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- The Balanced Scorecard - translating strategy into action
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- Are you adding or destroying value ? - Find it out with The Balanced Score Card
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Balanced Scorecard
Kaplan
Manufacturer: Random House
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The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment
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Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes
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Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results
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Alignment: Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create Corporate Synergies
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Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business
ASIN: 0875846513 |
Book Description
Here is the book-by the recognized architects of the Balanced Scorecard--that shows how managers can use this revolutionary tool to mobilize their people to fulfill the company's mission. More than just a measurement system, the Balanced Scorecard is a management system that can channel the energies, abilities, and specific knowledge held by people throughout the organization toward achieving long-term strategic goals.
Kaplan and Norton demonstrate how senior executives in industries such as banking, oil, insurance, and retailing are using the Balanced Scorecard both to guide current performance and to target future performance. They show how to use measures in four categories-financial performance, customer knowledge, internal business processes, and learning and growth-to align individual, organizational, and cross-departmental initiatives and to identify entirely new processes for meeting customer and shareholder objectives.
The authors also reveal how to use the Balanced Scorecard as a robust learning system for testing, gaining feedback on, and updating the organization's strategy. Finally, they walk through the steps that managers in any company can use to build their own Balanced Scorecard.
The Balanced Scorecard provides the management system for companies to invest in the long term-in customers, in employees, in new product development, and in systems-rather than managing the bottom line to pump up short-term earnings. It will change the way you measure and manage your business.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2007-10-22
This is a product that help me to alling the objetive of our organization to the lowest levels
Effective Strategic Management Tool.......2007-10-16
The book is a classic that has revolutionalised the way executives view their organizations, be it a for profit or not-for-profit entity. The Balanced Scorecard, an approach to strategic management that was developed by Robert S Kaplan and David P Norton, is a concept for measuring a company's activities in terms of its vision and strategies, to provide managers with a comprehensive view of the performance of a business. The key new factor is focusing not only on financial results but also on the human issues that drive those outcomes, so that organizations focus on the future and act in their long-term best interest.
The traditional means of measuring success through financial performance focuses on achievement to date. It is backward looking and can be counter productive in terms of securing a successful financial future. According to Kaplan and Norton financial measures are inadequate for guiding and evaluating the drive that information age firms must make to create future value through investment in customers, suppliers, employees, processes, technology and innovation.
The Balanced Scorecard balances financial success with processes that will generate success in the future. The scorecard retains a financial perspective and achieves balance by introducing a customer perspective, an internal perspective and a learning and growth perspective. In addition, it introduces objectives and measures, identifying both critical success factors and critical measurements.
The Balanced Scorecard is a management system (not only a measurement system) that allows organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. It provides feedback around both the internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results. When fully deployed, the Balanced Scorecard transforms strategic management from an academic exercise into the nerve centre of an enterprise.
The Balanced Scorecard methodology builds on some key concepts of previous management ideas such as Total Quality Management (TQM), including customer-defined quality, continuous improvement, employee empowerment, and measurement-based management and feedback.
The Balanced Scorecard suggests that we view the organisation from four perspectives, namely the financial perspective, customer perspective, internal business processes and learning and growth perspective. The approach requires managers to develop metrics, collect data and analyze it relative to each of these perspectives.
This outstanding book is recommended to managers at all levels of an organisation, as well as business management students and strategy consultants.
The Balanced Scorecard - translating strategy into action.......2007-10-06
The order process was quick and easy,the information updates on status of delivery were accurate, the book arrived before ETA, and it was in excellent condition.
Thank you for a great transaction.
Now I just have to read it!!!
Regards
Breed Lewis
they are the ones.......2007-04-09
They invented it and there's no way to plan a BSC without knowing where it came from.
You don't notice that it's been 10 years since it was written.
Are you adding or destroying value ? - Find it out with The Balanced Score Card.......2006-07-13
The financial performance of an organization is essential for its success. Even non-profit organizations must deal in a sensible way with funds they receive.
In 1992, an article by Robert Kaplan and David Norton entitled "The Balanced Scorecard - Measures that Drive Performance" in the Harvard Business Review caused a lot of attention for their method, and led to their business bestseller, "The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action", published in 1996.
In this book Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton develop and describe the Balanced Score Card, a multidimensional approach to measuring corporate performance that incorporates both financial and non-financial factors.
The Balanced Score Card method of Kaplan and Norton is a strategic approach and performance management system that enables organizations to translate a company's vision and strategy into implementation, working from 4 perspectives:
1. financial perspective,
2. customer perspective,
3. business process perspective,
4. learning and growth perspective.
- Financial perspective: Kaplan and Norton do not disregard the traditional need for financial data. Timely and accurate funding data will always be a priority, and managers will do whatever necessary to provide it. In fact, often there is more than enough handling and processing of financial data. With the implementation of a corporate database, it is hoped that more of the processing can be centralized and automated. But the point is that the current emphasis on financials leads to the "unbalanced" situation with regard to other perspectives. There is perhaps a need to include additional financial-related data, such as risk assessment and cost-benefit data, in this category.
- Customer perspective: recent management philosophy has shown an increasing realization of the importance of customer focus and customer satisfaction in any business. These are leading indicators: if customers are not satisfied, they will eventually find other suppliers that will meet their needs. Poor performance from this perspective is thus a leading indicator of future decline, even though the current financial picture may look good. In developing metrics for satisfaction, customers should be analyzed in terms of kinds of customers and the kinds of processes for which we are providing a product or service to those customer groups.
- Business Process perspective refers to internal business processes. Metrics based on this perspective allow the managers to know how well their business is running, and whether its products and services conform to customer requirements (the mission). These metrics have to be carefully designed by those who know these processes most intimately. In addition to the strategic management process, two kinds of business processes may be identified: a) mission-oriented processes, and b) support processes. Mission-oriented processes are the special functions of government offices, and many unique problems are encountered in these processes. The support processes are more repetitive in nature, and hence easier to measure and benchmark using generic metrics.
- Learning and Growth perspective includes employee training and corporate cultural attitudes related to both individual and corporate self-improvement. In a knowledge-worker organization, people are the main resource. In the current climate of rapid technological change, it is becoming necessary for knowledge workers to be in a continuous learning mode. Government agencies often find themselves unable to hire new technical workers and at the same time is showing a decline in training of existing employees. Kaplan and Norton emphasize that 'learning' is more than 'training'; it also includes things like mentors and tutors within the organization, as well as that ease of communication among workers that allows them to readily get help on a problem when it is needed. It also includes technological tools such as an Intranet.
