Balanced Scorecard Strategy For Dummies®

Chapter 1. Goals, Scores, and the Balanced Scorecard

<feature><title>In This Chapter</title>

• Defining Balanced Scorecard and the issues surrounding it

• Forming the four legs of a Balanced Scorecard

• Incorporating dashboards to get continuous feedback for success

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An old saying goes something like this: If you’re not keeping score, you’re just practicing. If you ask us, truer words were never spoken — especially in today’s topsy-turvy business world. To make (and keep) your business a success, you need to not only keep score, but also predict your score in advance by setting goals and then achieving them on a consistent basis. And we’re not talking about easy-to-achieve goals and scores. No! We’re talking about goals that stretch your imagination and push your creativity and ingenuity to the limits — as well as the creativity and ingenuity of your employees.

Can you imagine what the people working at NASA in the 1960s thought when they were asked to build a rocket and space capsule that would transport Americans to the moon — in less than ten years? We can imagine them wondering exactly how in the heck they would pull it off, but never doubting that they would. NASA put a massive stretch goal before them, and they achieved it. Balanced Scorecard Strategy is the tool that will allow your company to set and achieve stretch goals.

In this chapter, we give you an initial peek at Balanced Scorecard, preview its four legs, and offer a glimpse of how you can ensure that your company’s ...