It Isn't Business as Usual - it is Balanced Scorecard based business

Balanced Scorecard, when you read all about it, seems to make a lot of sense. The process of developing a Balanced Scorecard is a process of introspection. What is your corporate vision, mission, and strategy seem on the surface to be simple ideas that you know the answers to already, and maybe you do, in the broadest sense. Balanced Scorecard is used to get below the outer layers of enterprise activities to determine not only what the highest level of vision, mission, and strategy are, but to bring these ideas down to the smallest group in the corporation, to give the individual a clear picture of his/her personal commitment to the individual level of vision, mission, and strategy.Digging that deep into corporate structure to redefine the values of every part of your organization is not only an exercise in introspection; it requires a dedication to the process of introspection to welcome analysis and change.As the balanced scorecard analysis devolves down to smaller groups within the corporation, the mission and strategy become specific enough to become action items which list intermediate [measurable] results which move on to further action items until the strategy completes.. The idea is that clarity of purpose and direction will lead to better results, and those will favorably influence the achievement of the corporate vision and mission.The temptation is, of course, to “reverse engineer” from results to goals, to mission, to strategy. This is not only self-defeating, but also is easily exposed in the next iteration of the process. The use of the balanced scorecard is deeply entrenched in the concept of reiteration of the process of analysis, action, metrics, and back to analysis. The analysis is not merely an analysis of methodology, but also an analysis of outcome. At the end of a cycle the twin questions of “Did we do well?” and “Did we do good?” need to be asked of the outcome, and the process. The cycle then begins anew as we return to the next actionable item in the unit of corporate strategy until it cycles back up to a higher level to devolve into a unit mission, and then to an actionable goal.There is great importance placed on outcome metrics in the total process of balanced scoreboard. We are constantly inspired to check our output to measure it in all of the terms and frameworks in which we are viewing the enterprise. By checking each event outcome, we can keep our corporate Vision and Mission on track. The balanced scorecard even tracks the metrics from several points of view: strategic, diagnostic, and quantitative, to mention just a few. The balanced approach is designed to keep the management of your enterprise on a straight and true track, and to identify new corporate goals, opportunities, and initiatives as soon as they arise. This is not to say that you would want to immediately jump into new opportunities, or set new goals, but rather that you become aware of these possibilities to keep the management nimble, and the enterprise ahead of the game.