University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Performance Scorecards
Book

Performance Scorecards

Measuring the Right Things in the Real World

Mark W. Morgan and Richard Y. Chang
Jossey-Bass, 2000
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

This book presents a practical, clear solution to a common, critical business problem: how to track and improve employee performance without drowning in ’data smog.’ This clear, logical plan for developing and using "performance scorecards" is straightforward - though hardly easy - to implement. The book’s message is consistent: The scorecards are valuable and make the critical task of reducing performance measurements to simple, clear numbers less painful. Though the techniques presented are excellent, the book is burdened with a gimmicky style of fictitious narrative that on occasion gets in the way of the message. Despite any stylistic shortcomings, this book offers a lucid introduction to the popular performance scorecard methodology. getAbstract thinks anyone who wants to monitor performance and set effective improvement targets will find this technique worth considering. Just ignore the theatrics.

Summary

If you want to implement a scorecard system, getting started takes only a few days, and the whole process can be running in a few months. You may start to see results even while you’re working through the remaining phases. Senior management, managers, staff specialists, measurement personnel and specialists within the business unit should all be involved in the development process.

Phase 1: Collect Information

Gather information about your organization’s strategic goals, about the measurements that matter to your executives and about your business objectives. Follow these steps:

  1. Obtain "The Boss’s Scorecard" - Determine top-level objectives, targets and assessments. Your business strategies will define what you measure. Narrow the "measures" for each scorecard to a vital few. You want to end up watching fewer than 20 measurements.
  2. Identify your customers and their key requirements - Prioritize all the information you gather as a pyramid, with your customers’ needs and expectations at the top, your vision, mission, strategy and objectives in the center and your business processes at the base.
  3. Define your core...

About the Authors

Richard Y. Chang CEO of Richard Chang Associates, Inc., a consulting and training firm in Irvine, California, has consulted with many organizations, including Toshiba, Marriott, Citibank, Fidelity Investments and McDonald’s. Mark W. Morgan a senior consultant at Chang Associates, has consulted for numerous organizations, including Nortel Networks, Northrop Grumman, Nabisco, Hasbro, Ford, NASA and Lockheed Martin.

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