Sculpting the Perfect BSC - The key is to create unique objectives and measures that communicate strategy

Spotlight - A Performance Management Framework understanding the potential for a common  ground between strategic and operational aspects of performance management

Other articles

• Case study Christchurch City Council 
• Can you lose weight by weighing yourself?

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 third aspect, namely, choosing strategic targets. The way in which organizations choose strategic targets has a great bearing on their performance management results.

All enterprises set targets. While most are financial, the Balanced Scorecard reminds them to pay equal attention to both financial and non-financial targets and to synchronize goals to a longer term, strategic horizon.

Summary

Businesses and organizations are fundamentally re-evaluating their approach to planning and performance management. As part of this process, many have chosen the Balanced Scorecard as an appropriate strategic management tool for delivering more sustained performance improvements.

This article examines another powerful emerging idea – Beyond Budgeting – and describes how it is proving to be a superior alternative to the conventional budgeting approach. Leading this paradigm shift is the Beyond Budgeting Round Table, which has brought much clarity to the debate about the value and validity of the budget. In doing so, argues the author, it has generated practical insights for those involved in Balanced Scorecard initiatives. In support of this argument, the author examines the key dimensions of the Beyond Budgeting movement and how organizations are freeing themselves from the limitations of the budget mechanism. Interestingly, many of these aspects find echo in the Balanced Scorecard philosophy. The author summarizes the six external factors of change identified by the Beyond Budgeting Round Table.

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.

Of Movies and Management Meetings - Meetings can drive an organization’s performance management. It is essential to focus and commit to follow-up  

Spotlight - Overcoming the myths of 'Beyond Budgeting' and understanding its approach to Enterprise Performance management .

Other articles 

• Interview - Office of Strategy Management
• No KPI is perfect

Summary 

In this article, the author examines the need for finding common ground between strategy management and operations management. While strategy management seeks to make strategy relevant to employee’s day-to-day responsibilities, operations management seeks strategic context for implementation and improvement projects. The author presents a performance management framework that describes the common ground.

The author points out that the lack of connect between strategic performance and operational performance leads to issues such as lack of alignment, misallocation of resources, short-term focus, and a failure to perceive risk, among other things.

Summary

In this article, Peter Ryan, Corporate Performance Manager for the Christchurch City Council of New Zealand and expert on performance management in the public sector, points out that the science of successful creation and use of the Balanced Scorecard methodology is widely understood in the case of the private sector and government agencies with narrow regulatory fields. However, points out Ryan, government agencies in charge of complex and diverse services have no body of best practices to draw on when they use the Balanced Scorecard. After dwelling on the challenges involved in developing such a body of knowledge, Ryan seeks to fill the gap and point out the differences between a successful and a failed scorecard implementation through an extensive comparative study of the scorecard implementation experiences of two cities – New  Albany (a hypothetical case of failure built around actual scorecard implementations) and Christchurch (a highly successful and much-acclaimed real case).

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.