The integration of these four perspectives into a graphical appealing picture have made the Balanced Scorecard method a very successful methodology within the Value Based Management philosophy.
In addition to this book you may want to consider the following books on the subject:
- Robert S. Kaplan. Alignment: Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create Corporate Synergies.
- Paul R. Niven. Balanced ScoreCard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results.
- Paul R. Niven. Balanced ScoreCard Step-by-Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies.
- Nils-Göran Olve. Performance Drivers: A Practical Guide to Using the Balanced Scorecard.
- Robert S. Kaplan. The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment.
- Robert S. Kaplan. Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes.
- Robert S. Kaplan. Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work.
- Robert S. Kaplan. The Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive Performance.
Book Description
The Balanced Scorecard is the leading methodology for implementing performance management systems and improving efficiency. Focusing directly on the public and not-for-profit sectors, this book helps these organizations overcome the unique challenges they face when implementing a Balanced Scorecard.
- Guides government and nonprofit organizations through the implementation of a performance management system using the Balanced Scorecard.
- Authors bring a wealth of implementation knowledge and experience to this book, leading to hands-on, practical guidance and tips to that ensure success.
- Identifies and tackles head-on the serious obstacles unique to the world of government and nonprofits in implementing the balanced scorecard methodology.
- Includes action plans to walk the reader through specific implementation challenges.
Customer Reviews:
Great discussion of what is really a side topic to Balanced Scorecards.......2006-11-10
Balanced Scorecards make lots of sense for the For-Profit world for which they were originally developed. What makes this book so good is that they have concentrated on what makes Non-Profits different and how to conceptualize how the BC works in that arena. The book is well written and easy to understand. It is a must for all non-profit execs.
Church Ministry Aid.......2006-11-10
Very helpful approach in developing a measuring tool for monitoring ministry growth and tracking to Vision.
A book for the 21st century.......2003-09-20
Niven is one of the best authors on BSC. If this administration and communications tool has been hailed as one the best new concepts in the business world, in nonprofit and government administration it can have even more impact. It is a great general introduction, but even seasoned experts will find enlightenment and a great very updated bibliography. Works very well as a textbook for nonprofit management with HBS cases.
Clear, informative and highly implementable advice.......2003-08-24
Although the Balanced Scorecard has taken over performance mangagement thinking in business, its linkages and adaptability to public and non-profit organizations has remained extremely challenging. I currently am resposible for leading planning and strategy development for a large social services provider in Canada. Being a strong proponent of Balanced Scorecard theory, I anxiously waited two months for Paul Niven's latest book to hit the shelves in hope that I could adapt the balanced scorecard approach to evaluate our organization's strategy. Long story short >> Balanced Scorecard for Government and Nonprofit Agencies was an incredible investment, and we are now on the way to better measuring and reporting on our organization's progress with the help of this book's advice, tips and proecess design steps.
Paul Niven's writing style provides a clear and informative description of the balanced scorecard approach to performance planning and measurement - and presents easy-to-follow steps for designing and implementing performance systems to monitor and evaluate the impact of nonprofit and public sector programs. I highly recommend this easy-to-read book to anyone interested in understanding how the world's leading approach to performance measurement and management can be successfully incorporated into your organization.
Good & Practical Book on Balanced Scorecard.......2003-07-07
I've read most of the literature on the Balanced Scorecard and the previous books by Norton & Kaplan and Paul Niven himself. Being a Management Consultant of 15 years, I worked with numerous for-profit and not-for-profit organizations and have the usual skepticism towards theory books. This latest book on Balanced Scorecard was easy-to-read with numerous examples from Balanced Scorecard implementations in public sector. I found the step-by-step approach to be practical and quite down-to-earth with numerous take aways for a reader interested in BSC or a performance management practitioner, like myself. The book rightly touches upon the challenges in the scorecard implementations, and offers valuable advice. If you haven't read any previous books on this subject, you can read this book alone for a good idea on what the Balanced Scorecard is all about, and how you go about its implementation.
Amazon.com
In their previous book, The Balanced Scorecard, Robert Kaplan and David Norton unveiled an innovative "performance management system" that any company could use to focus and align their executive teams, business units, human resources, information technology, and financial resources on a unified overall strategy--much as businesses have traditionally employed financial management systems to track and guide their general fiscal direction. In The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton explain how companies like Mobil, CIGNA, and Chemical Retail Bank have effectively used this approach for nearly a decade, and in the process present a step-by-step implementation outline that other organizations could use to attain similar results. Their book is divided into five sections that guide readers through development of a completely individualized plan that is created with "strategy maps" (graphical representations designed to clearly communicate desired outcomes and how they are to be achieved), then infused throughout the enterprise and made an integral part of its future. In several chapters devoted to the latter, for example, the authors show how their models have linked long-term strategy with day-to-day operational and budgetary management, and detail the "double loop" process for doing so, monitoring progress, and initiating corrective actions if necessary. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
In today's business environment, strategy has never been more important. Yet research shows that most companies fail to execute strategy successfully. Behind this abysmal track record lies an undeniable fact: many companies continue to use management processes-top-down, financially driven, and tactical-that were designed to run yesterday's organizations.
Now, the creators of the revolutionary performance management tool called the Balanced Scorecard introduce a new approach that makes strategy a continuous process owned not just by top management, but by everyone. In The Strategy-Focused Organization, Robert Kaplan and David Norton share the results of ten years of learning and research into more than 200 companies that have implemented the Balanced Scorecard. Drawing from more than twenty in-depth case studies-including Mobil, CIGNA, Nova Scotia Power, and AT&T Canada-Kaplan and Norton illustrate how Balanced Scorecard adopters have taken their groundbreaking tool to the next level. These organizations have used the scorecard to create an entirely new performance management framework that puts strategy at the center of key management processes and systems.
Kaplan and Norton articulate the five key principles required for building Strategy-Focused Organizations: (1) translate the strategy to operational terms, (2) align the organization to the strategy, (3) make strategy everyone's everyday job, (4) make strategy a continual process, and (5) mobilize change through strong, effective leadership. The authors provide a detailed account of how a range of organizations in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors have deployed these principles to achieve breakthrough, sustainable performance improvements.
