The Balanced Scorecard (doc 44页)

The Balanced Scorecard Intorduction:
    finished product, the strategic plan, has not communicated and reached the end user. Sure strategic plans are nice to look at, full of bar charts, nice covers, well written, and professionally prepared; but they simply have not impacted the people who must execute the strategic plan. The end result has been poor execution of the strategic plan throughout the entire organization. And the sad fact of the matter is that execution of the strategic plan is everybody’s business, not just upper level management. Upper level management creates the strategy, but execution takes place from the bottom up. So why do strategic plans fail? According to the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative, there are four barriers to strategic implementation。
    Therefore, we need a new way of communicating strategy to the end-user. Enter the Balanced Scorecard. At long last, strategic planners now have a crisp and clear way of communicating strategy. With balanced scorecards, strategy reaches everyone in a language that makes sense. When strategy is expressed in terms of measurements and targets, the employee can relate to what must happen. This leads to much better execution of strategy. Not only does the Balanced Scorecard transform how the strategic plan is expressed, but it also pulls everything together. This is the so-called “cause and effect” relationship or linking of all elements together. For example, if you want strong financial results, you must have great customer service. If you want great customer service, you must have excellent processes in place (such as Customer Relations Management). If you want great processes, you must have the right people, knowledge, and systems (intellectual capital). In the past, many components for implementing a strategic plan have been managed separately, not collectively within one overall management system. As a result, everything has moved in different directions, leading to poor execution of the strategic plan. Like a marching band, everyone needs to move in lockstep behind one overall strategy.  
    Therefore, you should think of the Balanced Scorecard as a management system, not just another performance measurement program. And since strategy is at the center of value-creation for the organization, the Balanced Scorecard has become a critical management system for any organization. In 1997, Harvard Business Review called the Balanced Scorecard one of the most significant business developments of the previous 75 years.
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