Balanced Scorecard as a Strategy of Life

The “Balanced Scorecard” in origin is a management strategy, developed by Drs. Robert Kaplan and David Norton in early 1990’s. It was a new approach to strategic management, based on viewing the activity of any company from four perspectives; which you can see on the scheme below. 

A lot of companies succeeded owing to this strategy, but now the subject is a bit different: "If you could use “Balanced Scorecard” in your own life?" First of all let’s see, what is a person itself? Could it be considered a little company? Of course, and unconscionably we apply the principles of “Balanced Scorecard” very often, because in companies the charges are distributed, and very often one hand doesn’t know about the other and doesn’t see the strategy  as a whole and this leads to unbalancing; so for one person it much easier to cope with this task. But purposeful applying of the “Balanced Scorecard” can lighten the process of systematization and show the progress. When you see the results it’s much easier to continue the implementation of plans.

Now, let’s have a look at the scheme. All the subjects in it are interrelated, and as you’ll see it’s really so.

Learning and growth. In the life of modern individual it is presents from the first days of life. Today almost everybody gets the secondary education, so it’s out of question. The next step is to get higher education. But it doesn’t mean that if you have already graduated from college it‘s enough for the rest of your life. In comparison with the beginning of the 20th century, nowadays the world develops much faster, so you need to correspond to it. It’s like the goods at the market – the better one has the higher price. “Learning and growth” in professional sense is obviously essential. At the same time it is very important to clarify the direction of development. So we go to the second subject  

Internal business processes. Here you should analyze whether your proposal confirms the requirement. It means that you need to specify the area of application of gained skills and knowledge and see if you need some more training, or practice or whatever. Maybe you need to make some changes (find another work or develop a new profession, or just change the image). And you need to check how the changes influence on the situation in whole and what should be amended.

Customer. In our case the customer is an employer. It is obvious that if he is not satisfied, sooner or later he will find somebody else for your place. And on the opposite – if you possess the required qualities, and can show it, the success is guaranteed.

Financial is the last but very important item. It is the most demonstrative, as by the financial condition you can easily determine if you are succeeding or your strategy needs correction. It will also help to make long-term plans taking into consideration present state of affairs and changes you are expecting in the future.

And of course, like any company you should take into consideration different unforeseeable consequences to undertake the necessary steps in time. The “Balanced Scorecard” in its name concludes the main principle – all four components should be balanced! So, “Internal business processes” has the straight influence on “Learning and growth” and “Financial”:  you choose the process according to your education, skills and financial situation and with the purpose of improving of the last, but to gain new knowledge you need money. The same wit the “Customer”: you choose the job and the employer chooses you when you come to terms with financial position and your professionalism.

The criteria of appraisal may be different, but the meaning will be the same, and with time the “Balanced Scorecard” may transform into the way of life.  

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