Cascading a Balanced Scorecard

Could your organisation improve its performance by better communicating what your strategy is to your employees?

Do you have employees whose hard work is actually running counter to the organisation’s goals because they have a different understanding of what you are trying to accomplish? Do various departments in your organisation focus on activities within their own silo more than on how they can support the organisation’s mission and vision?

The problems addressed by these questions centre on the issue of organisational alignment. While the balanced scorecard has been touted as an effective tool for creating organisational alignment, the actual success of the system as an alignment tool can vary depending on the strategic focus of the scorecard (simple performance measurement dashboards tend to not be helpful). The success of its implementation depends on whether the organisation can successfully cascade its strategies down to its business and support units, and to its individual staff members.

Leaving the issues of proper strategic focus and successful implementation to be addressed on other pages, what is cascading and how does one do so effectively?

Cascading a balanced scorecard means to translate the corporate-wide scorecard (referred to as the Tier 1 scorecard) to the main business and support units or departments (Tier 2), and then to teams and individuals (Tier 3). The end result should be a focus across all levels of the organisation that is consistent. The organisation alignment should be clearly visible through the organisation’s strategy map, targets, and performance measures.

If you would like to learn more about how Balanced Scorecard Australia can help your organisation cascade its strategies, email us at admin@balancedscorecardaustralia.com or phone 03 9607 8530 to arrange a no commitment meeting with one of our Senior Associates.