Presenting a practical, proven framework steeped in rich case study experience, The Strategy-Focused Organization helps solve a universal management problem-not just how to formulate strategy, but how to make it work. Building on one of the most revolutionary business ideas of our time, this important book shows how today's leaders can shape their own companies to meet the challenges and reap the rewards of a new competitive era.
Robert S. Kaplan is the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Business School. David P. Norton is President of Balanced Scorecard Collaborative, Inc.
Download Description
The creators of the revolutionary performance management tool called the Balanced Scorecard introduce a new approach that makes strategy a continuous process owned not just by top management, but by everyone. In The Strategy-Focused Organization, Robert Kaplan and David Norton share the results of ten years of learning and research into more than 200 companies that have implemented the Balanced Scorecard. Drawing from more than twenty in-depth case studies--including Mobil, CIGNA, and AT&T Canada--Kaplan and Norton illustrate how Balanced Scorecard adopters have taken their groundbreaking tool to the next level. These organizations have used the scorecard to create an entirely new performance management framework that puts strategy at the center of key management processes and systems. Kaplan and Norton articulate the five key principles required for building strategy-focused organizations: 1) translate the strategy into operational terms, 2) align the organization to the strategy, 3) make strategy everyone's everyday job, 4) make strategy a continual process, and 5) mobilize change through strong, effective leadership. The authors provide a detailed account of how a range of organizations in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors have deployed these principles to achieve breakthrough, sustainable performance improvements.
Customer Reviews:
Overview, technique and implementation.......2006-08-21
An outstandingly well written book that decribes the balanced scorecard and provides excellent examples. An effective, practical guide for C-level executives and mid-level managers for implementing strategic scorcarding. I recommned this book for the breadth and depth of the explanation of the subject matter and concise implmentation examples.
If you can measure it, you can manage it.......2006-02-28
The Balanced Scorecard was initially designed as a financial and non-financial corporate performance measurement tool. Organizations focused on strategy have taken the Balanced Scorecard and transformed it into a strategic tool for measurement. These 5 key principles transform the Balanced Scorecard:
Principle 1: Translate Strategy into Operational Terms. Describing the strategy of the organization, communicating it via the Building Scorecard in an insightful, consistent and operational manner is the cornerstone to putting strategy at the center of an organization. This principle accomplishes this by using the Balanced Scorecard to view strategy from 4 different perspectives: financial, customer, internal business processes, and learning.
Principle 2: Align the Organization to the Strategy.
The Balanced scorecard can link the many different and dispersed functions. It can clarify the values, beliefs and ideas that reflect the organization's identity, and clarify the actions mandated at the corporate level that create synergies at the business unit level.
Principle 3: Make Strategy Everyone's Everyday Job.
This principle, utilizing the Balanced Scorecard, focuses on three processes to align employees to the strategy: creating strategic awareness, defining personal and team objectives, and linking compensation to the Balanced Scorecard
Principle 4: Make Strategy a Continual Process.
The Balanced Scorecard creates a reporting system to monitor progress and serve as a link between managing strategy and managing operations. This system enables organizations to accomplish three things: link strategy and budget, close the strategy loop, and test, learn, and adapt.
Principle 5: Mobilize Change Through Executive Leadership.
The Balanced Scorecard helps executive leadership implement large scale changes that are necessary to implement new strategies. Specifically, it helps organizations specify, in detail, critical elements:
· Target customers where profitable growth will occur
· Value propositions that lead customers to do more business and at higher margins with the company
· Innovations in products, services and processes
· Investments in people and systems to enhance processes and deliver differentiated value propositions for growth
Highly Recommended!.......2005-06-20
The fact that executives keep trying new strategic initiatives despite their abysmal rate of failure is, like second marriages, a triumph of hope over experience. Or, it may indicate just how much pressure top managers face to improve their profits. By one estimate, nine out of ten companies fail to execute their strategic visions. Yet, CEOs - who witness a world in constant flux - continue to introduce change initiatives. Are they trapped in the operational definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? Or, are they just ready for this book? Authors Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton offer wise counsel to help executives break the cycle of strategic flops. They advise executives to transform their companies into "Strategy-Focused Organizations" using the "Balanced Scorecard" and "strategic mapping" tools. With these initiatives, CEOs can ensure that every employee pays attention to strategy implementation. Kaplan and Norton, the all-star co-author team who wrote "The Balanced Scorecard" and "Strategy Maps", have done it again, in this well-organized but somewhat dry volume. We strongly recommend this book to any manager who is responsible for designing or implementing a strategic change initiative.
Overblown and impractical.......2002-11-22
Having used the BSc a few times in my work, I expected this to be a hepful addition to my knowledge base in the area. I found that it added little to the author's other published tomes and to his articles in journals like HBR. Although the basic concept is sound, the implementation challenges are dealt with as you'd expect from an ivory tower-based profesoor and are several steps removed from the challenges that most of my real-world, and smaller company clients, need to address. I truly felt as though I didn't get my money's worth with this purchase and I should have stuck with the materials I already had by the author that was available in other forms. I would have saved time, money and a degree of frustration.
A must have tool for business improvement.......2002-05-23
If you're attempting to improve the way you do business, this book is a must have. It is a little dry so you have to be committed to using the concepts presented. If you can manage to stick with it, you will reap the benefits of the BSC. Good Luck!
Book Description
Most organizations consist of multiple business and support units, each populated by highly trained, experienced executives. But often the efforts of individual units are not coordinated, resulting in conflicts, lost opportunities, and diminished performance
Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton argue that the responsibility for this critical alignment lies with corporate headquarters. In this book, the authors apply their revolutionary Balanced Scorecard management system to corporate-level strategy, revealing how highly successful enterprises achieve powerful synergies by explicitly defining corporate headquarters’ role in setting, coordinating, and overseeing organizational strategy.
Based on extensive field research in organizations worldwide, Alignment shows how companies can build an enterprise-level Strategy Map and Balanced Scorecard that clearly articulate the “enterprise value proposition”: how the enterprise creates value above that achieved by individual business units operating alone. The book provides case studies, actionable frameworks, and sample scorecards that show how to align business and support units, boards of directors, and external partners with the corporate strategy and create a governance process that will ensure that alignment is sustained.
The next breakthrough in strategy execution from the field’s premier thinkers, Alignment shows how today’s companies can unlock unrealized value from enterprise synergies.
Customer Reviews:
Book review.......2006-06-26
I ordered this for my boss. He said it gave him some direction for a project he is working on.
