1. ©Marguerite Orane February 2016 1
THE BALANCED SCORECARD:
A JOURNEY OF LEARNING AND GROWTH
BY MARGUERITE ORANE
THE BASICS
In December 2003, Harvard Business School Professor Robert Kaplan
presented a 1-day Executive Seminar on The Balanced Scorecard in
Kingston Jamaica. The seminar was hosted by Growth Facilitators, a
Strategy Consulting Firm of which Marguerite Orane was a co-founder.
Since then, Marguerite has facilitated hundreds of clients in the private,
public, educational sectors in crafting and executing their strategies using
the Balanced Scorecard. Her highly innovative approach allows clients to
see, touch and feel their strategy, thus resulting in a high level of buy-in,
commitment and success. As she has partnered with her clients,
Marguerite has enjoyed her own journey of learning and growth. This
booklet is the first in a series that presents articles on the Balanced
Scorecard authored by Marguerite.

2. ©Marguerite Orane February 2016 2
WHAT IS THE BALANCED SCORECARD?
The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) approach to
strategic management was developed in the
early 1990's by Drs. Robert Kaplan (Harvard
Business School) and David Norton.
Traditional approaches to managing
strategy relied on financial outcomes.
Hence much time would be spent
examining monthly financial reports. But by
the time monthly financials are generated,
it is too late to do anything about the
results. Kaplan and Norton realised that
what is really important is to identify the
drivers of future financial performance.
The Balanced Scorecard is a management
and measurement system that enables
organizations to clarify their vision and
strategy and translate them into action.
When fully deployed, the Balanced
Scorecard transforms strategic planning
from an academic exercise into the nerve
centre of an enterprise.
Using the Balanced Scorecard methodology,
the organization is viewed from four
perspectives:
1. FINANCIAL: what are shareholders’
expectations for financial performance?
2. CUSTOMER: what will delight our
customers so that they continue to
proviide us with revenue and
profitability?
3. INTERNAL PROCESS: at what key
processes must we excel in order to
satisfy our customers?
4. LEARNING & GROWTH: what are the
key skills, tools, information and culture
needed by our people in order to
effectively deliver the strategy?
In each perspective, Strategic Objectives
that describe the strategy are indentified,
and then relevant Measures and Targets for
each are subsequently developed. We now
have the strategy that shows the
interlinkages between objectives – the
drivers and results. Then Strategic
Initiatives that will close the performance
gap are identified.
The BSC is neither industry- nor company-
specific and can be applied to any type and
size organization. It is estimated that over
50% of Fortune 500 companies are using
the Balanced Scorecard, and across the
world it is used in governments, educational
institutions, and not-for-profits.
The Balanced Scorecard is simple. It is
logical, clear and concise. Yet, if you ask
most people who use or have used the
Balanced Scorecard, they are likely to
describe it as complex. It urges you to
identify the objectives, metrics and
initiatives that are critical to your strategy.
The 80/20 rule runs paramount when you
are developing your BSC, as it forces you to
think about your priorities and make trade-
offs. In my experience, the complexity
comes not from the tools, but from our
reluctance to let go of the familiar
procedures even if they have not been
having the desired corrective impact. We
see our letting go as a weakness, as an
admission that we were wrong and did not
know what we were doing. So we may
adopt the “new” strategy, while still trying
to keep the old one running.
A Balanced Scorecard typically has between
20 to 30 Strategic Objectives linked to the 4
key perspectives – Financial, Customer,

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Internal Process and Learning and Growth.
When coming from a traditional Strategic
Planning approach that identified a few
major goals, monitoring all of the BSC
objectives may see like too many. The
temptation is to cherry-pick. Doing so may
very well mean that you miss critical links in
the cause and effect chain across the
perspectives. Yes, you MUST focus on the
entire BSC, at least until it becomes very
clear to you through rigourous
measurement and review, which objectives
are most critical to the strategy. A leap
from 5 goals to 30 strategic objectives
suggests complexity, but the innate
advantage is that this approach brings
clarity and connectivity to the management
processes and to the team implementing
the objectives identified.
Simplicity is the hallmark of the Balanced
Scorecard, but the implementation process
is not easy. It requires a change in
leadership mindset and total commitment,
coupled with a rigourous process of
development, communication, review and
adjustment in order to ensure that the BSC
becomes rooted in the organizational
culture and embedded in its DNA. Once
this shift takes place, the simplicity of the
process starts to become evident and the
results are well worth the effort.

