Balanced
Scorecard How To
Balanced
Scorecard How to create: You have to identify a vision. Where is the
organization going? By identifying strategies you learn about how
you will get there. Define Critical Success Factors and
perspectives, which mean you have to ask what we have to do well in
each perspective. Thereafter ask how do we measure that everything
is going the expected way? Then it is necessary think about
evaluating your Scorecard. Consider how do we ensure that we are
measuring the right things? Based on this work you should create
action plans and plan reporting and operation of the Scorecard.
Building a
Balanced Scorecard How To make it work: While there is no single
formula for building a successful balanced scorecard, there are
several necessary steps and precautions for higher education
institutions to take.
Balanced
Scorecard How to define the scope of the business area for which the
balanced scorecard will be used: its mission, core products and
services and primary customers. Identify the business units
responsible for delivering these products and services, and involve
them in the effort, even if they are located in other parts of the
organizational structure. Engage the management with direct
responsibility for the functions and processes being
measured.
Involve the
senior management of the institution/department by first presenting
the balanced scorecard concept and articulating the benefits of a
vision-driven approach to performance measurement. Define a
continuing sponsorship role for the senior management team that will
span the duration of the creation of the balanced
scorecard.
During Balanced
Scorecard How to, engage the senior management of the institution or
department in the process of creating the vision and strategic
goals, which provide the necessary context for assessing
performance. Balance the institution’s typical requirement for broad
participation, consultation and consensus with the need to identify
future direction and strategy. Seek input from key stakeholders and
customers during the process of building the balanced scorecard to
ensure that the view that emerges reflects their needs and
expectations for performance.
Involve
department management in both: developing long term goals for their
departmental operations and selecting the measures of performance to
track progress in attaining these goals over time. Recognize that
empowering business unit managers to identify the right performance
indicators for their business area is key to gaining their support
and buy-in. Provide training in strategic thinking and in developing
performance measures to all team
members.
Similarly,
during the process of Balanced Scorecard How to, identify what kinds
of measures are appropriate for different levels of reporting. At
the Board of Trustees/Regents level of reporting, at a maximum,
three to four indicators of performance in each balanced scorecard
category suffice to communicate the message. The operational level
requires more information and greater detail. Measures proposed
during the building of the balanced scorecard should therefore be
sorted, weighted and prioritized. For every performance measure
selected, you should know what information will be produced, why it
is valuable and to whom. Ultimately, you need to know what actions
you can take based on this information. To start with, focus on the
few critical measures that will tell you what you most need to know.
Then, expand and refine your measures over
time.
Define clear
ownership of the process of maintaining the scorecard as well as
collecting and analyzing the data. In the university world of
“shadow” computer systems, duplicate databases and
inconsistent/incompatible data, the task of linking the measures to
databases and information systems is a challenging one. This becomes
easier when the data sources for measurements are clearly
identified.
