Skip to main content

Hope wrapped in Futility


If you are in the service business, or any for that matter, I am sure that you are successful as a result of looking at your operation across different perspectives.  Certainly understanding your financials, customer needs, how your organization is learning and growing, and internal process are amongst the top areas of reflection.  It has perplexed me for years, with the aforementioned logic, that not everyone is flocking towards strategy maps and balanced scorecards.  I would have to say that businesses perceive this process as over-complicated and in many instances justifiably so; however, the juice is definitely worth the squeeze (my experience conducting these sessions for service organizations has produced an average of two four hour meetings with your companies leadership, and about four hours of non-meeting work).



What are you talking about?  Strategy mapping and balanced scorecards is a process developed years ago by Doctors' Kaplan and Norton at Harvard University.  The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a strategy performance management tool – a semi-standard structured visualization, supported by design methods and automation tools, that are used by managers to keep track of the execution of activities by staff within their control and to monitor consequences arising from these actions. Essentially a vehicle to put strategy into action. Some critical characteristics that define BSC are:

  • it's focus on the strategic agenda of the organization
  • the selection of a small number of data items to monitor
  • a mix of financial and nonfinancial perspectives



You can easily do this on your own as I have over the years. Two books that you might find interesting, both published by Harvard business school, are "the balanced scorecard" and "alignment" (in that order).  It is next to impossible to get where you're going without some form of map, all other attempts are simply hope wrapped in futility.



-----

Next post:  people business, can I really get objective measurements?

----- 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In$pired

As the steam from Avid Andy's coffee fogged his glasses on this crisp January morning, he reflected on last year and thought enthusiastically about the year ahead.   Sometimes the noise of business is deafening, we rarely take the time to contemplate our moves, instead are often thrown one direction or another.   Hey, face it, if you are reading posts to gain perspective you fall in the group of folks who pride themselves as obsequious hoop-jumpers.   We live to help others and expect that all of those around us feel the same way.   I just love Influential Irene.   Okay, it is out in the open, she is an inspiration for me and so many others.   Irene reminds folks every year, without fail, these three statements which she fondly refers to as "the punchline" (although this is no joke).   Businesses, of any size, will be successful if they remember that it is people that make a company.   Put this advice into practice, today: Sincerity |...
Post a Comment
Read more

expert at everything...not a problem

Well... I would say sometimes there certainly is a perceived notion that one person is an expert at everything. For the worker "everything" may be defined as the specific area in which you were hired or are constantly scheduled. Our opinions are frequently influenced off of past experience, or information we've received from their coworkers. Unfortunately this only gives us partial insight to that workers expertise and often is limited to their most recent history. Narrowly focused accounting is made of the skills that this individual possess. Come on, can't we figure out a way to leverage all of the skills of a particular worker? One of the challenges has always been that relationship between the activities which need to be accomplished and the myriad skills of individuals within your workforce. In addition, even if you could inventory and get a pretty good handle on the skill sets, they are constantly changing (with any luck) and thus the ineffective process of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Who owns the data?

Finally the capital budget allows you to replace some very old equipment.    You can't open a trade magazine without seeing the latest news regarding the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).   Lucky for you the equipment manufacturers are offering an IIoT ready solution packaged with your equipment.   Suddenly your enthusiasm turns to confusion as you review the details of the quote.   What the hell is that subscription fee?   Isn't this equipment mine; lock, stock and barrel?   You mean to tell me that I need to pay the manufacturer, every month,   to give me the luxury of accessing data produced by the equipment I just purchased?   The only explanation has to be new math, at least as a child this is what my parents told me when I asked hard to answer questions. It's amazing how history repeats itself, we are starting to see manufacturer specific data languages appearing in their "smart" equipment.   Didn't we learn our lesson ...
Post a Comment
Read more