The balanced scorecard is an application specifically designed to provide the company
executives with a comprehensive framework to define and measure the strategic
objectives of the organization. It is a third generation management tool, designed to both
measure the performance of strategic initiatives as well as drive strategies. The balanced
scorecard allows the company to better analyze its data within weeks allowing the
company personal to focus on core business improvement. BSC has become part of
quarterly reviews and also used for long term planning, but still some middle and lower
level management have not embraced the process entirely and thus it is still evident that
the effectiveness of the balanced scorecard needs to be investigated. The balanced
scorecard has been in use for over five years now with gradual acceptance as it is
cascaded down to the functional areas as well as the employees to align strategy.