The Balanced Scorecard Is A Technique Execution Administration Device

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a strategic planning and management system that is used widely in different organizations all over the world. The concept was originated by Robert Kaplan and David Norton in the early 1990s. In

The Balanced Scorecard framework was first introduced in the 1992 Harvard Business review article, ‘The Balanced Scorecard—Measures that Drive Performance.’ (Kaplan 2006) The purpose of the Balanced Scorecard is to harmonise the corporation’s strategy, operational objectives and performance measures so that they can be controlled to achieve goals. (Stevanovic et al. 2012, p.261) The BSC can be conceptualized as, “…a management system, which is structured according to the logic of the cyber-netic management circle (“plan-do-check-act”) (Bieker 2002, p.2) The model usually measures four core domains organised into quadrants; the customer perspective, internal business perspective, innovation and learning perspective, and the financial perspective. Each closely relating to a recognised aspect of firm performance. (Kaplan & Norton 2005) As seen in the figure below, the scorecard is organised such that the interrelationship between these variables as well as comparison between goals and measures are easily seen.

“The balanced scorecard should translate a business unit’s mission and strategy into tangible objectives and measures. The measures represent a balance between external measures for shareholders and customers and internal measures of critical business processes, innovation and learning and growth. The measures are balance between outcome measures, the results of past efforts, and the measures that drive future performance. And the scorecard is balanced between objective, easily quantified outcome measures and subjective, somewhat judgmental, performance…”

The balanced scorecard now plays an important role in organization management. It has been further identified and used as an important tool in today 's business processes. According to Eric W. Noreen et al. (2002), "a balanced scorecard consists of an integrated set of performance measures that are derived from and support a company’s strategy. A strategy is essentially a theory about how to achieve the organization’s goals" (p. 551). Previously, management had been overwhelmed with data for a long

In the context of strategic corporate planning, Balance Scorecard framework is widely used for goals and objectives setting for the entire organization or department. These goals and objectives are made as team goals. The Balance Scorecard provides a framework to describe and communicate strategy in a consistent and insightful way (Kaplan & Norton. 200, Pg. 10). This works best in departments or entire organization where the people are fairly independent and striving to achieve a singular purpose. A strategic scorecard is a process of establishing multi-faceted measures of an organization or unit they typically includes: (a) finance; (b) customer; (c) internal business process and (d) leaning and growth.

A theory and management approach of the Balanced Scorecard was first “proposed in the Harvard Business Review by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton (1995)” (Knapp, 2001). In the book called ‘The Balances Scorecard’ Kaplan and Norton (1996) translated organization’s mission and strategy into comprehensive set of performance measures. That

The Balanced Scorecard is a model used to align business activities to the organisation’s vision and strategy, improve internal as well as external communications, and monitor the organisation’s actual performance against its strategic goals. It combines financial and non-financial performance measures, such as the satisfaction of customers/stakeholders, the efficiency of internal business processes and organisational capacity in terms of knowledge and innovation. (Balanced Scorecard Institute, n.d.).

The goal of this essay is to focus on theory and implementation of the Balanced Scorecard system. Because of the structured generic approach of the methodology, the Balanced Scorecard has gained its popularity as means of evaluating performance and reporting quantitative performance results. The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system that is used extensively in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organization performance against strategic goals (The Balanced Scorecard Institute, 2014). The Balanced Scorecard is the most prevalent and adopted of the several strategic performance tools since the early 1990s. In addition, the derivatives of the Balanced Scorecard such as Performance Prism and Results Based Management have also gained prominence in the field of strategic performance management and improvement. The Balanced Scorecard commenced as a performance management tool that incorporated strategic non-financial performance measures to the conventional financial indicators in order to provide managers and company executives with a somewhat “balanced” view of the aspect of organizational performance.

As mentioned above, the balanced scorecard consists of four perspectives and this measures link together to create a tool for senior managers to assess the overall performance of the company. In other words, the balanced scorecard contains outcome measures and the performance derivers of outcome, linked together in cause-and-effect

The balanced scorecard (BSC) is an extensively used performance measurement tool introduced to take the strategy and vision of the business into real action from four perspectives: financial, customers, internally progress and learning and grow. (Kaplan and Norton, 1996) From all these four perspectives, it can be seen that this measurement tool is different from others because it concentrates on both financial and operational information rather than only financial figures which make the tool provide a more comprehensive of the business to shareholders and customers. In these years, BSC has developed from the performance measurement tool to a strategic management system. ( Kaplan and Norton, 1996, p 37) However, this essay aims at introducing the balanced scorecard as a performance measurement from its origins, why business needs it, how it can be utilized, how the business can get benefits from adopting this measurement tool and what potential problems and limits it has.

To bridge the gap between strategy and action, organizations use the Balanced Scorecard, BSC. This tool aligns business activities to the organization’s strategy and vision thereby boosting the internal and external communications as well as monitoring its performance against strategic objectives by incorporating financial and non-financial elements from various perspectives into a single framework. Therefore, the BSC is essential in steering an organization to focus on its most relevant areas that push the organization to success by clarifying performance in relation to the business strategy. An organization can thus use BSC to achieve customer satisfaction through innovation thereby strengthening its financial position, achieve a competitive advantage and retain clients.

The Balanced Scorecard is a strategic performance management framework that has been designed to help an organisation monitor its performance and manage the execution of its strategy. Kaplan and Norton (1996a, 1996b) pointed out that the implementation of the Balance Score Card is to attain the following goals clarify and translate vision and strategy, communicate and link objectives and measures, plan, set targets, and align strategic initiatives; and enhance strategic feedback and learning.

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a performance measurement tool that originated in the business worlds. Performance measurement is a way to track performance over time to assess if goals are being met. Organizations measure their performance to monitor how they’re doing in achieving their overall mission and goals.

Other than ABC, balanced scorecard is also design for the change of the management accounting. According to Olve and Sjèostrand (2002) a balanced scorecard is a format for describing activities of an organisation through a number of measures for four perspectives: financial, customer, internal process

In the increasingly competitive market, it is essential that organizations form and implement an effective organizational performance management system to help gain competitive advantage. The performance management system should have several activities that will help to develop the goals of the organization; it should also help in monitoring organizational progress and to make adjustments to accomplish the goals more efficiently with minimal barriers (Shackleton, 2007).