Balanced Scorecard: Management Control System Essay

Balanced circuit card means different things to different people. At one extreme, measurement-based balanced plug-ins ar simple dashboards of performance measures sort into categories that are of interest primarily to an administrations managers and executives. Typical categories include monetary measures, and customer, process, and fundamental law capacity measures. Measurement-based scorecards almost always report on in operation(p) performance measures, and offer little strategical insight into the way an organization creates value for its customers and other stakeholders.At the other extreme, a strategic performance scorecard system is an organization-wide integrated strategic planning, concern and measurement system. Strategy-based scorecards align the work people do with corporate vision and strategy, and communicate strategic intent passim the organization. In other words, these systems incorporate the culture of the organization into the management system. In strat egy-based scorecards, performance measures are only one of several important components, and the measures are use to better inform decision making at all levels in the rganization.In strategy-based balanced scorecard systems, performance measures are the result of thinking intimately business strategy first, to measure progress toward goals. In strategy-based systems, the first question to answer is the strategic question Are we doing the right things? The operations, process, and tactical questions come later on Are we doing things right. Over the preceding(a) decade balanced scorecards have evolved from systems that simply measure performance to holistic strategic planning and management systems that overhaul manage and track strategy execution.Despite this ontogenesis, the majority of balanced scorecards that we have seen over the past 10 years use a just sanctify me the measures philosophy. These measure-centric dashboard scorecards are interesting, but not very robust an d not nearly as helpful as they could be. These scorecards remind me of the old Wendys commercialized Wheres the beef? Strategy-based scorecard systems, on the other hand, create a strategic thinking mentality in an organization, and can help lift the organization and its workforce to a higher, more performance-oriented way to think and work.Each organization is fantastic, and there is no one scorecard fits all solution. This article describes how to develop a strategy-based balanced scorecard system for engine room companies. Well share some lessons learned from developing strategic performance scorecard systems in dozens of businesses and industries over the past 10 years. The Balanced Scorecard as a Technology Companys Strategic Planning and Management arranging Technology family management teams are challenged by Rapidly shrinking product cycles Recruiting, retaining and rewarding engine room talent Making and communicating critical product development decisions Trackin g the evolution of customer feature demands and use models Disruptive, enabling technologies that can invalidate products or entire business models In addition, executives rarely communicate the strategic manner in which the business is being directed. The typical result is disagreement and misalignment in how these challenges are perceived and addressed throughout the company. Any technology company strategy postulate to embrace these challenges. Strategy is a companys go up to achieving its visionits the organizations game plan for success.One thing the technology companys strategy of necessity to define is how it will measure product planning and development success. Strategy needs to define how ideas are modern into opportunities. Passionate technology workers need to know why their ideas and views were embraced, delayed, or discarded. Strategy must describe the timing of such considerations, so that investments in programs underway are protected from an ill-timed innovation capturing the minds of employees. Similarly, programs that are off track need to sound alarms so that corrective action can be taken.Strategy needs to guide when and how to sound those alarms and ensure necessary corrections are taken. Strategy needs to dictate tracking customer feature evolution, and if the company wields the core technology its products need to be successful in the marketplace. Using a balanced scorecard as the strategic planning and management framework allows a company to deal with these and other issues that matter to creating value for customers and stakeholders, such as process efficiency, financial performance, and organizational capacity and readiness.Starting with a strategic view of how the organization creates value for customers, a scorecard system links strategy to what must be done operationally to be successful. Good scorecard systems focus on the critical few performance measures that provide real business intelligence and contribute to the achieve ment of operational excellence, employee excellence, and business success. But more important, these systems focus on the elements of strategy that can be made actionable strategic objectives that are the building blocks of strategy. Developing a Technology Company Balanced Scorecard SystemThe logic of building a scorecard system and using the system as the organizations strategic planning and management framework starts with an sense of the organizations customers and stakeholders, and their needs. The management team then develops and validates the strategic components of the management system. The components include mission, vision, core values, strategic perspectives (i. e. , performance dimensions), strategic themes and desired strategic results, strategic objectives, an organization-wide strategy map, performance measures and targets, and strategic initiatives aligned with the objectives.Strategy is the common thread through the scorecard system and forms the basis for commu nicating the organizations approach for gaining competitive advantage (for a business), or in the case of a public or non-profit organization, for improving mission efficaciousness for stakeholders. The finished strategy-based balanced scorecard system translates customer needs, mission, and values into organization goals, strategy, objectives, performance measures, and new initiatives.In a strategy-based scorecard system, strategy is analyzed through four performance dimensions (perspectives) financial (stewardship for government and non-profits), customer/stakeholder, business processes, and organization capacity. A key strategy development step is the creation of several high-level strategies (i. e. , strategic themes), associated strategic results, and strategic objectives for each theme. Strategic themes are aligned with the organizations vision and mission, and the themes strategic result describes a high-level outcome of successfully implementing the strategic theme.Usually three or four themes define the business strategy of the organization at a high level. Examples of strategic themes include Customer-Focused available Excellence, Market Driven Technological Excellence, Strategic Partnering, and Growth Through Innovation. Many other themes are possible, and the selection of vision and aligned strategic themes and results make for unique performance scorecard systems for different organizations. Another key development step is the creation of strategic objectives the DNA of strategy.Objectives are expressed as continuous emolument actions that can be documented, measured, and made actionable through initiatives and projects. Once developed, objectives are linked to form a strategy map. A strategy map shows diagrammatically how the organization creates value for customers, stakeholders, and employees. The strategy map is constructed by linking strategic objectives using cause and effect relationships. A strategy map is one of the most effective c ommunication tools an organization can use to build transparency, alignment, and a focus on results.