Balanced scorecard

A Balanced scorecard addresses company condition from four perspectives: 1) financial 2) customer 3) internal control 4) learning and growth.

Financial

Essentially, any key objective that is related to the company’s financial health and performance may be included in this perspective. Revenue and profit are obvious objectives that most organizations list in this perspective. Other financial objectives might include:

-Cost savings and efficiencies (for example, a specific goal to reduce production costs by 10% by 2020)

-Profit Margins (increasing operating profit margins, for instance)

-Revenue sources (for example, adding new revenue channels)

Customer

This perspective focuses on performance objectives that are related to customers and the market. In other words, if you’re going to achieve your financial objectives, what exactly do you need to deliver in terms of your customers and market(s)?

Included in this perspective you might find objectives for:

-Customer service and satisfaction (increasing net promoter scores, or reducing call center waiting times, for example)

-Market share (such as, growing market share in a certain segment or country)

-Brand awareness (for example, increasing interactions on social media)

Internal Control

What processes do you need to put in place to deliver your customer and finance-related objectives? That’s the question this perspective aims to answer. Here you would set out any internal operational goals and objectives – or, in other words:

what does the business need to have in place and what does the business need to do well in order to drive performance?

Examples of internal process objectives might include:

- Process improvements (for example, streamlining an internal approval process)

-Quality optimization (such as, reducing manufacturing waste)

-Capacity utilization (using technology to boost efficiency, for instance)

Learning and Growth

While the third perspective is about the concrete process side of things, this final perspective considers the more intangible drivers of performance. Because it covers such a broad spectrum, this perspective is often broken down into the following components:

-Human capital – skills, talent and knowledge (for example, skills assessments, performance management scores, training effectiveness)

-Information capital – databases, information systems, networks and technology infrastructure (such as, safety systems, data protection systems, infrastructure investments)

-Organizational capital – culture, leadership, employee alignment, teamwork and knowledge management (for example, staff engagement, employee net promoter score, corporate culture audits).