Summary

This interview is part of a series in which experts respond to questions about some of the persistent issues facing leaders, as they seek to create an adaptive enterprise and achieve new levels of performance. This round features Peter Ryan, Corporate Performance Manager, Christchurch City Council, New Zealand.

The interview focuses on the connection between an adaptive organization and the conventional budgeting process which drives performance planning and performance management. Issues covered include the definition of an adaptive organization; strengths and weaknesses of conventional budgeting; budgeting concept as an annual performance contract; how managers view budgeting; and the effectiveness of budgeting in goal setting, performance evaluation and reward. The interview also seeks to discover what the favored alternative frameworks are, and why leaders are unable to move to new models. It also identifies cultural barriers in transforming the conventional budgeting process. Finally, it seeks a prediction on how adaptive organizations will evolve.

Summary

This interview features Peter Ryan, who was Corporate Strategy and Performance Planner for the City of Brisbane until November 2005. Brisbane City Council is Australia’s largest local authority, and has an annual budget in excess of A$1.6 billion, employs over 7,000 people and is responsible to a population of almost one million residents. In October 2003, Brisbane City Council was inducted into the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative Hall of Fame, an honor reserved for organizations demonstrating significant results against the criteria of the strategy-focused organization.

Summary

This interview features Lawrence Ganti, Corporate Director, Office of Strategy Management, for the Geneva, Switzerland based Serono, which reported 2005 revenues of more than $2.5 billion, making it the largest biotechnology company in Europe and among the leaders in the world. It has eight manufacturing plants and 4,900 employees spread across 45 countries. Serono’s groundbreaking work includes its treatments for infertility, growth hormone deficiency and multiple sclerosis. Serono was inducted into the prestigious Balanced Scorecard Collaborative Hall of Fame in 2006.

In this interview, drawing from his experience of facilitating the Balanced Scorecard program in Serono, Lawrence Ganti presents a practitioner’s viewpoint regarding various aspects of the Balanced Scorecard concept.

Summary

This interview features Julian Taylor, director of strategy development and network performance for Scottish Enterprise Network (SE), which is Scotland’s main economic development agency and comprises Scottish Enterprise National (the coordinating body) and 12 Local Enterprise Companies (LECs) that collectively cover 93 per cent of the nation’s population. In this interview, drawing from his experience of facilitating the Balanced Scorecard program in Scottish Enterprise, Julian Taylor presents a practitioner’s viewpoint regarding various aspects of the Balanced Scorecard concept.