Balanced Scorecards have been in use for sometime now and are hailed as a revolutionary performance management as well as strategic planning and management system designed to bring about better alignment and results for the organization. A balanced scorecard looks at a dashboard of performance measures, which is holistic and more comprehensive than just measuring success and results in the marketplace. Dr Robert Kaplan and Dr David Norton have been hailed as the architects of the Balanced Scorecard system that is creating waves across the corporate world in the US and around the globe. A lot of companies have been able to totally re-engineer their management processes and perspective on the strength of this management mantra with a difference.

The basic tenets of the balanced scorecard are that one must look at the organization from the 4 basic perspectives or pillars that define the essence of the scorecard. For one, the company has to look at the financial aspect, which is important as every company exists with some financial objective. The second aspect that has to be looked into includes the robust and well thought internal processes which the company needs to adopt in order to ensure that these processes complement and are well aligned with the overall strategy and the vision that the company aspires for. Attention to the customer is the third cog that needs to be considered as customer delight is the key vehicle for achieving corporate objectives and achieving success. The fourth aspect is learning and growth that look at the human aspect of the organization in terms of revitalization, changes in the management and future readiness of the corporation.

In order to implement a balanced scorecard, a company should start at the very beginning in terms of looking at the goals and vision, as well as the strategy that form the bedrock upon which the superstructure of the success of a company is built. Once this is clear and unequivocally articulated, the company can go about laying down specific objectives that will complement the overall strategy at the marketplace. These objectives are aligned to the overall vision, yet expressed in terms of the 4 broad areas of the balanced scorecard as mentioned above. After this is done and articulated, there is a need to specify the metrics or performance measures against objective so that these can be calculated more objectively and clearly. The last step is to ensure that there are adequate structures and delivery mechanisms that will help to implement the balanced scorecard effectively.