David P. Norton’s research while affiliated with Lincoln College and other places

The balanced scorecard, originally designed as a measurement system, has evolved into a comprehensive process to manage the execution of an organization’s strategy. The framework uses measures to translate the strategic objectives into targets and initiatives while the management system creates focus, alignment and leadership. It is estimated that 70% of organizations use the balanced scorecard approach to management.

The balanced scorecard, originally designed as a measurement system, has evolved into a comprehensive process to manage the execution of an organization’s strategy. The framework uses measures to translate the strategic objectives into targets and initiatives while the management system creates focus, alignment and leadership. It is estimated that 70 % of organizations use the balanced scorecard approach to management.

Traducción de: The Balanced Scorecard. Translating Strategy into Action.

Too often, long-term strategic programs fall victim to slash-and-burn cutbacks in response to short-term economic woes. To sustain your competitive advantage, segregate and protect your strategic expenditures from traditional capital and operational expenditures, and root out operational inefficiencies.

Companies have always found it hard to balance pressing operational concerns with long-term strategic priorities. The tension is critical: World-class processes won't lead to success without the right strategic direction, and the best strategy in the world will get nowhere without strong operations to execute it. In this article, Kaplan, of Harvard Business School, and Norton, founder and director of the Palladium Group, explain how to effectively manage both strategy and operations by linking them tightly in a closed-loop management system. The system comprises five stages, beginning with strategy development, which springs from a company's mission, vision, and value statements, and from an analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, and competitive environment. In the next stage, managers translate the strategy into objectives and initiatives with strategy maps, which organize objectives by themes, and balanced scorecards, which link objectives to performance metrics. Stage three involves creating an operational plan to accomplish the objectives and initiatives; it includes targeting process improvements and preparing sales, resource, and capacity plans and dynamic budgets. Managers then put plans into action, monitoring their effectiveness in stage four. They review operational, environmental, and competitive data; assess progress; and identify barriers to execution. In the final stage, they test the strategy, analyzing cost, profitability, and correlations between strategy and performance. If their underlying assumptions appear faulty, they update the strategy, beginning another loop. The authors present not only a comprehensive blueprint for successful strategy execution but also a managerial tool kit, illustrated with examples from HSBC Rail, Cigna Property and Casualty, and Store 24. The kit incorporates leading management experts' frameworks, outlining where they fit into the management cycle.

01 La estrategia del océano azul (W. Chan Kim y Renée Mauborgne)backslashn10 Propósito estratégico (Gary Hamel y C. K. Prahalad)backslashn25 Estrategias regionales para el liderazgo global (Pankaj Ghemawat)backslashn37 Usar el Balanced Scorecard como un sistema de gestión estratégica (Robert S. Kaplan y David P. Norton)backslashn48 La ventaja competitiva de las naciones (Michael E. Porter)

The balanced scorecard revolutionized conventional thinking about performance metrics. When Kaplan and Norton first introduced the concept, in 1992, companies were busy transforming themselves to compete in the world of information; their ability to exploit intangible assets was becoming more decisive than their ability to manage physical assets. The scorecard allowed companies to track financial results while monitoring progress in building the capabilities needed for growth. The tool was not intended to be a replacement for financial measures but rather a complement - and that's just how most companies treated it. Some companies went a step further, however, and discovered the scorecard's value as the cornerstone of a new strategic management system. In this article from 1996, the authors describe how the balanced scorecard can address a serious deficiency in traditional management systems: the inability to link a company's long-term strategy with its short-term financial goals. The scorecard lets managers introduce four new processes that help companies make that important link, The first process - translating the vision - helps managers build a consensus concerning a company's strategy and express it in terms that can guide action at the local level. The second - communicating and linking - calls for communicating a strategy at all levels of the organization and linking it with unit and individual goals. The third - business planning - enables companies to integrate their business plans with their financial plans. The fourth - feedback and learning - gives companies the capacity for strategic learning, which consists of gathering feedback, testing the hypotheses on which a strategy is based, and making necessary adjustments.