The IQPC, in conjunction with Renaissance Solutions, Inc., delivered a power-packed conference on Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System. This conference was for organizations who are presently using a balanced scorecard to guide their strategic management practices, but representatives from several organizations who are just beginning the journey of building strategic management systems were also present and learned quite a bit from the stories of foibles and fortunes (literally) shared by companies using the balanced scorecard.

Overview

The balanced scorecard is a tool, similar to other business improvement tools or methodologies like reengineering, continuous improvement, total quality management and others. Except this tool focuses organizations on implementation of business strategy rather than how to redesign work processes. The "balance" comes from looking at the management/measurement system through four perspectives, (1) financial, (2) customer, (3) internal, and (4) learning and growth.

Whether your organization’s business strategy focuses on customer service, efficiency or research and development, the balanced scorecard tells the story of your strategy through focusing on performance measures that define what is important to your organization. For example, if your business strategy is to fulfill your mission as efficiently as possible, an objective in segment 2, the customer, might be to "increase customer satisfaction through superior execution" by focusing your customer satisfaction measures on fast, cheap service. And if your business strategy is excellent customer service, an objective in segment 3, internal, might be to "better understand your customer segments" through measuring the accuracy or completeness of those segments.

The balanced scorecard approach to management/measurement also helps agencies meet GPRA (or the Results Act) requirements through clearly linking an organization’s performance measures to each other, to its business strategies and directly to the customer. The IQPC’s next conference on March 19 - 20, titled Implementing the Balanced Scorecard in Government Agencies, will address how to use this tool as part of GPRA compliance.

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