The represents a newly developed system created in the early 1990’s by David Norton and Drs. Robert Kaplan from Harvard Business School. It is generally known as a “management system (not only a management system) that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action” (Arveson, 1998). The Balanced Scorecard examines both the “internal business processes and external outcomes” (Arveson, 1998) to enhance strategic performance ad results of a company’s business. Although the Balanced Scorecard system uses traditional financial measures, however, it finds them to be inadequate to improve strategic performance of the organization. In its turn, the Balanced Scorecard system proposes to examine the organization from four perspectives: – The Learning and Growth Perspective; This perspective supposes that the organization should imply both individual and corporate various trainings, courses, seminars and other educational programs with the aim of corporate and individual self-improvement.
The founders of the Balanced Scorecard system consider that learning is extremely important for further successful development of the company. – The Business Process Perspective; According to this perspective, the attention should be also focused on internal business processes (namely, support processes and mission oriented processes). The implementation of various business processes and methods allows the managers knowing the peculiarities of their business, “how well their business is running, and whether its products and services conform to customer requirements (the mission) ” (Arveson, 1998). – The Customer Perspective; The Customer Perspective suggests that the company should emphasize on the importance of customer service and satisfaction. According to this perspective, satisfied customer is one of the most important aspects of any business, as it is a compound and important index of future success of the company and its effectiveness in the market. – The Financial Perspective.
Finally, the last but not insignificant perspective includes the traditional demand in financial information. Kaplan and Norton dwell on importance of timely and accurate processing and implementing of the corporate database and other financial-related data.