Their most important book thus far...........2006-06-07
After their article "The Balanced Scorecard - Measures That Drive Performance" appeared in Harvard Business Review" (January-February, 1992), Kaplan and Norton co-authored four books in which they expand and fine-tune several of their core concepts about the Balanced Scorecard. What we have in this volume is a brilliant analysis of how to use the Balanced Scorecard to create corporate synergies. As they observe in the Preface, they have identified five key principles "for aligning an organization's management and measurement systems to strategy":
1. Mobilize change through executive leadership.
2. Translate strategy into operational terms.
3. Align the organization to the strategy.
4. Motivate to make strategy everyone's job.
5. Govern to make strategy a continual process.
When gathering the information needed to write this book, Kaplan and Norton rigorously examined more than 30 organizations which include Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Citizens Schools, Hilton, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Media General, and the U.S. Army. Note how different these organizations are in terms of their respective products and services, markets, and potentialities for aligning their management processes and systems to the given strategy. I assume that the diversity of the exemplary enterprises during Kaplan and Norton's selection process was deliberate because they are convinced - as am I - that if the core principles of the Balanced Scorecard are applied effectively, any organization (regardless of its size or nature) can create highly beneficial synergies by getting its management and measurement in proper alignment with its strategy. In this book, Kaplan and Norton explain how to do that. Obviously, it is difficult to achieve such alignment and even more difficult to sustain it. Although a cliché, it remains true that change is the only constant. Moreover, change seems to occur much more rapidly now than ever before. What is in proper alignment today may not be tomorrow...or by the end of today
Nothing within an organization's structure can be in proper balance unless and until it is in proper alignment. Hence the importance of prioritization and, especially, of proportionality (e.g. allocation of resources). Here is a brief excerpt from Chapter 10. "The Balanced Scorecard, since its introduction in 1992, has evolved into the centerpiece of a sophisticated system to manage the execution of strategy. The effectiveness of the approach is derived from two simple capabilities: (1) the ability to clearly describe strategy (the contribution of Strategy Maps) and (2) the ability to link strategy to the management system (the contribution of Balanced Scorecards). The net result is the ability to align all units, processes, and systems of an organization to its strategy." With this brief statement, Kaplan and Norton suggest the interdependence of strategy, alignment, and executive leadership.
In my opinion, this is the most important book written thus far by Kaplan and Norton. In it, they develop in much greater detail many of the same concepts they examined in previous books but they also share what they have learned over the years about devising, implementing, and then sustaining (while fine-tuning) the "sophisticated system" to which they refer in the excerpt just provided. Their collaborative thinking, as is also true of every organization they discuss, continues to be "a work in progress."
A repeat of the other two books - little help for those who need alignment.......2006-05-11
If you are a CIO, Head of HR, or other so called "support" function looking for help on how to align with the business, this is not the book for you.
My suggestion is to skip this book, or if you must check it out of the library or buy it used. The book you want is Kaplan and Norton's first book called "The Balanced Scorecard" which is very good and is just repeated in this book. Next I would purchase the HBR article on Strategy Maps (September 2000). Those two works cover all of what is in this book and they have a stronger implementation flavor.
Alignment is a persistent issue facing every organization and operating unit with the organization. This book does not provide the practical or actionable advice needed to give business leaders the tools and techniques need to make progress in this critical area.
If you want to know why please read on.
Kaplan and Norton are the undisputed masters of issues related to scorecards and their ideas in that area are used by leading organizations everywhere with great success. Unfortunately as they have tried to expand beyond scorecards there work in this area (this book and The Strategy-Focused Organization) have not come near the mark in my opinion.
Alignment is a critical issue in today's dynamic and changing environment. Unfortunately the authors approach alignment in a very simplistic way: create a strategy map, then create a scorecard and you will get alignment. Sorry but just using these two tools do not cut it to handle such a tough issue and this book shows it.
Like "The Strategy Focused Organization" Kaplan and Norton seek to use case studies to help illustrate their points. For that they are to be commended. However, the case studies they use are very shallow, read more like corporate press releases and product testimonials. That is a shame and a real weakness of this book as Alignment is a complex issue and simply saying 'we sat down created a Balanced Score Card and a Strategy Map and we were aligned' does not address the issues nor provide insight for the reader.
The reason for such a low score on this book is the lack of help it provides the people who most are in need of alignment CIOs, HR and to some extent finance. Kaplan and Norton dedicate Chapter 5 to "Aligning support functions" and right away you know the mindset they are applying.
For K and N, alignment is a process of completing their deliverables and they treat IT, HR, Finance and any other support function as "staffed with expert specialists whose culture is quite different from that of managers in line operating units. Consequently, support groups frequently become isolated from the line organization ... executives of business units accuse them of living in HQ based silos and being incapable of responding to local operating needs." (Page 120)
Their solution for IT, HR and Finance alignment puts these organizations back into the 1960's as they advise these functions to read the business strategy map and scorecard and then create your own - separate but not equal - scorecard based on the services you can provide. That works if all you want IT and HR to do is provide basic services, but if you want to gain competitive advantage, or if you are a CIO, HR or CFO who wants to link into and align with the business this approach puts you at arms length and something apart.
Kaplan and Norton should know better and more importantly I have to believe that there are case studies that do not treat IT, HR and Finance as support functions but integral parts of the business strategy. The fact that they could not find these cases where there is one strategy map that the whole company could align around, give the impression that they are looking at the issue of alignment with the wrong lens.
Focus and Coordinate Your Organization's Energies for Better Strategic Execution.......2006-04-26
Alignment is a superb addition to the remarkable series written by Professor Robert S. Kaplan and Dr. David P. Norton. If you have not yet read Strategy Maps, The Balanced Scorecard and The Strategy-Focused Organization, you should begin with those books before reading this one. With each book in the series, you'll find out more about how to create and use balanced scorecards . . . and your organization will prosper because of it.
Leaders have always found it much easier to formulate strategy than to turn strategies into accomplishments. As the authors note, many such organizations are like an uncoordinated 8-person rowing shell than a championship team.
In studies of the Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame organizations, the authors learned that organizational alignment is a more important factor than mobilization, strategic translation, employee motivation and governance in achieving superior results during execution.
