An approach to the provision of information to the management to assist with strategic policy formulation and achievement. It emphasizes the need to provide the user with a set of information which addresses all relevant areas of performance in an objective and unbiased fashion. The information provided may include both financial and non-financial elements and cover areas such as profitability, customer satisfaction, internal efficiency and innovation.’

The basic idea of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is to focus the organization on performance measures and implementing the current strategy. The BSC comprises measures from financial, customer, internal processes and learning and growth perspectives. The aim is to avoid focusing only on short term financial measures. The BSC enables managers to focus their efforts and to understand the links between the four key areas.

The BSC technique was developed by Kaplan and Norton (1992, 1996) to combine financial control measures with non-financial control measures. It is used for implementing the mission and objectives of an organization’s business strategy. The purpose of the BSC is to enable effective monitoring and control of the business.

Essentially, the BSC is a management system that enables an organization to identify and clarify its vision and strategy, and translate them into action. It provides feedback around both the internal business processes and external outcomes to improve continuously strategic performance and results.

Balanced Scorecard quadrants

The Balanced Scorecard consists of four interrelated quadrants, each containing measures for a distinct perspective. These perspectives are:

• financial
• customer
• internal processes
• learning and growth.

These four perspectives are designed to cover the whole of the organization’s activities, both internally and externally, current and future.

The BSC can be used in assisting the implementation of an organization’s strategy. The process of developing the measures will make managers more aware of how their work fits in with the strategy of the business. Managers should receive regular reports of their performance against the BSC measures relevant to their area of work. Strategic level management should receive regular information on the organization’s overall performance of BSC measures. This is to monitor whether the chosen strategy is being achieved and to take appropriate action when necessary. Outside stakeholders could also have access to BSC measures to help them form a fuller understanding of the organization’s objectives.

The BSC can be used in assisting the implementation of an organization’s strategy. The process of developing the measures will make managers more aware of how their work fits in with the strategy of the business. Managers should receive regular reports of their performance against the BSC measures relevant to their area of work. Strategic level management should receive regular information on the organization’s overall performance of BSC measures. This is to monitor whether the chosen strategy is being achieved and to take appropriate action when necessary. Outside stakeholders could also have access to BSC measures to help them form a fuller understanding of the organization’s objectives.