The Balanced Scorecard is a widely used
method to diagnose and improve on an
organisationûs performance. It is a management tool
that translates an organisationûs mission and
strategy into a comprehensive set of performance
measures that provide a framework for a strategic
management and measurement system. Developed
by Robert Kaplan and David Norton in 1992 (Kaplan
and Norton, 1992), the Balanced Scorecard
methodology is a comprehensive approach that
analyses an organisationûs overall performance from
four perspectives: financial, customer, internal
business processes, and learning and growth. As a
structure, the Balanced Scorecard cascades an
organisationûs mission and strategies into objectives,
measures, targets and initiatives within each
perspective. Links are established between each
perspective in the Balanced Scorecard to represent
causal relationships. For example, improvement in
learning and growth may lead to better internal
business processes, resulting in customer
satisfaction, which in turn, leads to good financial
performance.