The authors identify eight essential check points for successful organizational alignment:
1. An enterprise value proposition (to lead strategic guidelines)
2. Board and shareholder alignment (to approve, review and monitor strategy)
3. Coordination between the corporate offices and the corporate support units (by creating corporate policies)
4. Coordination between the corporate office and the business units (business unit strategy matching the corporate direction)
5. Coordination between the business units and the support units (to create appropriate functional strategies)
6. Alignment between business units and their customers (an on-going to and fro)
7. Alignment among business support teams and their suppliers and external partners (to share problems and solutions)
8. Company support coordination (among the corporate support people and the business support activities)
To get a sense of the whole process, be sure to turn to figure 9-1.
The great strength of the book comes, however, in its many examples and case studies involving organizations like Aktira, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Citizen Schools, City of Brisbane, DuPont Engineering Polymers, Handleman, Hilton Hotels, IBM Leasing, Ingersoll Rand, KeyCorp, Lockheed Martin Enterprise Information Systems, Marriott Vacation Club, MDS, Metalcraft (disguised name), Media General, New Profit Inc., Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Salmon recovery in Washington State, Sport-Man, Inc. Tiger Textiles (disguised name), and the U.S. Army.
Bravo!
Don't miss this book.
Translate, cascade and align your strategies.......2006-03-24
This book is about organizational alignment. It is the fourth in a series of thought-leading books on how to translate strategy into actions - via balanced scorecard, strategy maps, and the strategy-focused organization.
The authors start with a wonderful story:
Imagine an eight-person shell racing up the river populated by highly trained rowers, but each with different ideas of how to achieve success. But rowing at different speeds and in different directions could cause the shell to travel in circles and perhaps capsize. The winning team invariably rows in beautiful synchronism; each rower strokes powerfully but consistently with all the others, guided by a coxswain [corporate center], who has the responsibility for pacing and steering the course of action.
Unfortunately, many firms are like an uncoordinated shell. They consist of strong business units, each populated by highly trained, experienced and motivated executives. But the efforts of the individual businesses are not coordinated.
Unsurprisingly, the authors suggest that their four scorecard perspectives on financials, customers, processes, as well as growth/learning also could be used to create organizational alignment and also find synergies, e.g.
- FINANCIAL: acquiring and integrating other firms, monitoring and governance processes, skills in negotiating with external entities (capital providers, etc.)
- CUSTOMERS: leverage common customers (cross-sales), corporate brand, common customer value propositions across the world,
- PROCESSES: exploiting core competencies in product or production technologies, sourcing or distribution skills, etc.
- LEARNING AND GROWTH: Enhancing human capital thru excellent HR practices, leveraging a common technology, sharing best-practices and knowledge.
The book does not only focus on how to align the corporate-level and businesses, it also covers how to align towards support functions (finance, IT and HR), external business partners (customers, suppliers) and even the board.
Don't buy this book as your first on scorecards. It requires that you have read some of the previous published articles or books by the author team. However, if you are a balanced scorecard practitioner, then this book adds yet another dimension to our understanding of how to make scorecard systems work in an organization.
Being a corporate strategist, I can use most of this thinking in my day-to-day work - and I can highly recommend it to all other scorecard insiders.
If you're interested in Balanced Scorecard, you should obviously read the core by Kaplan and Norton - especially the "Strategy-Focused Organization". But I also recommend a very capable book by the Swedes Olve et al (2003) - "Making Scorecards Actionable: Balancing Strategy and Control" - that even includes some thinking on why balanced scorecards go wrong - and what to do about it. Paul Niven (2005) does the same in his "Balanced scorecard diagnostics".
If you're even more interested in performance measurement systems, then do also consider "Performance Prism" by Neely et al (2002) that takes performance systems to the next level. Personally, I don't believe they've designed balanced scorecard's successor, but they have many interesting perspectives on stakeholders, choice of measurements, and the relationship between cause and effect.
Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business
Book Description
PRAISE FOR Balanced Scorecard Step-By-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results, Second Edition
"As a practitioner and thought leader, Paul Niven is superbly bridging the gulf between BSC theory and application through hands-on experiences and real-world case studies. The book provides a practical road map, step-by-step, to plan, execute, and sustain a winning scorecard campaign. Easy to read . . . tells a powerful story with lessons learned/best practices from global customer implementations. Must-read for anyone interested in BSC or grappling with how to create a strategically aligned organization."
—Vik Torpunuri, President and CEO, e2e Analytix
"In Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step, Second Edition, Paul Niven provides an intuitive and incredibly effective blueprint for transitioning strategic ambition to execution. Paul's pragmatic approach provides leaders with a tool for managing a company's journey from strategic ideas to world-class performance. The Balanced Scorecard is a masterful tool for guiding companies through transformation, and I speak from personal experience when I say Paul's blueprint works! It is the most effective guide I have seen. Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step will serve any leader well if their ambition is to efficiently engage their teams in achieving a set of strategic goals."
—Allan A. MacDonald, Vice President, Sales and Customer Solutions Bell Canada National Markets
"Paul Niven has done it again!!! With this book, he has further operationalized the enlightened Balanced Scorecard concept into a fully functional system that optimizes business execution and performance!"
—Barton Johnson, President, Financial Freedom Senior Funding Corporation, The Reverse Mortgage Specialist
Customer Reviews:
Excellent guide for todays business leader.......2007-09-03
This book is an excellent guide for today's business leader, in helping him or her develop a comprehensive understanding of what is important to run a business, and also, what needs to be regularly tracked, managed and metered such that you are in tune with what is going on, and can steer successfully in the turbulent business climate of today. Hats off to Mr. Niven for his insights and understanding of business today, and the needs of the business leaders of today and tomorrow.
Step-by-step to answers.......2007-08-20
I really recommended this book to anyone who are interesting to implement BSC methodology. For those who has some BSC ground and try to put BSC in work this book will clarify each dilemmas they face by searching through BSC methodology (who, how and why?). It is the best guidelines to implement BSC because Niven drive us easily from the beginning of project to the implementation with all necessary data.
Book is easily to read and completely applicable.
Practical application of Kaplan and Norton.......2007-07-30
As a MBA (Enterprise) student I found this book very useful in the preparation of a balanced scorecard for an assessment. The book by Niven was well structured and informative with interesting stories of the author's application of the scorecard in real world settings. As someone who has limited experience in this area the book was very helpful in the initial stages of the preparation of a strategy map and scorecard. Consequently, I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to implement a scorecard as the text provides an excellent outline of the development of a scorecard.
