The Efficient BSC for Management

It has long been realized that the BSC or the balanced scorecard makes a very good managerial tool because of the many purposes it fulfills and the roles it plays. BSC for management is indeed a good thing for companies to invest in. However, for the BSC to be a very worthy investment inside and out, there are certain questions that it would have to answer competently. These questions should be focused on three w-questions: What, Who, and When. These questions have to be asked by the BSC so that the data it gives – when analyzed and interpreted, of course – would be able to answer those same questions efficiently.

To make this clearer, let us say there is a manufacturing enterprise that has a plan to increase its potential market share within a period of, say, five years. In this case, members of top management would inevitably be tasked with developing the general strategies that the company itself would work out as well as the projections entailed in such strategies. The finer details of such strategies and projections would then be handled by the subordinates, obviously. However, this does not mean that the subordinates are not equipped to answer any of the following w-questions posed by top management. Nor does this mean that the subordinates themselves cannot pose such w-questions as well. The important thing to remember here is that the balanced scorecards of the top management may not be responsible for supplying the minute details for this falls on subordinates; however, these BSCs should still be meaty as to provide proper monitoring and further developments.

When the “what” question is answered, then the effective strategies that the company needs to undertake would be identified. Not only that, the activities entailed in such strategies would also be identified. This aspect is actually dependent on the company’s size. How deep the analysis of both the positive and the negative impacts that the strategies and activities would have on accomplishing the goal of market share increase would depend on the size of the company.

With the “what” question answered, it is time to move on to answering the “who”. When this question is answered, the proper authorities behind the accomplishment of the strategies and activities are identified. Each of the activities entailed in each of the strategies is then assigned to certain point persons or groups of persons. These people are then responsible for the implementation of such activities. Answering “who” is vital to foster cohesion in terms of actions. After all, there are so many people within a company so there just might be functions overlapping, and you would not want that.

Lastly, the “when” question is just about the easiest one to deal with – but is still critical all the same. Synchronization is very important when establishing timeframes for the strategies and activities to take place. By answering “when”, it would be easier for everyone in the company to perform actions that are cohesive all throughout.

The BSC for management is indeed a very important tool in any company. By answering these three questions, management will surely be more efficient altogether.