Rating: 
Summary: Pure, Unadulterated Drivel....
Review: Not only that, but it is written in a style that will make your want to scream! I'd quote sentences that make up entire paragraphs, but if you like this sort of writing, read James Joyce. I think these guys must also contract out as government rule writers, because governmental rules are the only printed materials I have ever seen that resemble the prolixity to be found here.But prolixity does not indicate profundity. Once one fights through the Harvard-educated prose (Harvard should be ashamed!), this is a very simplistic set of ideas. Many different forces and fields of endeavor feed the bottom line, so one has to strategically pay attention to all of them to enhance the bottom line. There! One sentence! Not so difficult. But you won't believe it after having wasted your time with this one. What ever you do, don't give this book to your employees. After wrestling through the first chapter, they are likely to call in sick.
Rating: 
Summary: Revisiting the School of Common Sense
Review: Nothing can replace good old common sense and that concept is alive and well in this retrograde approach to business practices. If you are a "spin the strategy wheel" junkie waiting for the latest "flavor of the week" business paridigm then stay far, far away from this selection. I found that this book touts those principals that are sound, easily recognizable and understandable by all employees. While I am not in a managerial role...this book speaks volumes to those that are.
Rating:
Summary: What's the agenda?
Review: OK, so strategy consultants suffer from the 'strategy-of-the-week' syndrome and forget to implement. Great managers know this and that's why they boot consultants out after a couple of months or so. However the Balanced Scorecard isn't a recipe for how to implement so much as a book-long brief for a large consultancy project. Treat with caution.
Rating: 
Summary: ELIMINATE STRATEGY STALLS WITH THE BALANCED SCORECARD
Review: Professor Kaplan has created a business atlas (better than a road map) to help executives understand how to use measurement to align strategy, planning and performance. The scorecard becomes a common vocabulary, eliminating communication stalls. The measures may be changed as conditions require and focus is provided. Unlike so many business models, THE BALANCED SCORECARD lives and adjusts with the organization. As co-author of THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION, I am acutely aware of the harm done by processes that exist because of tradition (that is the way we do it here), the difficulty in communicating ideas and messages, the importance of measurement and the need to measure so many things to learn what causes change and if progress is being made. I appreciate and applaud Professor Kaplan for developing THE BALANCED SCORECARD and for knowing how to introduce it to executives to encourage acceptance and wide-spread use.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Way To Overcome Strategic Communications Stalls
Review: Since Peter Drucker first popularized the idea of business strategy, there have been vastly more strategies conceived than there have been strategies successfully implemented. Much attention has been paid to devising better strategies, and little to implementing strategies. The big pay-off is in the implementation, and THE BALANCED SCORECORE hits a home run in showing how to explain what needs to be done to successfully execute strategy. You must have more measures, and different measures than the accounting system provides. You also need to link measures to the key tasks that each person must perform. This book is simply the Rosetta Stone of communicating and managing strategy. THE BALANCED SCORECARD is the beginning of the practical period of maturity in the field of business strategy. Read this book today to enjoy much more prosperity!
Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for business managers AND consultants
Review: Speaking as someone involved in implementing a balanced score card, this book is invaluable. Having heard half the story before reading this book and performing an exhaustive analysis of corporate KPIs, this book made it substantially clearer how to determine those of strategic releveance and how to determine the relationships between the KPIs explicity. Whilst a slightly dry read, it is essential to any business manager or consultant who is to be involved in implementing a Balanced Score Card.
Rating:
Summary: An essential book
Review: The balanced scorecard can be thought of as the "strategic chart of accounts" for an organization. It captures both the financial and the nonfinancial elements of a company's strategy and discusses the cause-and-effect relationships that drive business results. It allows, for the first time, an organization to look ahead - using leading indicators - instead of only looking back using lagging indicators. The balanced scorecard puts strategy - the key driver of results today - at the center of the management process.
It's an essential book of management.
Rating:
Summary: An essential book
Review: The balanced scorecard can be thought of as the "strategic chart of accounts" for an organization. It captures both the financial and the nonfinancial elements of a company's strategy and discusses the cause-and-effect relationships that drive business results. It allows, for the first time, an organization to look ahead - using leading indicators - instead of only looking back using lagging indicators. The balanced scorecard puts strategy - the key driver of results today - at the center of the management process.
It's an essential book of management.
Rating:
Summary: Overcome Poor Communications and Bureaucracy for New Actions
Review: The Balanced Scorecard looks at the important issues of alignment, coordination, and effective implementation. Most business thinkers like to start with the big picture, and end there. As a result, most ideas for going in a new direction are quickly diluted by misunderstanding, falling back on old habits, and lethargy. Since Peter Drucker first popularized the idea of business strategy, there have been vastly more strategies conceived than there have been strategies successfully implemented as a result. Much attention has been paid to devising better strategies in the last four decades, and little to implementing strategies. The big pay-off is in the implementation, and The Balanced Scorecard is one of handful of books that provide important and valuable guidance to explain what needs to be done to successfully execute strategy. You must have more measures, and different measures than the accounting system provides. You also need to link measures and compensation to the key tasks that each person must perform. This book is simply the Rosetta Stone of communicating and managing strategy. The Balanced Scorecard is the beginning of the practical period of maturity in the field of business strategy. Read this book today to enjoy much more prosperity! I also recommend that you read The Fifth Discipline, The Fifth Discipline Handbook, and The Dance of Change to understand more about the context in which you are trying to make positive change. These four books are excellent companions for each other.
Rating: 
Summary: OK
Review: The book is somewhat helpful, but given the current conditions, it is no longer applicable. I would rather go for the new book Six Sigma Business Scorecard, which is a surprisingly good modification and has a new revolutionary theme to it.
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