Rating: 
Summary: Extremely detailed, highly informative, dryly written
Review: The Strategy-Focused OrganizationBuilding on their Balanced Scorecard approach, Kaplan and Norton have developed an impressive framework in The Strategy-Focused Organization for the implementation of strategy. They have found that 90% of strategic initiatives fail due not to formulation but to implementation difficulties. Successful implementation of strategy requires all parts of an organizations to be aligned and linked to the strategy, while strategy itself must become a continual process in which everyone is involved. The Balanced Scorecard, originally seen by the authors as a measurement tool, is now presented as a means for implementing strategy by creating alignment and focus.
Financial measures report on lagging financial indicators. The Balanced Scorecard aims to report on the drivers of future value creation. The book shows in detail how this is done from four perspectives: Financial, customer, internal business perspective, and learning and growth (these are outlined on p.77). These four perspectives produce a highly detailed framework when combined with the five principles of a strategy-focused organization: 1: Translate the strategy to operational terms. 2: Align the organization to the strategy. 3: Make strategy everyone's everyday job. 4: Make strategy a continual process. 5: Mobilize change through executive leadership.
Absorbing every detail of this book will require many hours. The sheer detail of this complex system requires considerable attention, perhaps more than some readers can muster, but clearly distinguishes this work from many books full of business fluff. The style tends to be turgid and pedantic while being admirably complete. Readers can grasp the essence of the book's central points by reading only Chapter 1 (Creating the Strategy-Focused Organization), Chapter 3 (Building Strategy Maps), and Chapter 8 (Creating Strategic Awareness). Skip quickly through the chapters in Part Two: Aligning the Organization to Create Synergies. This section is the least engaging of the five. The balanced scorecard approach to strategy will appeal to those with a systematizing frame of mind. The book is filled with complex diagrams of corporate processes consisting of interrelated boxes and forces.
This approach is extremely detailed and complex. It requires a major commitment and effort. Though the authors claim it can be implemented by smaller organizations, this will be more challenging than for large companies who can commit a team full time to working out the details.
Much of the value of the approach may lie not so much in following through on completely working out the balanced scorecard but on absorbing the lessons regarding organizational integration across silos and the importance of clarity about mission, strategy, and goals. The balanced scorecard is one way to achieve and implement this clarity but not the only way. Another would be continual reiteration of these (as in Confessions of An Extraordinary Executive). Some companies may benefit from strict use of this system, including finding units of measurement for its implementation. Others will gain much from applying the insights without such a formal and complete implementation.
Rating: 
Summary: More Harvard drivel
Review: The title from the review is borrowed from Maslow. Its choice is inspired by the fact that the authors try to promote the balanced scorecard as THE solution to *any* problem a company has. I agree on the value of Balanced Scorecards as a measurement tool. I also acknowledge the fact that what you measure will strongly influence the path your organization will follow. (One of the discoveries of sytems thinking is that the fact of measuring something changes the system.) However, there is MORE to strategy and to human motivation than just making measurable goals. As the authors note, an important question for strategy is whether it gets implemented, but measurement or scorecards aren't key in that. For stragegy, one needs to energize the whole company-system, so you have to combine scorecards with principles as the one you'll find in books as "Appreciative Inquiry" or "Whole-Scale Change". Likewise, for human motivation you have to make sure you get the right person on the right place (as we show at jobEQ.com) and as you can read in my book "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence". Indeed, my experience has learned me that when Balanced scorecards fail, the reason has to do with the factors that these other books will mention. My rating for this book is the result of the observation that Kaplan and Norton "overstrech" the usability and impact their useful technology has.
Rating: 
Summary: if you only have a hammer, you see every problem as a nail
Review: The title from the review is borrowed from Maslow. Its choice is inspired by the fact that the authors try to promote the balanced scorecard as THE solution to *any* problem a company has. I agree on the value of Balanced Scorecards as a measurement tool. I also acknowledge the fact that what you measure will strongly influence the path your organization will follow. (One of the discoveries of sytems thinking is that the fact of measuring something changes the system.) However, there is MORE to strategy and to human motivation than just making measurable goals. As the authors note, an important question for strategy is whether it gets implemented, but measurement or scorecards aren't key in that. For stragegy, one needs to energize the whole company-system, so you have to combine scorecards with principles as the one you'll find in books as "Appreciative Inquiry" or "Whole-Scale Change". Likewise, for human motivation you have to make sure you get the right person on the right place (as we show at jobEQ.com) and as you can read in my book "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence". Indeed, my experience has learned me that when Balanced scorecards fail, the reason has to do with the factors that these other books will mention. My rating for this book is the result of the observation that Kaplan and Norton "overstrech" the usability and impact their useful technology has.
Rating:
Summary: suitable for small-medium size companies too.
Review: This book has been on my shelves for 2 months before i read it. I know this is an important work, but I initially think it will only be suitable to large corporations.
After reading it i realize that this can ultimately be apiled to small/med size companies. Companies with revenue of less than 500K USD/year revenue can reap similar benefit compare to the fortune 500 companies by implementing it.
The samples shown in the book make it easier for the reader to copy and adapt for their own organisation. Most samples are derived from the big-companies (typical harvar business book ;-))), but we can adapt it to our (small company) needs.
Focus on chapter 3, about STRATEGY MAP. this is most important. And the GENERIC STRATEGY MAP can be appleid to most organisation with minimum of ajustments. COPY and ADAPT. we can not afford to hire the expensive consultants, so we have to be our own consultant. And this book is a good guide.
Most small companies do not even have VISION, MISSION etc statements. But the balance scorecard helps us focus on strategy, objectives, measures, target and INITIATIVES that are measurable, in a more descreptive ways. This is in a sense a HOW-TO book about strategy, and about measurements.
