A Practitionerâs Guide to the Balanced Scorecard
4.4 Choosing the Implementation Team Once the champion has been selected, they will typically draw together a team to assist with the design and implementation stages of the Scorecard process. In many cases, a Scorecard system will involve people from different departments or functions within an organisation. It is important that all the diverse interests involved feel some sense of ownership for the project. A major pharmaceutical company took this approach: âWe set it up as a multi-functional team with a sponsor who actually is the Supply Chain and Manufacturing DirectorâŚright from the word go we wanted to make sure that the manufacturing and commercial people both had a stake in what we were doing âŚâ. As well as a careful blending of functional skills, such as IT and human resources, it is worthwhile considering the personalities of the team members. Personality profiling (such as the Belbin process) will assist the architect in constructing a well balanced team. 4.5 The Overall Scorecard Structure The next phase of the Scorecard process is for the overall structure of the Scorecard template to emerge from the teamâs deliberations. Research indicates that development teams do not need to be constrained by the template of the Scorecard as originally postulated. Whilst the Kaplan and Norton Scorecard process evolved around their four quadrants, many of the UK organisations used a different number of perspectives. This is highlighted in the survey results shown in Figure 6, opposite.
Figure 6: Conformance with the Generic Scorecard Design How closely does the design of your performance management system conform to the Balanced Scorecard as defined by Kaplan and Norton? 12 % of organisations surveyed
4.3 A Scorecard Champion Research indicates the importance of appointing a âchampionâ or sponsor for the Scorecard process to act in the role of architect, and to lead the organisation through the implementation phase. Whilst it is not necessary for the architect to be a member of the top team, research has shown that this is a pivotal role requiring a strong and influential leader who can influence all levels in the organisation.
10 8 6 4 2 0 0 1 Different
2
3
4
5
6
7 Same
4.6 Quadrants The most common deviation from the generic model is the number of Scorecard perspectives (for example, quadrants) and their focus. Many public sector organisations remain, for example, uncomfortable with the enduring prominence given to financial performance measures and commentators have suggested alternative designs that such organisations might be more comfortable with (Olve et al, 2000).
23