2000 Regency Parkway, Suite 420
Cary, North Carolina 27518 USA
+1 919-460.8180 • balancedscorecard.org
Evaluation of a BSC
System and its
Implementation
The Balanced Scorecard Institute is often approached
by organizations that have implemented a balanced
scorecard system but are not achieving the results
they desire.
Once your scorecard is built and
implemented, how do you ensure its ongoing health
and effectiveness?
Evaluation will help you
determine how to make your existing scorecard
stronger, especially if you are not seeing the level of alignment or support from all areas or levels of the
organization that you expected, or if you are not achieving the results you desire on strategic
performance. We offer an Evaluation service to help organizations by assessing their scorecard system
and its implementation against best practices. If you’re scoring high against best practices, we’ll tell you; if
you could improve in some areas, we’ll recommend appropriate steps to improve the system and its
implementation.
There are two components of Evaluation: System Performance and Strategic Performance. System
Performance looks at the technical as well as the human behavior aspects of your system – the structure
of your balanced scorecard system. Strategic Performance evaluates strategic results as well as the
strategy itself – and takes you through the process to adjust your strategies and strategic focus, as
needed. The key questions addressed for each type of evaluation are:
System Performance
Technical
• How complete and effective is the structure of your balanced scorecard system?
• How well is your organization aligned around strategy? How is strategy communicated?
• Are the strategic objective measures and initiative tracking measures being used? How useful
is the information?
Behavioral
• How well do employees at all levels of the organization understand, embrace and execute your
strategy?
• What is the strategic maturity level of your organization?
Strategic Performance
• Did your strategy and the execution of your strategy work as planned? Did they yield the
anticipated results?
• How effective are your programs (products/projects/services) that are tied to your strategies,
as seen through our customers eyes (outcomes/results) and as seen through your eyes
(costs/revenues/process efficiency)?
• What adjustments should be made to your strategy for the upcoming planning cycle?
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2000 Regency Parkway, Suite 420
Cary, North Carolina 27518 USA
+1 919-460.8180 • balancedscorecard.org
System Performance Evaluation
We offer services to comprehensively evaluate both the technical and behavioral aspects of your system
and can provide you with an Evaluation Report, summarizing the results of assessments, interviews, and
surveys.
In the technical evaluation, we will take any unique characteristics of your system into consideration. It is
not unusual for organizations to “customize” their balanced scorecard to integrate with and leverage
existing tools, training, and terminology.
In the behavioral evaluation, we take the organization’s culture into account and recognize that system
development and approaches to change management are necessarily influenced by the culture and
norms of the organization.
The
System Performance Evaluation
culminates in a comprehensive report, consisting of two sections:
1) Executive Summary which contains key findings and the highest-priority recommendations for
improving your system – immediate actions you can take that will achieve the greatest results.
2) Evaluation Report which contains detailed analysis of over 80 attributes in 10 evaluation
categories. All 80 attributes are scored on a 1-5 scale and include comments and
recommendations for improvement, if appropriate. The technical and behavioral evaluation
categories are shown in Table 1 .
Table 1: System Performance Evaluation Report
Executive Summary
• Key Findings
• Key Recommendations
Evaluation Report (includes analysis of over 80 attributes in 10 categories):
Evaluation Category
Score
Comments
Recommendations
Organization Leadership
Balanced Scorecard Management
Enterprise Scorecard Elements and Implementation
Business Unit/ Division Elements and Implementation
Teams & Individual Elements and Implementation
Results
Communications
Automation and Reporting
Sustainment
Strategic Management Maturity
The key recommendations found in the executive summary are the top priority recommendations. The
full, detailed report not only contains the complete list of recommendations for your consideration, it also
provides baseline scores so that in the future, you will have measurable evidence of improved system
performance.
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2000 Regency Parkway, Suite 420
Cary, North Carolina 27518 USA
+1 919-460.8180 • balancedscorecard.org
Sample Instruments:
We use the following instruments to gather information for the System Performance Evaluation:
Table 2: Instruments Used in System Performance Evaluation
Instrument
Description
Evaluation plan
Sequential list of evaluation events, including identification of stakeholder
participants for each task.
