Alignment: Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create Corporate Synergies

CHAPTER NINE

MANAGING THE ALIGNMENT PROCESS

ALIGNMENT IS NOT a one-time event. The initial project phase of implementing an enterprise-wide Balanced Scorecard program aligns corporate-level strategy with business and support unit strategies. This sets the stage for achieving performance synergies.

Change, however, is constant—in the industry, among competitors, in the regulatory and macroeconomic environment, and in technology, customers, and employees. Strategies and their implementation must therefore continually evolve. An aligned organization at one time will soon become unaligned. The second law of thermodynamics teaches us that entropy (disorder) continually increases. New energy must be continually pumped into a system if it is to remain ...