Question

According to a consulting firm report - Bain and Company, Management Tools and Trends 2015, one of the top ten management tools implemented by companies was the Balanced Scorecard. Many surveyed companies (40%) have indicated that they are satisfied with using the Balanced Scorecard for strategic planning.

Explain the Balanced Scorecard and how the Balanced Scorecard can be used for strategic planning. Answer this question in 300 words. You must support your discussion by referring to 3 additional academic sources from ProQuest. Harvard Referencing is required and ensure that you reference the sources correctly.

Answer 1

The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a strategic planning and management system that organizations use to: Communicate what they are trying to accomplish. Align the day-to-day work that everyone is doing with strategy. Prioritize projects, products, and services. Measure and monitor progress towards strategic targets

Balanced scorecard is an example of a closed-loop controller or cybernetic control applied to the management of the implementation of a strategy. Closed-loop or cybernetic control is where actual performance is measured. The measured value is compared to a reference value and based on the difference between the two corrective interventions are made as required. Such control requires three things to be effective:

• a choice of data to measure,
• the setting of a reference value for the data,
• the ability to make a corrective intervention.

Within the strategy management context, all three of these characteristic closed-loop control elements need to be derived from the organisation's strategy and also need to reflect the ability of the observer to monitor performance and subsequently intervene – both of which may be constrained. Balanced Scorecard was initially proposed as a general purpose performance management system.Subsequently, it was promoted specifically as an approach to strategic performance management.Balanced scorecard has more recently become a key component of structured approaches corporate strategic management.

Two of the ideas that underpin modern balanced scorecard designs concern making it easier to select which data to observe, and ensuring that the choice of data is consistent with the ability of the observer to intervene.