I've decided to use the sytem for our company sam-design.com which now has 58 people, and sell the intangibles (designs). We won Andersen Consulting (Accenture now) award of ENTERPRISE-50 (awards for most promising small and medium size companies in Indonesia) last November. We think that the strategy describe in the book will boost our company's growth despite the slowdown of the internet.
I started to read the book with much skeptism but ended up recommending it to many friends, write a review about it for local magazine and promoting the idea of strategy based on balance scorecard. ( I did read the original balance scorecard book which was published in 96, interested in the idea for a while but did not implement any of it).
So for the small companies out there, go and get the book, this is not only for the big-boys....
Rating:
Summary: A framework for placing Strategy where it belongs...
Review: This is a critical piece of work that should pass the test of time. In commenting on the value of this book, I'd like to draw some parallels with IT Architecture Frameworks as implemented today.
During the same period that Zachman was developing his IT Architecture Framework, various business and management thinkers were looking for ways to adequately capture the importance of the "intangible" or non-financial assets of the organization. Notable in this respect were the attempts of Yugi Ijiri (Momentum Accounting and Triple-Entry Booking, American Accounting Association, 1989), and Robert Kaplan and David Norton (The Balanced Scorecard, Harvard Business School Publishing 1996).
Especially the efforts of Kaplan and Norton were implemented by various large-scale organizations - often in a different way than anticipated by the authors themselves. In this book, Kaplan and Norton describe their earlier effort as follows: "We first developed the Balanced Scorecard in the early 1990s to solve a measurement problem. ...... But we (subsequently) learned that adopting companies used the Balanced Scorecard to solve a much more important problem than how to measure performance in the information era. The problem, of which we were frankly unaware when first proposing the Balanced Scorecard, was how to implement new strategies."
Messieurs Kaplan and Norton goes on to describe the cause and effect linkages between a company's Mission, the way it interprets its reality and its beliefs (Philosophy and Core Values), how it thinks the future is going to look like (that Vision thing...), its Strategies (or its hypotheses and plans on how to create value), and the actual consequences. As a result, the outcomes should generally lead to a more dynamic and innovative organization, where customers are constantly being provided a delightful experience and real value. In the final instance all this effort should lead to rapid growth and increased productivity, which together results in better financial performance, and happy shareholders.
Seen this way, they define the principles of a Strategy-Focused Organization as follows: translating the strategy to operational terms, aligning the organization to the strategy, making strategy everyone's job, making strategy a continual process, and mobilizing change through executive leadership. These are not just words; instead the methods they have developed have been physically applied at some of the largest and best-run organizations on this planet, with dramatic results. In their recent book "The Strategy Focused Organization" the authors supply many examples on how such insights have assisted Mobil, AT&T Canada, Sears, Fannie Mae, Chase Bank, JP Morgan, the US Department of Transportation, UPS, the State of Washington, and several others to dramatically deliver on their financial and "intangible" goals.
To Zachman's credit, his framework does include motivational constructs like goals, strategies, business plans, and rules. Also, he correctly identifies rapid organizational change as the basic driver for the need to build such a framework, exactly the same concept that has lead to the work of Kaplan and Norton.
However, it has become clear now that organizational change is a response to changing realities in the marketplace. Therefore any attempt to deal with this change should be subject to the organizations understanding of its reality, and its response to it - in other words: its strategy.
What Kaplan and Norton have brought to the table is a framework for creating value from strategy, and the realization that this implies a continual focus on strategy. In their understanding it is imperative that this focus, the logic thereof, and the flow (or how it effects every decision in the organization) is clearly spelled out to every employee. And, this process has to start at the top. According to them, "Experience has repeatedly shown that the single most important condition for success is the ownership and active involvement of the executive team. Strategy requires change from virtually every part of the organization. Strategy requires teamwork to coordinate these changes. And strategy implementation requires continual attention and focus on the change initiatives and performance against targeted outcomes. If those at the top are not energetic leaders of the process, change will not take place, strategy will not be implemented, and the opportunity for breakthrough performance will be missed."
Conclusion
Based on the logic, as well as the many success stories stemming from the adoption of the techniques of Kaplan and Norton, it makes definite sense to embrace the idea of focusing on strategy from a corporate perspective. If we do, then we also accept the fact that corporations should use Corporate Culture, Organizational Structure, and Technology to express their strategies.
As such, technology is very often the first line of defense in an organization's response to a change in reality. Therefore, it is becoming critical to reflect this state of affairs in such a way that everyone is aware of its importance. That explains why this also applies to the Zachman framework for Architecture.
At the same time this calls for a shift in approach. By subscribing to this view, it now becomes essential, not only to describe current architecture, or even future developments, but also to link the flow of architecture over time to its real cause - the dynamic strategies of the organization, which in turn is a reflection of changes in the business reality.
In short - An altogether delightful piece of progress. All management thinkers should be (at the very least) aware of this. Buy the Book!
Rating:
Summary: quite ok
Review: this is quite nice book and full of knowledge for me to absorb
Rating:
Summary: Finally, a Substative Honest Business Book
Review: Tired of the many pop-psych business books which talk a lot and say nothing? Then this is the book for you. Here, finally, you get a detailed, intelligent and practical book on how to take your great strategies and actually make them work for you. They take you through detailed examples of where and how their "scorecard" system was put into practice, where it succeeded, and even where it failed. That last bit alone puts this book leagues ahead of the cheerleading that usually pervades business books. There's none of that here - these guys are honest enough to be critical of their own view, which while crucial to practically all scientific achievement, is usually lacking in such books. And even the writing, again as opposed to many business books, is also first rate. It's all masterfully well-thought out and edited. It's a must for anyone interested in business strategy and implementation.
