I have worked closely with Dr. David Norton, co-creator of the Balanced Scorecard for more than twelve years. He has been championing the evolution of the Balanced Scorecard from a measurement concept to a management concept for the last twenty years. He speaks publicly more than once a month on the topic of the Balanced Scorecard. If you listened to him each presentation, you might think that he would get tired presenting the same material. But if you listen closely, you will see that the material evolves as the research evolves. I had the chance to listen to Dr. Norton this week in Mexico City, and listening closely, I was inspired during each presentation that the Balanced Scorecard concept is alive and well.

The guru of strategy execution spoke about all aspects of the Balanced Scorecard for 6 hours in Mexico City at an IRR presentation. I was there with our partner, Tantum. Earlier in the week, we had visited Tantum clients and prospects talking about the BSC and ClearPoint Strategy. Listening to real organizations talk about their strategic challenges and management systems is way more interesting than listening to a Guru talk conceptually about management, so I thought.

I was wrong this time. Dave gave a fantastic refresher of the Strategy Focused Organization principals. These principals were first written about in his book in 2000. Now, 11 years later, the material, research, and cases are all fresh and new, showing that the Balanced Scorecard is alive and well around the world. The principles, Dave argues, are seen in most organizations that are achieving breakthrough results with the Balanced Scorecard. They are, in summary, executive leadership, the Balanced Scorecard framework, organization alignment, individual alignment (strategic jobs and communications), and good governance.

I will write an individual post about each principle and some of the modern thinking on the topic. If you are considering the Balanced Scorecard, but are worried that the topic is over 20 years old, you should be comforted that the framework has thrived and evolved over the last twenty years, rather than grown stale and outdated.