible performance, the senior team got people to look beyond budgeting. A scorecard user from 1997, Statoil was already convinced about the tool’s strategic management capabilities and had developed over 700 scorecards. This made the Balanced Scorecard the central tool for Statoil’s approach to performance planning and performance management, as it moved to become a budget-free enterprise.

Summary

The UK-based Remote Bank is an example of an organization that deployed the Balanced Scorecard as it central management tool right from the time it was a small startup.

Launched in the late 1990s with staff strength of just 50, Remote Bank offered telephone based banking services. In the run up to the company’s launch, the then CEO had decided on the use of the Balanced Scorecard as the core tool to steer the startup.

Summary

Scandinavian Bottlers was set up in the late 1990s as a regional bottler for a major soft drinks corporation. From the very start, the management decided to use the Balanced Scorecard as its core strategic management tool because they perceived it as a powerful mechanism to align the company’s vision, goals and strategic initiatives. In fact, the Strategy Map and Scorecard were created before the launch of the organization. Key inputs to the scorecard came from the Annual Business Plans formulated by functional heads.

Summary

One of the world’s leading creative organizations, Saatchi & Saatchi provides solutions to leading clients like Carlsberg, General Mills, Lexus, Procter & Gamble, Sony Ericsson and Visa International.

In 1997, Saatchi & Saatchi was close to bankruptcy. A new senior management team was appointed to engineer a turnaround. The senior team presented to stakeholders a new vision and a detailed strategic blueprint for recovery, with very ambitious targets for a 3-year timeframe. With survival at stake, the group had only one chance to make the plan work.

Summary

In 2006, the Christchurch City Council was the only organization awarded Business Excellence New Zealand’s Performance Excellence Study Award (PESA). Sponsored by the New Zealand Government and businesses, the Award uses the internationally recognized Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria.

Summary

In the 1990s, BKK, a Norwegian producer of electrical power, became a vertically integrated provider and also diversified to capitalize on emerging market opportunities such as broadband services. As a result, BKK faced a challenge in aligning managerial principles and approaches across the group. In response, BKK successfully implemented a bottom-up, group-wide process improvement program, driven by the identification of Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Summary

Bilprovningen is the Swedish Vehicle Inspection Company. With a mission to improve road safety and to contribute to a better environment, the company completes about 5.4 million inspections per year. Bilprovningen’s 2,100 employees work in 16 districts, 180 stations and two mobile units.