Good Know How for inexperience colsultants.......2007-01-03
As we are trying to build up the Balance Scorecard in our company, we have read the material published by Norton and Kaplan and also we had trainig on BSC as well.
We have found this book useful because of the experience that the author transfer for new consultants that are in the begining of building up the strategy map and the scorecard, full of theory but no practice at all.
Well organized, well written....nice to read........2005-10-29
Mr. Niven has done an excellent job. It is easier and more entertaining to read his book than the books by the masters of BSC (Kaplan and Norton).
The book is well organized, the order of the topics is very logical and easy to follow. When he summarizes concepts, he does it very well, writing just enough to discuss the subject.
Implementing BSC is not an easy task, but with this book you have a very good guide.
I would say that Mr. Niven has outperformed his teachers!!!
Book Description
Business Process Management and the Balanced Scorecard shows managers how to optimally use the balanced scorecard to achieve and sustain strategic success even as the business environment changes. It exceptionally fills the gap between theory and application to facilitate the use of processes as a strategic weapon to deliver world-class performance.
Customer Reviews:
Process Improvement for the Process Manager.......2007-08-14
As a Process Manager, you sometimes get locked in to one approach to process improvement. Ralph Smith gives practical strategies with actual case study results that can be applied in virtually any organization. The concept of improving a business function without considering the constrictions in the total system will make every organization think more systemically for their process improvement effort. Excellent job!!
No so much about processes.......2007-05-28
This book is ok if you intend to understand how to set up an strategy, but it does not talk very much about how to manage processes and how to design them. Although the book is ok, it mainly talks about strategy.
In my opinion the title is a bit tricky.
Good approach!.......2007-03-27
Good, very graphic and explores a key relationship between BPM and balanced scorecard (as in practice happens in public and private sector), But,practical instruments are not enough in this version
Specifics and practicalities.......2007-01-25
I had the opportunity to read Ralph's book while he was delivering onsite Balanced Scorecard facilitation for my current employer. With more than a decade of experience in process improvement, and having read several books on linking process to strategy, I can say that Ralph has done a great job of distilling his consultative approach to the page, providing both the concepts behind his methods and guidelines for applying them to your own business scenarios in the pages of this book. I highly recommend both this book and Ralph's services, as he is an engaging and well-versed expert in the field.
Linking Strategy and Process.......2007-01-11
Ralph Smith says that his intention in writing this book as to "provide some common sense thoughts and implementation tips for process management and the balanced scorecard". He has done this, and done it very well. This book is packed with good practical suggestions about how to efficiently and effectively populate a Strategy Map. The link between process and strategy, ie between Business Process Management and the Balanced Scorecard (and Strategy Map), is also well made. In my own consulting work I have found that Strategy Maps can be an important key to process-based management. The Process perspective of the Strategy Map can be a portal into the processes of an organisation - both figuratively and, given the right modelling tool, literally. I would have liked to see more about how to first determine what are the core and supporting processes of an organisation; building a high level process model is a necessary step before you begin to analyse the processes. Smith's focus on the near forensic understanding of the context of a process is important and useful analysis techniques are described. Too often we leap in to modify (improve?) processes without knowing anything like enough about them. If you have an interest in finding out more about getting organisations to engage with process-based management, you need to read this book.
Book Description
Improve the "Health" of Your Organization by Using the Right Metrics! The vast majority of companies use some form of balanced scorecard (performance measures), yet recent research suggests that most scorecards are based on singular, unsophisticated measurements, providing flawed data on the state of the organization.
Beyond the Balanced Scorecard: Improving Business Intelligence with Analytics, by Mark Graham Brown, provides managers with the right metrics for evaluating important aspects of performance that are not accurately tracked by most companies and government organizations.
Leaders will learn how to objectively measure:
Relationships with Customers Employee Satisfaction External Business Environment Supplier/Vendor performance Strategy and Financials This book will show you how to construct a performance index, as well as provide you with example metrics of various aspects of performance that are difficult to measure.
Customer Reviews:
Great read on scorecarding.......2007-09-10
I must say that I became a huge fan of Mark Graham Brown's after reading his book "Get it, Set it, Move it, Prove it", so of course I had to pick up his next book on analytics. What I like the most about Mark's books is that they are really easy to understand. He talks about real life examples from recognizable companies he has worked with in every industry. There are some great industry specific scorecard samples in the book which I found really informative. Whether you are just beginning your Balanced Scorecard or performance management initiative, Mark describes what is important to the success of your performance management initiative, key failures, best practises and how to develop your scorecard to reap the most benefit and success of your organizations strategic goals. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is just starting their performance management initiative or to anyone who wants to improve their scorecard.
Another Glowing Success.......2007-03-16
One of the key points I took away from Mark's new book is that analytics can form the basis of a dynamic approach to performance management. Dynamic in the sense that analytics can be adjusted to be more responsive to changing directions in the market, the economy, employee profile or whatever is important to the organization. Because an analytic is a composite or aggregate of sub-metrics, each sub-metric necessarily carries a weight that can be based on its importance to the company's business results. As business conditions inevitably change, such as the surfacing of a new competitive threat, the weights of the sub-metrics can be quickly changed to reflect their current significance. This can reduce or eliminate the need to create another scorecard. Not only can a scorecard be balanced, the aggregate analytics can be dynamically adjusted to indicate the affects that changes in business strategy have on business results; a sensible approach for remaining stable, yet agile in a turbulent business environment.
Book Description
The complete guide to analyzing and maximizing a company's balanced scorecard
Presenting the next step for balanced scorecard implementation, Balanced Scorecard Diagnostics provides a step-by-step methodology for analyzing the effectiveness of a company's balanced scorecard and the tools to reevaluate balanced scorecard measures to drive maximum performance. CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, vice presidents, department managers, and business consultants will find all the essential tools for analyzing a balanced scorecard methodology to determine if it's running at maximum performance and for seamlessly implementing changes into the scorecard.
Paul R. Niven (San Marcos, CA) is President of the Senalosa Group, a consulting firm exclusively dedicated to helping businesses get best-in-class performance. He is the author of two successful books, Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step (0-471-07872-7) and Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies (0-471-42328-9), both from Wiley.
