Successful
strategy formulation is more than defining a competitive position
that will produce advantage. It involves creating and communicating
a compelling vision of the future development of the organization
that will challenge everyone to achieve new levels of performance.
However, visions
are ethereal. They are hard to translate into concrete actions.
Therefore, they are easy to avoid using. They will begin with
words and end with words unless they lead to specific actions.
If your company's strategy does not produce the actions required,
the strategic position your managers seek cannot be achieved.
What is needed
is a new language that will operationalize the vision and provide
specific measurable indicators and targeted levels of performance
that reflect the dominant themes of your organization's strategy.
We use
an approach to performance measurement and management called the
Balanced Scorecard. Our approach is a structured and systematic
method for measuring and managing performance strategically. It
involves:
- Developing
a strategy map and the measurements related to the key drivers
that define your company's unique value proposition and the
factors that will create shareholder value. This will lead to
creating a high-performance work force by
- describing the means how you will get from "here"
to "there".
- demonstrating a linear relationship between cause and effect
- translating the strategy into operational excellence
- Defining
the linkages and integration necessary for enhancing the drivers
of organizational performance. Companies are traditionally organized
around functional specialties. Each function has its own language,
knowledge base, culture and priorities. Functional silos become
a major barrier for implementation and coordination of strategies.
Without a systematic methodology coordination of effort rarely
occurs. Gridlock in relationships among the interlocking functions
with every department inclined to do their own thing is the
more typical scenario. Lacking clarity different groups tend
to pursue different agendas according to their own interpretation
of vision and strategy. Strategy maps identify the strategic
themes and priorities that enable a consistent message of performance
expectations to be communicated across diverse units
- Measurements
define the pace and degree of change needed and are used as
the mechanism for operational planning, process improvement,
accountability and incentive compensation
- Measurements
are used to continuously review performance of the key drivers
for business success, initiate a process for learning, and adapt
strategies and plans on an ongoing basis
How do
you get started on the Balanced Scorecard?
One way is
to bring our consultants to you, on-site and in-house at your
own location! We will provide you and your team the knowledge
and skills necessary to develop and implement the methodology
in your own organization. We will do this through a series of
seminars and work shops customized to your needs in your environment.
You will use our proprietary tool kit for creating the scorecard
that dramatically streamlines the process and accelerates the
implementation of the program.
Another alternative
is the Balanced Scorecard Education Seminar. This is a one day
session for your executive leadership team. The seminar fully
describes the Balanced Scorecard concepts and approach to management.
This seminar is targeted for companies that are considering launching
a Balanced Scorecard initiative in their organization.
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