The Benefits of a Balanced Scorecard Summit

Jan 1
12:41

2009

Sam Miller

Sam Miller

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

A balanced scorecard summit is the fastest way to come up with a well balance scorecard for a company or an industry.

mediaimage
Almost every company or industry in our society is developing balanced scorecards in order to get a clearer picture of their respective performance. The managerial level also depends on these metrics to help them decide on what course of action they should lead their company. However,The Benefits of a Balanced Scorecard Summit Articles formulating a well balanced scorecard for a company is not an easy task. Each department will have their own agendas and interests. Although the ideal situation is that every department should work together, it is not always so. Each department will do its very best to come up with scorecards relative to its own scope. They unconsciously disregard the performance indicators of other departments. A solution to this particular dilemma is a balanced scorecard summit.

In an ideal situation, a company should have a clearly defined strategy in achieving its goals. This single strategy is taken from the collective wisdom of all departments. This strategy is embodied in one clear and concise balanced scorecard. Also, in a perfect organization, everyone knows what the scorecard is all about and they all strive to achieve to hit that metrics. Unfortunately, this particular situation is unrealistic. Reality is that most people are so focused on their own work and departments that they fail to figure out if their collective endeavors would bring their company success and profitability. The only solution is an actual brainstorming and such is the purpose of a summit.

Many companies nowadays are organizing such summits annually in order to achieve uniformity in their balanced scorecard. Some even try to organize these summits every quarter. They do this because they are very aware that each department will have its own version of the company’s metrics. They are also aware of the fact that these scorecards are not applicable to other departments and vice versa. This will definitely create confusion and chaos.

Conducting such a meeting is very difficult. If your company is big, then the sheer number of the departments involved will be an added problem to tackle. Consolidating and summarizing each and every department’s performance indicator will involve a lot of adjustments and compromises. Sufficient time must be allotted in order to better facilitate the consolidation of all performance indicators submitted. Another factor to consider is the tendency of each department to passionately push for their formulated metrics to dominate the scorecard of the company. They usually do this to gain advantage in terms of hitting the scorecards easily since their scorecard is specifically tailored for them. A way around this potential problem is to remind each department that they belong to a team, and that they are not separate entities. Once all of these factors are considered and ironed out, the path to a well balanced scorecard for the whole company will be much smoother.

It is very obvious that a company must conduct a balanced scorecard summit for it to survive and grow. Uniformity is one of the factors of success. Everybody must also agree that the scorecard must not benefit only a few departments but everybody as well. After all, a boat cannot go anywhere if the rowers are not working together.