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THE STRATEGY MAP – “I SEE THE STRATEGY”
The Strategy Map is a most valuable, visual
tool that demonstrates the wisdom behind
the maxim that “A picture says a thousand
words.” The map is critical in
communicating the way forward, as on a
single sheet, it shows what is important to
the strategy, what is being measured and
the cause-and-effect relationships between
the drivers (Learning and Growth and
Internal Process objectives) and the results
(Customer and Financial objectives).
The Strategy Map can be used to explain
the entire strategy to employees and show
them their role in the implementation
process. It clearly shows customers what
the company is promising to deliver (the
Customer Value Proposition) and how it will
be done. It assures shareholders that the
entire organization understands what is
important to them and how the
product/service should be delivered. With
the Strategy Map in hand, a leader can
discuss the strategy at length with team
members and other stakeholders.
When my clients view the Strategy Map
they have just created, I often hear them
exclaim: “I see the strategy now!” It is not
just the choice of words that I find

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especially gratifying, but the manner in
which they are expressed with confidence,
clarity and commitment. This is my signal
that the client has embarked on the route
to success in executing the strategic
objectives identified.
It is important to devise the Strategy Map
early in the Balanced Scorecard journey. It
is pictures, not numbers, which excite most
of us. Personalizing the Strategy Map is also
central to the process of taking ownership
for this journey of transformation. Add your
logo, colourful bubbles, an exciting
background (and even smiley faces)! Have
fun with your Strategy Map and consider it
a work of art! Also, share it widely. Every
employee should have a copy. Ensure that
the Strategy Map is central to every
meeting and make reference to it in your
company reports. Post it on your website.
Create excitement with your Strategy Map
and bring your strategy to life.
Departing Kingston Jamaica on one of my
many trips there, I stopped to purchase my
last taste of great Jamaican food at Island
Grill, my favourite quick-service restaurant,
and my client. I was thrilled to see their
Strategy Map posted on the side of their
refrigerator, their makeshift notice board in
a very compact space. This was a success
indicator for me as a facilitator because the
boldly displayed Strategy Map confirmed
that this client was on board and the
company was really using its Strategy Map
to communicate its strategy to ALL team
members.
Kaplan and Norton were initially quite
surprised at how the Strategy Map quickly
became a valuable tool for communicating
the strategy.
Why is this?
My experience and observations over the
years suggest that the reasons are
threefold:
1. It is visual, and most human beings are
highly visual. I also always ensure that
the end product is colourful and fun,
reflecting the particular nuances and
differentiators of each client’s strategy
and culture. It is also meaningful to
incorporate in the Strategy Map the
company logo, company colours, and
emblems that are meaningful to the
team members. My own strategy map
has smiley faces on it because I have
strived to develop my personal culture
based on a free and laughing spirit.
2. It is simple. Team members quickly see
their role in the strategy and
understand where they fit.
3. It is a one-page document that can
spark numerous discussions between
leaders and stakeholders. There is so
much expressed on that one sheet that
leaders have enough with which to
engage team members in hours of deep
conversation about the strategy.

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MEASURES – YOU MANAGE WHAT YOU MEASURE
The crux of the Balanced Scorecard is the
performance measurement system. A
“measure” defines how success in achieving
an objective will be tracked. Simply put, it
specifies what we will count. This is where
the rubber hits the road in terms of
accountability. When facilitating a group, it
is usually during the development of
strategy discussions that the group gets
quiet and some resistance starts rearing its
head, because measures define the specific
areas of performance for which people in
the organization will be held accountable.
A helpful analogy is sport. All sports use
measures throughout the game. Cricket has
a scoreboard that tracks every single play –
bowling, batting, fielding. We don’t wait
until the end of the game to declare a
winner – the team knows at every step how
they are performing and they are therefore
able to adjust their tactics accordingly.
Tennis, football, baseball – all have
measures that track performance. Anyone
who has ever played a sport understands
performance measurement and just needs
to apply it to organizational performance.
Many people also have a hard time
conceptualizing how to measure objectives
that are neither financial nor operational.
But, we can, and we do. When identifying
the Customer and Learning and Growth
measures, my recommended approach is
simple – ask the customers and ask the
employees. Ask customers what they want,
how satisfied they are, and what else they
would have you do. Ask your team
members what they want, how satisfied
they are, and what they dream of
becoming. Ask them for feedback on your
leadership skills. Ask them regularly and
track their responses over time. Also track
their behaviour through objective data –
are they leaving (turnover)? Are customers
referring your business to others (great
indicator of their satisfaction)? Are
employees performing to standard
(performance evaluation scores)?
Always remember the advice from Dr.
Kaplan: “What you measure you manage,
and what you manage gets done.”

