Blog: Craig Schiff

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Does the Balanced Scorecard Deliver Value?

Let me start by answering my own question: yes it does. The real question is - does it deliver enough value to justify its costs in time and resources and consulting dollars. As the KPI (key performance indicator) development practice has grown at BPM Partners I have seen numerous companies consider the Balanced Scorecard methodology. Many others have proceeded to develop KPIs without using this approach. Here's the thing that troubles me: those that have adopted the Balanced Scorecard methodology have taken much longer to reap the rewards. In at least one instance it has delayed the start of the project by a year - the customer in this case views it as a large undertaking and just hasn't had the bandwidth to focus on it, so nothing has happened. In that same time period many other customers who have chosen not to pursue the Balanced Scorecard approach have developed their KPIs, loaded up their dashboards with them , and now are running the business with a new focus on performance. Don't get me wrong, the Balanced Scorecard does many things right including getting you to balance your internal and external focus and looking at both leading and lagging indicators. However, with the appropriate knowledge and guidance you can do much of that without all the rigor and investment required. I'd be interested to hear from those of you that have implemented dashboards to learn whether or not you used the Balanced Scorecard approach, how long your project took, and how successful you feel it was in the end.

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