Download Description
The complete guide to analyzing and maximizing a company's balanced scorecard Presenting the next step for balanced scorecard implementation, Balanced Scorecard Diagnostics provides a step-by-step methodology for analyzing the effectiveness of a company's balanced scorecard and the tools to reevaluate balanced scorecard measures to drive maximum performance. CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, vice presidents, department managers, and business consultants will find all the essential tools for analyzing a balanced scorecard methodology to determine if it's running at maximum performance and for seamlessly implementing changes into the scorecard. Paul R. Niven (San Marcos, CA) is President of the Senalosa Group, a consulting firm exclusively dedicated to helping businesses get best-in-class performance. He is the author of two successful books, Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step (0-471-07872-7) and Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies (0-471-42328-9), both from Wiley.
Customer Reviews:
Why Scorecards don't work - and how to solve it.......2005-10-06
Why do as many as half of all balanced scorecard users not achieve the results they hoped for? Doesn't the balanced scorecard work in practice?
David Niven is an expert on Balanced Scorecard and his first book was an easy-to-read, well-structured manual of how to make scorecards work: "Balanced scorecard - step-by-step" (2002). It bridged the gap between practice and theory - especially for newcomers to the concept.
In this new book, Niven tries to bridge another emerging gap. It is the gap between those questioning the usefulness of balanced scorecard, based on the many unsuccessful implementation attempts, and what people like Niven (and I) believe to be reality: that the scorecard framework remains sound, but must be instituted with rigor and discipline if you expect to get results.
Why aren't many scorecard users happy?
Niven believes that the trouble lies in the methods used to implement the Balanced Scorecard. Many firms have been lured by the seductive simplicity of the scorecard model, believing it could be easily implemented and produce results with a minimum of care and feeding. According to Niven, troubled implementations stem from many sources, e.g.
- A lack of executive sponsorship to reinforce the Scorecard's value within the organization,
- Tired [lagging] metrics reflecting the past with no regard to the drivers of future success, and
- Management systems that continue to reward unbalanced, largely financial, performance
How do we solve it?
Niven's approach is basically to put Kaplan and Norton's five principles of the "Strategy-Focused Organization" (2001) into a more practical approach. The messages, obviously, are the same. But Niven manages to make it easier to comprehend. And he challenges the reader throughout the book. The diagnostics dimension of the book is furthermore incorporated at the end of each of the nine chapters where we find self-assessment questions.
This week I went to a conference in Copenhagen where Harvard-professor Robert Kaplan spoke about the balanced scorecard. Kaplan, being one of the inventors, acknowledged that too many balanced scorecards did not succeed. It is a paradox, since the balanced scorecard was incepted to overcome to problem that strategies weren't properly implemented. But if the system (or scorecard) to finally make the strategy implementation work doesn't work either, then we're in real trouble. So is the concept, of course.
Kaplan's suggestion to make a successful implementation of the scorecard is - like Niven's - to view it as a change project. The change programme goes thru three phases: mobilization (unfreezing), alignment (change), and sustainment (re-freezing). Kaplan specified the details as described below:
1st phase: MOBILIZATION ("the case for change"):
Principle: #1 Mobilize change thru Executive leadership
Leadership objective: Achieve commitment at the top, build the executive team, and build the case for change
Core competency: The catalyst's role is to be a missionary. The action list includes to advocate, to educate, and to sell a new way of managing.
Management role: Executive education (the need for strategic execution) via conferences, in-house workshops, and readings.
2nd phase: ALIGNMENT ("early wins")
Principle: #2 translate the strategy into action, #3 align the organization.
Leadership objective: Define and clarify the strategy, specify long-term targets, and communicate to workforce
Core competency: The project team's role is as consultant and change agent. The action list includes to design strategy maps, to design scorecards/targets, to create alignment/cascade, and to overcome resistance.
Management role: Strategy maps, balanced scorecards, First Report, Link business and support groups to the strategy, and to rationalize initiatives
3rd phase: SUSTAINMENT ("irreversible momentum")
Principle: #4 Motivate the staff, #5 Govern the Organization
Leadership objective: Reinforce strategic message: Employees follow the leader, Enforce a performance-based culture: get results, and Lead the new management meeting
Core competency: The office of strategy management's role is to be the "chief of staff" (like in the military and government). The action list includes to install accountability, to shape the executive agenda, and to integrate governance.
Management role: Scorecard reporting system, HR processes aligned, Accountability and rewards aligned, and meetings focused on scorecard objectives and measures.
If you're interested in Balanced Scorecard, you should obviously read the original work by Kaplan and Norton. But I also recommend a very capable book by the Swedes Olve et al (2003) - "Making Scorecards Actionable: Balancing Strategy and Control" - that also focuses on why balanced scorecards go wrong - and what to do about it.
If you're even more interested in performance measurement systems, then do also consider "Performance Prism" by Neely et al (2002) that takes performance systems to the next level. Personally, I don't believe they've designed balanced scorecard's successor, but they have many interesting perspectives on stakeholders, choice of measurements, and the relationship between cause and effect.
Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business
Product Description
Two fundamentally different business models of capitalism are operating in the business world today. One is self-destructive and increasingly corrupt. The other is emergent, flourishing, and inspirational. The author explains the differences between the two and reveals the extraordinary results of the more successful model. Profit for Life draws on nearly forty years of research on the empirical connections between stewardship and profitability.
Customer Reviews:
Review of Profit for Life: How Capitalism Excels by Joseph H. Bragdon.......2007-04-08
Profit for Life shatters the old paradigm that success in business means sucking the life from people and natural resources by viewing both as dispensable commodities. By showing us how success in business--including big business--goes hand-in-hand with respect for human and natural communities, Bragdon frees us from the wrenching misconception that profit and citizenship represent a kind of zero-sum game.
Bragdon unites head and heart in one of the most uplifting books I have ever read. Profit for Life offers hope with a firm footing. I recommend Profit for Life to anyone with an interest in business management, strategic investment, or corporate citizenship.
Daniel D. Dutcher, J.D., Ph.D.
Project Director
The Clean Energy Group
Montpelier, Vermont
Book Review for Profit for Life: How Capitalism Excels.......2007-01-31
Book Review for Profit for Life: How Capitalism Excels
by Ann McGee-Cooper
How do you measure the value of servant leadership in business? How can we know it works? These have been two of the most frequently asked questions in our consulting practice over the past 30 years.
In Profit for Life, Jay Bragdon provides us with some compelling answers. He does this by setting aside much of the linear cause-and-effect thinking that drives business these days, and adopts a more rounded, holistic approach that gives us deeper insight into the firm.