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STRATEGIC INITIATIVES – CLOSING THE PERFORMANCE GAP
One of the challenges faced when creating
and implementing the Balanced Scorecard
is the ability to determine which of your
initiatives are truly strategic. There are
always numerous important projects that
an organization can opt to implement, but it
is crucial to pinpoint those that are critical
to the strategy. Failure to identify the truly
strategic initiatives could result in mis-
allocated resources in terms of money and
time. Therefore, the key initiatives selected
in the initial planning stages can make the
difference between success and failure in
executing your strategy.
The strategic initiatives are major projects
that are critical to the strategy you have
mapped out for your company. Strategy is
about change, and the strategic initiatives
are the related change projects. There are
other initiatives that are important, but not
necessarily strategic; the strategic initiatives
are those projects that are necessary to
keep your existing, core business viable and
dynamic. You have to do both. But you
must be clear on what is strategic and what
is important. For example, an initiative to
expand the capacity of your existing
business would be important operationally.
However, an initiative to introduce a new
technology that would significantly alter the
course of your business would be strategic.
The first one is likely to be easier to
implement, so the tendency will be to get
that done, to the detriment of the second
one. Big mistake! You will experience
incremental improvements rather than the
awesome shift that will make your business
competitive, relevant and profitable in the
longer term.
Strategic initiatives are typically related to
the Learning and Growth and Internal
Process perspectives. Reflect on the
following questions:
 What is necessary to make the
people in our organization
competent, capable and ready to
implement the new strategy?
 Which processes MUST be
transformed in order to deliver on
our new strategic direction?
 What will our business look like in
another five years if we don’t do
these now?
Implementing strategic initiatives often
stalls, taking more time than is expected or
even needed, because of resistance to
change. Resistance is a normal part of
change. It is to be expected and has to be
managed. I often tell my clients . . . “If you
aren’t being resisted, you aren’t changing”.
Perhaps also, if the initiatives are not
meeting with resistance, then those
initiatives may not be strategic!

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“MAKING STRATEGY EVERYONE’S JOB”
In days gone by, strategy was a tightly kept
secret in organizations, with only the very
top management being involved in its
development. The Strategic Plan was not
widely shared, usually out of fear that the
competition would get hold of it and steal
the strategy. Fortunately, insightful leaders
now understand that the only thing that the
people in an organization are paid to do is
to execute its strategy. Kaplan and Norton
have identified “Make Strategy Everyone’s
Job” as one of the five pillars of a strategy-
focused organization. Therefore, cascading
the Balanced Scorecard to the individual
level is a very powerful way for everyone to
understand the strategy and their
respective contributions to its
implementation.
In my experience, the process is as
important as the outcome. Personal
Scorecards that are handed down, without
much consultation, are rarely embraced and
are often greeted with resistance. Based on
his or her departmental or unit scorecard,
each employee, usually in collaboration
with his/her supervisor, determines his/her
individual contribution to the strategy at
the Internal Process perspective. I always
find the Strategy Map very useful for this
exercise. Which “bubble” immediately
attracts the attention of the employee?
How does he see himself being able to
make a contribution to the proposed
strategy? They then move on to explore
their impact on customers and on financial
results. Finally, they determine their own
path of learning and growth necessary to
prepare them for flawless execution of their
job. The outcome is a Personal Scorecard: a
simple statement of strategy at the job level
that the employee can use to guide his/her
own performance, and by which the
supervisor can gauge and give feedback on
progress.
This process gets the employee and
supervisor engaged in really understanding
their role at work, not just what they do,
but why, in other words, what are the
results expected. They come to understand
how they contribute to departmental and
corporate results, and to recognize that
each team member is important,
irrespective of their location on the
organizational totem pole.
I saw this come to life in working with a
wonderful client in cascading the Balanced
Scorecard to individual employees. As
always, I designed a process that is highly
participatory and interactive. Basically,
each manager/supervisor wrote their own
Personal Scorecard and a Personal
Scorecard for at least one member of their
team. In 5 days of facilitated workshops,
we developed 93 Personal Scorecards!
More important than the scorecard was the
insight these employees had about their
jobs. They made a shift from activity to
results, not just any results but results that
contribute to the organisation’s results.
They now see their jobs differently. They
recognise that their job IS important to the
company’s strategy. And they realize that
that they have to lead differently to help
their team members make a similar shift.
There were so many moments of wonder,
when someone just “got it”. Not only are
their jobs aligned to the strategy, THEY are
aligned. Strategy really is everyone’s job
now

