Cambridge Business Association
Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step
Book

Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step

Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results

Paul R. Niven
Wiley, 2002
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

In Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step, Paul R. Niven expands upon the balanced scorecard methodology he originally developed with Dave Norton 10 years earlier. Balanced Scorecard is designed to focus an entire organization on implementing and improving its strategy. In this book, Niven puts the Balanced Scorecard approach into practice, focusing on the details of implementation and the role of leadership in establishing and maintaining the program. getAbstract recommends this book for any executive looking for nuts-and-bolts knowledge about a performance measurement system that grew into a comprehensive management philosophy.

Summary

Balanced Scorecard: An Intro

Organizations face many barriers when it comes time to execute the strategy formed by their leaders. Among the most common impediments to strategic execution are these:

  • The vision barrier, which arises when most employees don’t understand the organization’s strategy;
  • The people barrier, which arises when only a small portion of management has incentives linked to strategy;
  • The management barrier, which arises because most executive teams spend only a small amount of time discussing strategy;
  • The resource barrier, which arises because a majority of organizations don’t link their budgets to their strategy.

You can overcome these barriers by using the Balanced Scorecard, which combines the historical accuracy of financial numbers with the drivers of future performance. The Balanced Scorecard was developed by Robert Kaplan, a professor at Harvard University, and David Norton, a consultant from Boston. They began developing the approach after they led a research study of a dozen companies exploring new methods of performance measure. They envisioned a system that would measure of a variety of activities...

About the Author

Paul R. Niven is a management consultant and noted speaker on the subjects of Performance Management and the Balanced Scorecard. As both a practitioner and consultant, he has developed successful Performance Management systems for large and small clients in a wide variety of organizations, including Fortune 1000 companies, public sector and not-for-profit companies.

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