Balanced Scorecards

The “Balanced Scorecard (BSC)” is a relatively new approach to strategic management that was developed in the early 1990’s by Drs. Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business School) and David Norton. The BSC approach provides a clear prescription as to what companies should measure in order to ‘balance’ the financial perspective.

The BSC suggests that we view the organization from four perspectives, and develop metrics, collect and analyse data related to each of these perspectives:

  • Learning and growth perspective.
  • Business process perspective.
  • Customer perspective.
  • Financial perspective.

In this context, Megacom works in close collaboration with its clients’ teams (Corporate and Departmental teams) to develop the corporate and departments balanced scorecards. This would be achieved in 5 distinct steps:

  • Build the Strategic Linkages

    Or building the strategy maps. This activity captures the currently existing strategies and documents them. A strategy map describes what the organization needs to do to be successful.

  • Determine the Indicators of Success

    A successful scorecard would start with indicators and not measures. For example, how many litres of fuel a car consumes each 100 KM could be considered as an indicator of the car shape, not a measure, as indicators may cover a wide range of causes such as poor engine performance, soft tires, and others.

  • Identify Processes, Projects and Measures

    This step defines the core processes in the organization and determines which of them are critical to the strategic objectives on the strategy map. This enables the organization to learn the strategic impact of each process.

  • Build the Scorecard Process

    The scorecard process should be integrated with other existing processes, such as financial analysis and budgeting.

  • Launch the Scorecard

    It is most important that the scorecard would be in the hands of the organization as soon as possible. Launching the scorecard should involve public presentation, management open support and building a consensus for the next steps.

See also

  • Marketing and Export Systems

    One of the most fundamental factors in the success of any organization is its capability to develop and deploy the right marketing mix.

  • Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Systems

    An M&E System should be comprehensive, yet practical and easy to use by non-technical personnel. It should clearly define types of data to be collected, who will collect it, how and how often it is collected, how it is validated, and how it is reported.

  • Strategic Planning

    The process for developing a strategic plan involves several activities, where Megacom works in close collaboration with its client throughout the whole process.