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THE BALANCED SCORECARD IS SIMPLE …. BUT NOT EASY
Having facilitated the Balanced Scorecard
for an array of clients for almost a decade,
there is one thing I have learned. The
process is simple, but not easy.
Why is it simple?
1. The Strategic Objectives are concise and
clear statements of what’s important to
the strategy, expressed in 6 to 10 words
2. The Strategy Map shows the strategy on
a single page
3. Measures and targets for each Strategic
Objective do not exceed two or three
4. The Strategic Initiatives are designed to
close the gaps between where you are
now and where you want to go.
And that’s basically it. But, it’s not easy:
 It takes time. You have to find the time
needed to implement change initiatives,
report monthly, conduct rigourous
strategy review meetings, and commit to
annual offsites to review and update the
strategy.
 You have to think deeply. The process
requires that you test assumptions and
be willing to dispense with what may
have worked in the past and even what
seems to be working now.
 Numbers are not the answer.. – Statistics
only reflect a state of performance at a
particular point in time. You have to
figure out the story that the numbers are
telling and that is not always obvious.
 There is much uncertainty. It sometimes
takes time for you to decide whether or
not this strategy is the right one.
 It requires behaviourial change. You
have to make a mental shift and focus
on activities rather than on results.
 It is scary. Because it is such an effective
tool for accountability, it shows up non-
performance without a word being
uttered. The silence of a negative
variance or an incomplete task speaks
volumes.
Yes, the Balanced Scorecard is not easy.
But, do you know what is really hard?
1. Failing to develop and execute the right
strategy.
2. Being unclear about your strategy
because you have failed to spend
enough time on it.
3. Setting very vague objectives that you
don’t know how to measure.
4. Failing to communicate the strategy to
the team, and thus, they have no idea
what they are to execute and what is
expected of them.
5. Ignoring the lessons to be learnt from
the results and so the same mistakes
are made repeatedly.
6. Watching your competitors taking your
customers and market share easily, and
being uncertain why that is happening.
7. Failing to meet revenue and profitability
targets and not making the connections
to understand the root causes.
If you are balking at devoting time to
developing and executing your Balanced
Scorecard, consider what you stand to lose.

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Contact Marguerite and discuss how she can help you achieve extraordinary results.
Call 416-803-1654 or e-mail marguerite@margueriteorane.com
Marguerite Orane
Founder, CEO
Free and Laughing Inc.
2911 Bayview Avenue ,Suite D106
Toronto, ON M2K 1E8, Canada
Tel: 416-803-1654
www.margueriteorane.com
My intention and commitment is to help leaders of growing businesses bring joy
into their workplace so that customers are delighted and their teams are happy
and productive!
Marguerite loves strategy and loves the Balanced Scorecard. With a lifetime of
business experience growing up in a family business, leading organisations and over
25 years of consulting experience, she has added value to organizations in the
private, public, nongovernmental and educational sectors. She now focuses on
helping leaders of growing companies articulate and execute their winning
strategies – with ease, grace and joy!
Marguerite’s approach to transformation is on two levels: at the organizational
level, she facilitates teams in developing strategic plans which they own; and at the
individual level, she trains, coaches and supports individual leaders in achieving the
highest manifestation of their leadership competencies.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BALANCED SCORECARD:
1. Harvard Business Review has published numerous articles on the Balanced Scorecard –
www.hbr.org
2. Read BOOKS by Kaplan and Norton:
1. The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy Into Action
2. The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive
in the New Business Environment
3. Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes
4. Execution Premium
5. Alignment: Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create Organizational Synergies