The book is based on the experiences of 60 companies - Bragdon's "learning lab" - that broadly represent the industry/sector diversity of the world economy. Throughout the text he describes 16 of these pioneering companies, called the Focus Group. The distinguishing feature of all these firms is their effort to mimic living systems - in the ways they organize, manage and add value. This mental model is radically different from the traditional one that views the firm as a money making machine.
Although it may seem counter intuitive, the living system approach yields vastly superior results than the traditional one. For example, the average equity return of learning lab companies was nearly double the S&P 500 over the past decade; and their excess performance continues as this review is written. Bragdon expects such premium returns will diminish over time as the more effective methods of the living system model become copied and enter the mainstream. Nevertheless, these results are a strong affirmation of the milieu in which servant leadership normally operates.
Servant leadership, to Bragdon, is all about relationships. He says "relational equity" is the foundation on which companies build financial equity. When companies care about people and the things people care about, Employees become inspired and their inspiration cascades into everything they do, including their relationships with customers, suppliers and other key stakeholders.
The raison d'etre of these servant-led firms is value creation - value that permeates all relationships. Companies that excel at such value creation pursue a strategy Bragdon calls "living asset stewardship" (LAS). The fundamental premise of LAS is: Profit arises from life, and must therefore serve life if it is to be sustainable.
To understand the strategic value of living asset stewardship, Bragdon makes a critical distinction between living assets (people and Nature) and non-living capital assets (buildings, equipment and financial reserves). We see this in three contexts. First, people are closely bonded to Nature - genetically, physically and spiritually - in ways that capital assets are not. Second, living assets are the source of non-living capital assets. And third, because living assets are inherently creative and emergent, their value grows over time rather than depreciating as capital assets do.
The operating leverage in the learning lab and the 16 Focus Group companies resides in the human heart rather than in mechanistic financial gearing. This is supported by the fact that they generate consistently higher returns on equity while carrying substantially lower debt ratios.
Although traditionally managed companies have been adopting some stewardship practices in the past decade, Bragdon finds their approach differs fundamentally from those in his study. In the mechanistic view of these firms, stewardship is an add-on that is subservient to their drive for profit. By contrast, in companies that have adopted the living system model, LAS is deeply woven into the value creation process - reflecting the fact that they see themselves as "living" and therefore integral to, rather than separate from, Nature and society.
Profit for Life builds on the brilliant work of Arie deGeus, former coordinator of Group Planning at Royal Dutch/Shell, and Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson. DeGeus' classic, The Living Company, noted that long-lived companies had a collective consciousness, were sensitive to their environments, tried to work in harmony with the world around them, and strove to leave a legacy to future generations. Wilson tells us this collective consciousness is an expression of humanity's deep affinity for life, which he calls "biophilia," and that our biophilic instincts have evolved over thousands of generations of natural selection.
In my work as a teacher of servant leadership, I would highlight the paradigm shift Bragdon describes. The mission of leaders in LAS organizations is to serve and grow their people because that is the source of the firm's liveliness and capacity for growth. As Robert K. Greenleaf said: "The first order of business is to build a group of people who, under the influence of the institution, grow taller and become healthier, stronger and more autonomous." That seminal quote is used twice in the book to describe the power and generative capacity of LAS.
I highly recommend this book and will be using it regularly in our practice.
Ann McGee-Cooper, Ed.D., Business Consultant & Executive coach
in the field of Servant Leadership & growing Learning Organization.
Ann McGee-Cooper & Associates, Inc.
An Extraordinary Book: A Must Read.......2006-11-26
I intend to recommend Profit for Life to all my current MBA students. Next fall I am team teaching an MBA core course that combines Operations Management and Managerial Accounting. I intend to make the case that your book should be required reading and part of the course.
I became familiar with the work of W. Edwards Deming in 1990 and attended one of his four day seminars a year later. I also began to follow Peter Senge's work and later read Margaret Wheatley's book, Leadership and the New Science. Tom Johnson's book, Profit Beyond Measure, has been required reading in my Advanced Managerial Accounting elective at the MBA level.
Bragdon's book has brought the ideas, theories, and concepts discussed by these individuals together for me in a way that I could not have imagined. More importantly, he has not only taken their ideas to the next level, but done it in a way that provides a tangible blue print for how to change our current style of command and control management with its focus on profit maximization to a LAS Theory of Management.
The use of the sixteen focus companies from the LAMP INDEX and the author's ability ability to clearly show the distinctions in their style of management from the traditional management models that continue to be taught in almost all business schools, and the success these companies have achieved not just financially, gives those of us hoping to change management education and core business curriculums a new hope.
Thank you for such an outstanding book.
Joseph F. Castellano
Professor, Department of Accounting
University of Dayton Business School
Excellent, highly readable information.......2006-11-18
This is not one of those lightweight business books that repeats its Chapter 1 message over and over. It's chock full of research-based information that anyone involved in the sustainability movement should have. The publisher is Peter Senge's non-profit, so if you're familiar with his excellent work over the years, this would make a great addition to your library. The author's passion for his subject is obvious from page one.
Book Description
The goals of an IT balanced scorecard include the alignment of IT plans with business objectives, the establishment of measures of IT effectiveness, the directing of employee efforts toward IT objectives, the improved performance of technology, and the achievement of balanced results across stakeholder groups. CIOs, CTOs, and other technical managers can achieve these goals by considering multiple perspectives, long- and short-term objectives, and how the IT scorecard is linked to other scorecards throughout their organizations. Implementing the IT Balanced Scorecard: Aligning IT with Corporate Strategy lays the groundwork for implementing the scorecard approach, and successfully integrating it with corporate strategy. This volume thoroughly explains the concept of the scorecard framework from both the corporate and IT perspectives. It provides examples, case histories, and current research for critical issues such as performance measurement and management, continuous process improvement, benchmarking, metrics selection, and people management. The book also discusses how to integrate these issues with the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard: customer, business processes, learning, and innovation and financial.
Customer Reviews:
Just what I needed.......2006-01-30
I was looking for a book to assist in implementing the scorecard approach in my IT shop. Most books on the subject were too generic - too focused on business and not on IT. The Keyes book is very specific to IT. It thoroughly explained the topic and was loaded with useful measures I could use right away.
Good book for IT folks.......2005-07-14
This book cuts through the hype about this process and makes it very understandable to IT people. I'd recommend it highly.
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