BSC Gap
Assessment
Systematic evaluation of Tier 1, 2, and 3 scorecard elements as compared to best
practice.
Interview forms
Questions to be asked in person or over the phone of the key stakeholders of the
management system. The questions may be customized for your organization.
Manager/employee
survey
Online survey to be administered to selected (or all) managers and employees. Its
purpose is to assess the overall understanding of strategy and how well strategy
has been embraced and executed. Some questions may be customized for your
organization.
Executive survey
Online survey to be administered to the executive team, and potentially board
members, to understand their view of the system and its implementation
organization wide. It is based on the Best Practices survey on the Institute website
so results can be compared with those of the hundreds of organizations that have
completed the survey.
Report Card
An assessment of the key areas of the system and implementation to be
completed by members of the OSM.
Strategic
Management
Maturity Model
Used to assess and score the maturity of strategic management within your
organization – can be administered manually or via online survey (depending on
number of participants).
Figure 1 is an example Gap Assessment report in which the structural components of the BSC system are
evaluated against a checklist of best-practice attributes that we have assembled from our years of
observing high-performing organizations.
Figure 1: BSC Gap Assessment
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2000 Regency Parkway, Suite 420
Cary, North Carolina 27518 USA
+1 919-460.8180 • balancedscorecard.org
Table 2 is a sample of a survey result from a prior client. The responses to this question reveals that even
though this organization had cascaded its BSC from enterprise through division/ business units, and to
individual performance plans, executives have a better understanding of the system than do managers
and employees. So, while some information is trickling down, there is a probable lack of strategic
alignment in terms of understanding, focusing on priorities and making strategic decisions. Results from
other survey questions and other evaluation instruments verified this issue. Consequently, recommended
actions include communications and change management plans and execution, a review of the training
and processes used in setting individual performance goals, and an assessment of the training and skills
of Executives and Managers–are they equipped to effectively deliver the right messages to their direct
reports?
Table 3: Sample Question from Executive / Manager / Employee Survey
Where is our organization in the process of implementing our BSC strategic planning and management
system?
Answer Options
Executives
Response
Percent
Managers
Response
Percent
Executives
Response
Percent
We have not begun work on our BSC
0.0%
2.0%
0.0%
We are in the process of developing our BSC
0.0%
11.6%
9.1%
We are in the process of implementing our BSC
54.5%
33.3%
45.5%
We have implemented BSC and are using it as our strategic
management system
45.5%
44.2%
27.3%
I don't know
0.0%
8.8%
18.2%
Strategic Performance Evaluation
The Institute will work with you to develop a custom project plan for assessing your strategic results and
recalibrating your strategy, based on the Nine Steps to Success™ framework (see Figure 2).
Components of the plan are mutually agreed upon with the client and may include:
• Assessments of changes to both your organization and the environment in which you operate
(market, customers/stakeholder value proposition, competition, and other forces)
• Re-validation of Mission, Vision, and other strategic guidance in context of change
• Re-validation of or modification to Strategic Themes & Results in context of change to organization,
environment, mission, or vision
• Assessment of and change to Strategic Objectives and Strategy Map to align with changes to
strategic direction
• Assessment of validity and meaningfulness of performance measures
• Assessment of strategic impact of funded initiatives and re-prioritization of initiatives, as needed, to
support changes to strategic direction or improved understanding of performance
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2000 Regency Parkway, Suite 420
Cary, North Carolina 27518 USA
+1 919-460.8180 • balancedscorecard.org
Figure 2: Balanced Scorecard Institute’s Nine Steps to Success™ Framework
About the Balanced Scorecard Institute (BSI)
BSI provides consulting, training, and professional certification services to organizations worldwide related to strategic planning,
balanced scorecard, KPI/performance measurement, and strategic project management.
©2013 Balanced Scorecard Institute, a Strategy Management Group company. All rights reserved. Do not copy without
permission.
