CONSULTINGWe would be happy to participate in your Scorecard effort! Over the last ten years we have worked with numerous clients in different industries and countries. Together, we have developed strategies based on "strategy maps", we have redesigned management control systems to promote strategy realization and we have rescued Balanced Scorecard projects that have stalled. Below are some examples of the type of projects we typically participate in: Scorecard-based strategy development Increasingly, scorecard projects tend to address the strategy formulation process as well as the strategy realization initiatives. Originally, scorecards were often perceived as a method to translate the chosen strategy into concrete and measurable performance indicators. In recent years, many organizations have found that this is not enough. Instead, they use scorecard dialogues to make the organization's goals and strategies more explicit, for example addressing the purpose of the organization or the trade-offs between perspectives. Typically we run these projects as a mix of workshops and dedicated analytical efforts. In order to visualize the paths through the scorecard, i.e. how different perspectives fit together, we use "strategy maps". Initiatives in the learning and development perspective create more efficient processes, and these directly or indirectly increase the value that the organization delivers to its customers, eventually resulting in better financial returns. Maps illustrate these connections and encourage discussion about impacts and time lags. If you want to know more about how we work with strategy development, please contact us. Implementing balanced management control systems to assure strategy realization Many organizations' strategy documents do not give any clear answers regarding e.g. purpose or trade-offs. These are needed to design a proper control system. That is why some scorecard projects have to take a detour over activities such as strategy formulation and strategy declaration. In other organizations, however, strategies are clear and appropriate. In these cases, there is no need to spend time on whether the organization is focusing the right customers, has the right products and cooperates with the right partners. Instead, we can focus directly on the internal control mechanisms. These determine what is considered important and valuable among the employees in the organization. For many, the numbers in the external reporting are considered the most important control dimension. The dimension that is "for real". When introducing scorecards, however, it becomes obvious that financial performance indicators are not the only control levers of interest. When implementing a balanced management control system, we spend time designing both the scorecard itself and the processes and roles around it. This cannot be done in isolation. Equally important is to investigate other control instruments that operate internally, and to align these with the intentions of the scorecard and the strategy that the company has set out to realize. Examples of control instruments that we inspect and align with the scorecard are: transfer prices, costing models, investment appraisals and incentive systems. A typical project will include activities like: investigating today's "control mix", describing existing strategies in strategy maps and translating them into scorecards, designing dialogue processes, choosing and implementing appropriate IT-solutions. If you want to know more about how we facilitate scorecard implementations please contact us. BSC Audits Through our extensive academic and practical experience of balanced scorecard projects we can quickly diagnose an organization's balanced scorecard effort. Our evaluation is based on the findings and recommendations that we have presented in our books "Performance Drivers" (1997) and "Making Scorecards Actionable" (2003). An audit can for example be issued before the organization automates some of the scorecard processes with an IT-tool, if the management team is uncertain whether the BSC practice or the BSC project is successful or if the company plans to restart a stalled scorecard project. An audit is often the first step when "turning around" a collapsed scorecard effort. If you want to know more about how we perform BSC Audits, please contact us. Turn-around of stalled Balanced Scorecard projects Typically, a BSC audit will point out some areas for improvement, which we can help the organization to implement. Sometimes, however, an audit might not be necessary since everyone in the organization is already aware of the poor performance of the scorecard project. In these situations we typically take one step back and try to refocus the project. There is often already a body of knowledge and results that can be reused, but some of the project members must usually make room for new participants. If the project has stalled, there might also be personal tension between project members, following the way the project has been handled. In these situations we typically step in as project managers for some time, to solve some of the errors that have been made. Preferably, the responsibility for the project should eventually be transferred to someone in the organization, who can take over and represent the project internally. Except from this, a turn around project is often similar to the activities in a normal implementation of a scorecard. If you want to know more about how we turn around stalled scorecard projects, please contact us. Speeches and seminars As researchers and practitioners we are often invited as key note speakers at seminars and conferences. By combining academic rigour in our knowledge creation with our practical experience (following from numerous scorecard projects in different industries and countries) we add depth and empirical width to any conference or seminar - company internal or public. If you want to engage us for a speech or a seminar, please contact us. 
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