consulting4results Approach and Products Scorecard

Approach and Products - Balanced Scorecard and Systems Thinking

This page describes how we can help you and lists the typical products/ deliverables you can expect on a consulting assignment.

Approach

1) Balanced Scorecard Health-Check

We normally take just a few days to review your Balanced Scorecard, test the elements against good practice criteria, and then submit a short report. You can then decide which of our recommendations to implement

2) Review/design Balanced Scorecard and associated performance indicators

A typical assignment lasts around 10 days, during which we will normally:

Review existing strategy documents, business plans and performance indicators; design and prepare for a one-day Workshop

Deliver a one-day Workshop to design a balanced and manageable set of business performance indicators derived from strategy that conform to best practice criteria (e.g., devising a balance of ‘leading’ and ‘lagging’ indicators; focussing on the most important business levers that you can control/influence; choosing indicators that will drive good behaviour). During this workshop I would also create the outline design for the Balanced Scorecard

Create and approve a data dictionary describing for each performance indicator: what is being measured, how and why; frequency of measurement; ownership/accountability; data source and availability; baselines; targets; and tolerances. Systems Thinking, Benchmarking, Process Mapping, and Value Chain Analysis are just some of the structured techniques used to augment the development of the data dictionary

3) Design Systems Thinking model

It is worth re-stating what Kaplan and Norton said in their book "The Balanced Scorecard":

"The emphasis on cause and effect in constructing a scorecard introduces dynamic systems thinking. A properly constructed scorecard should be based on a series of cause and effect relationships derived from the strategy, including estimates of the response times and magnitudes of the linkages among the scorecard measures”

We have extensive experience of building these models which can be used in the context of Balanced Scorecard to:

Map dynamic inter-relationships between business levers from which performance indicators can be selected. This will take longer than the retrospective approach described below - but it is more comprehensive

Retrospectively map dynamic inter-relationships between business performance indicators already selected. This is quite a good way of testing that the right performance indicators have been chosen

Typically we would take just a few days to work with you to create a model. These models can become a bit complicated unless clear boundaries and modelling rules are agreed up front. However, the models can be simplified by creating a Strategy Map aligned to the Balanced Scorecard perspectives. This approach was designed by Kaplan & Norton and is explained in depth in their book (“The Strategy Focussed Organization“)

4) Cascading the Balanced Scorecard

Balanced Scorecards are sometimes cascaded too quickly and/or to a level that is unnecessary resulting in huge bureaucracy. But if you have already been using your Balanced Scorecard for a while and have now decided to cascade the tool we have the experience to help you and avoid some of the pitfalls

5) Transition planning

Organisations will often run the old regime and the new Balanced Scorecard in parallel until the ‘go live’ date. There are a number of issues that need to be addressed to ensure a successful switchover. We can help you plan for the transition to avoid the many pitfalls that can arise

6) ‘Critical Friend’ advice

You can call on an ad hoc basis (normally facilitated by a call-off contract) to provide advice and guidance

7) Training

Off-the-shelf training courses are available for both Balanced Scorecard and Systems Thinking which can be customised to meet your specific need. Training on Balanced Scorecard is done using a highly interactive game. More information is shown on the training page of this website

Products

Here are typical products/deliverables you can expect on a Balanced Scorecard and/or Systems Thinking consulting assignment:

Health Check Report and recommendations

Balanced Scorecard and data dictionary populated with a balanced and manageable set of business performance indicators and report templates

Systems Thinking model underpinning the Balanced Scorecard

Corporate Balanced Scorecard system - i.e., top-level scorecard which is then cascaded to business units

Transition strategy/plan from old to new system

Demonstrable and measurable skills transfer

Training courses

If you have any questions, or would like to discuss how we might be able to help you, please send an e-mail to:

info@consulting4results.co.uk

Mission: deliver products and results; transfer skills

consulting4results

consulting4results is a Limited Company registered in England and Wales. Registration Number: 7139053. Registered Address: Beechfield House, 38 West Bar, Banbury, OX16 9RX

consulting4results is a Limited Company registered in England and Wales, Registration Number: 7139053. Registered Address: Countrywide House, 23 West Bar, Banbury, Oxfordshire OX16 9SA