The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a Strategic Performance Management tool that was developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton in the early 1990s. Kaplan and Norton were both professors at the Harvard Business School and they developed the Balanced Scorecard as a way to help organizations better align their activities with their strategic goals and objectives.

The BSC is a semi-standard structured report, supported by proven design methods and automation tools, that can be used by managers to keep track of the execution of activities by the staff within their control and to monitor the consequences arising from these actions.

The Balanced Scorecard is a Strategic Planning and Performance Management system that is used extensively in business, government, and nonprofit organizations to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization.

The Balanced Scorecard is based on the idea that organizations should measure their performance not just in terms of financial indicators (thus lagging indicators), but also in terms of a broader range of metrics that reflect the organization's strategic priorities. This includes metrics related to Customer Satisfaction, internal processes, learning & growth, and innovation & improvement. By measuring and managing this more comprehensive, more "balanced" set of metrics, organizations can better understand their progress towards achieving their strategic goals and make any necessary adjustments to their activities.

With the scorecard and metrics in place, a organization should adopt a continuous, iterative approach to managing its Strategy and BSC. Though this process of utilizing BSC as part of the Strategy Development and Strategy Deployment process, organizations can achieve such benefits as:

• Help the management team focus on the execution of their Corporate Strategy.
• Focus and align an organization towards common goals and objectives.
• Enable an organization to understand the relationship between measures and performance.
• Improve communication of organizational priorities across an organization.
• Help employees to understand and focus on organizational priorities and realize relevant results.
• Reduce the number of metrics to the few vital key performance indicators.
• Strengthen and formalizing the project selection process to focus on key capabilities and enablers.

For effective implementation, take a look at these Balanced Scorecard best practices:

• Lean Leader GB Series 11 - Facilitate Balanced Scorecard (37-slide PowerPoint deck)
• Balanced Scorecard Toolkit (159-slide PowerPoint deck)

Related Flevy Management Insights

• Strategic Implementation of Balanced Scorecard for a Global Pharmaceutical Company
• Implementation of a Balanced Scorecard for a Technology Startup
• Implementation of Balanced Scorecard for Operational Efficiency in a Global Technology Firm
• Balanced Scorecard Implementation in Chemical Industry
• Balanced Scorecard Implementation for Professional Services Firm
• Performance Management
• Benchmarking
• Key Performance Indicators