The Balanced Scorecard. A Critique


Book Description

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1.0, Anglia Ruskin University, language: English, abstract: In today’s business environment measuring business performance is a matter of life and death within any organisation (compare Ittner and Larcker, 1998). Due to the changing nature of work and increasing competition with changing demands (Neely, 1999) the number of people interested in business performance measurement has recently increased dramatically. But business performance measurement is confronted with a vital choice what system the company should use to quantify the success of the organisation’s strategy. In this context the Balanced Scorecard(Kaplan and Norton, 1992, 1996) is almost used as a synonym for measuring Business Performance Measurement (BPM). With this in mind, the following dissertation aims at a critical exploration and assessment of the framework of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and it examines if this framework merits its wide popularity experienced and still experiences. Following a definition of the BSC, the author turns to the elements of the BSC with its key proclamations. Strengths and weaknesses will be outlined by considering different case scenarios. The main attention will be put on the question whether the BSC leads to better business results, as it is publicized, or if its wide use is only an outcome of its effective promotion. Before the analysis comes to an ending in which it summarises the key points, the author suggests some recommendations for organisations when using the BSC, in order to meet its problem areas. In this context the author’s personal view will be flowing in.




Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step


Book Description

This book explains how an organization can measure and manage performance with the Balanced Scorecard methodology. It provides extensive background on performance management and the Balanced Scorecard, and focuses on guiding a team through the step-by-step development and ongoing implementation of a Balanced Scorecard system. Corporations, public sector agencies, and not for profit organizations have all reaped success from the Balanced Scorecard. This book supplies detailed implementation advice that is readily applied to any and all of these organization types. Additionally, it will benefit organizations at any stage of Balanced Scorecard development. Regardless of whether you are just contemplating a Balanced Scorecard, require assistance in linking their current Scorecard to management processes, or need a review of their past measurement efforts, Balanced Scorecard Step by Step provides detailed advice and proven solutions.




The Performance Prism


Book Description

The Performance Prism takes a radically different look at performance measurement, and sets out explicitly to identify how managers can use measurement data to improve business performance.




Summary: The Balanced Scorecard


Book Description

The must-read summary of Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton's book: "The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action". This complete summary of the ideas from Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton's book "The Balanced Scorecard" shows that the Balanced Scorecard is a new business management system which links the achievement of long-term strategic goals with day to day operational requirements. It combines traditional financial measures of success (which are lagging indicators because they always measure past performance) with initiatives designed to generate business in the future (represented by leading indicators). In their book, the authors explain how you can build a Balanced Scorecard and how you can use it as a strategic management system. This summary provides all the tools you need to create a Balanced Scorecard and turn your strategy into concrete action. Added-value of this summary: - Save time - Understand key concepts - Expand your knowledge To learn more, read "The Balanced Scorecard" and discover the revolutionary tool that will change the way you measure and manage your business.




The Balanced Scorecard


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.




The HR Scorecard


Book Description

Three experts in Human Resources introduce a measurement system that convincingly showcases how HR impacts business performance. Drawing from the authors' ongoing study of nearly 3,000 firms, this book describes a seven-step process for embedding HR systems within the firm's overall strategy--what the authors describe as an HR Scorecard--and measuring its activities in terms that line managers and CEOs will find compelling. Analyzing how each element of the HR system can be designed to enhance firm performance and maximize the overall quality of human capital, this important book heralds the emergence of HR as a strategic powerhouse in today's organizations.




Review of Management Accounting Research


Book Description

A comprehensive review of contemporary research in management accounting. Provides a thorough critical analysis of recent issues published in the management accounting literature and identifies gaps for future research in each issue reviewed.




Rethinking Performance Measurement


Book Description

Performance measurement remains a vexing problem for business firms and other kinds of organisations. This book explains why: the performance we want to measure (long-term cash flows, long-term viability) and the performance we can measure (current cash flows, customer satisfaction, etc.) are not the same. The 'balanced scorecard', which has been widely adopted by US firms, does not solve these underlying problems of performance measurement and may exacerbate them because it provides no guidance on how to combine dissimilar measures into an overall appraisal of performance. A measurement technique called activity-based profitability analysis (ABPA) is suggested as a partial solution, especially to the problem of combining dissimilar measures. ABPA estimates the revenue consequences of each activity performed for the customer, allowing firms to compare revenues with costs for these activities and hence to discriminate between activities that are ultimately profitable and those that are not.




Beyond Performance Management


Book Description

There’s a bewildering array of management tools out there. And they all promise to help you excel at the toughest parts of your job: defining your organization’s strategic direction, managing customers and costs, and boosting workforce performance. But just 30 percent of these tools deliver as intended. Why? As Jeremy Hope and Steve Player reveal in Beyond Performance Management, while many tools are sound in theory, they’re misused by most organizations. For example, executives buy and implement a tool without first asking, “What problem are we trying to solve?” And they use tools to command and control frontline teams, not empower them—a serious and costly mistake. In this eminently useful, clear-eyed book, the authors critically review dozens of well-known management tools—from mission statements, balanced scorecards, and rolling forecasts to key performance indicators, Six Sigma, and performance appraisals. They explain how to select the right tools for your organization, how to implement them correctly, and how to extract maximum value from each. Brimming with rigorous analysis and solid advice, Beyond Performance Management helps you swiftly gauge the value of each management tool, as well as navigate the increasingly crowded field of offerings—so the tools you select deliver fully on their promise.




The Strategy-focused Organization


Book Description

A Powerful New Approach to Performance Management from the Creators of the Balanced Scorecard 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 and T Canada-Kaplan and Norton illustrate how Balanced Scorecard adopters have taken their ground-breaking 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.