Case studies & papers

Note: This is far from a complete list of our case studies. With strategy being such an element of our work, many clients do not want their case studies made public.

Fourth Generation Balanced Scorecard Case studies

Using a Tangible Future: Two contrasting case studies demonstrating the role of the Tangible Future in Fourth Generation Balanced Scorecards.

Keywords techniques: Future thinking, Strategy formulation, Fourth Generation balanced scorecards, Tangible Future, Developing Management Consensus, anticipating uncertainty and risks.
Keywords: Application: City Council balanced scorecard, Manufacturing Company balanced scorecard, Management team meetings, monitoring the external environment.

This paper provides two contrasting case studies for the future thinking stage of modern balanced scoreacrd development. One provides a fifteen year view from the perspective of a city council. The other provides a five year view of a manufactuing company's market. Both use a detailed picture of the future (Tangible Future) to build a common understanding amongst the management team before setting the rate of ambition for the strategy, strategy map and balanced scorecard. This is first case study is typical of third generation balanced scorecards using what sometimes gets called a destination statement or future statement.

In the second, case study, the Tangible Future is also used to identify the assumptions and uncertainties in the environment and market. This expanded the management team's balanced scorecard, so they could monitor the external environment, to ensure their strategy was still appropriate, as their strategy was implemented. This is a part of Excitant’s Fourth Generation Balanced Scorecard approach. Using a Tangible Future: Two contrasting case studies.

Dimensions: A Third Sector, Fourth Generation Balanced Scorecard.

Keywords techniques: Fourth Generation balanced scorecards, Strategy maps, Ownership and adoption, Judgement & Evidence
Keywords: Application: Social Services, Third sector, Regional Strategy, Comparing regional performance, Board reporting.

Dimensions is a third sector provider of services for people with Learning Disabilities. Dimensions helps people with learning disabilities to live the lives they want. We have helped them develop a regional balanced scorecard that reflects their strategy, helps Regional Directors to manage their regions better and works through to the services to ultimately improve the lives of the people they support. This is an extensive case study of a fourth generation balanced scorecard that can be applied to commercial, public sector and Social Service organisations. Dimensions fourth generation balanced scorecard case study.

You can also watch a video presentation that explains the underlying thinking, approach and expands on the case study here: Using judgement and evidence in modern balanced scorecards.

Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund Balanced Scorecard.

Keywords techniques: Fourth Generation balanced scorecards, Strategy maps, Ownership and adoption, Judgement & Evidence
Keywords: Application: Charity, Third sector, Managing funds, Beneficiaries, Board reporting, Charity effectiveness and performance.

There is a need to demonstrate effectiveness and performance across the charity sector. But how do we do it? How do we demonstrate the efficacy of our projects and activities? How do we demonstrate value to our beneficiaries? How do we demonstrate to the Trustee Board that the strategy is being executed? The usual answer is to immediately look for ways to measure performance.

At the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund (the Fund), they took a more subtle approach: an approach that involved maps of their strategy and a modern, strategic, balanced scorecard. The Fund went beyond simply attempting to measure activity and results. They moved to clearly showing what they are doing and how those activities will deliver results. Even in an innovative, lean, charity like the Fund, the techniques used and the process of developing these modern balanced scorecards has had positive effects.

This case study explains the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund’s approach and the benefits the Fund has identified from their charity balanced scorecard: Read the case study, "Introducing a modern balanced scorecard in the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund".  This case study describes using a modern Balanced Scorecard approach to improve the effectiveness and performance of a charity. This is also available as a shorter article from "Trust and Foundation News", the journal of the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF), June 2009.

Third Generation Balanced Scorecards

Using Balanced Scorecards to create growth through synergy across an International Group of Technology Companies:

Keywords techniques: Strategy map, Strategy mapping, Cascading strategy maps, Measures that tell the story, Creating synergy.
Keyword Application: Engineering and Technology, Innovation, International Group, creating growth, Synergy amongst companies.

This detailed case study describes how strategy maps were used to design the balanced scorecards for a newly formed group of international technology companies. This group of companies grew from £80m to £210m over five years. The approach identified where synergy was available from amongst the various companies. The balanced scorecard was then designed to ensure that the synergy was exploited.

This case study is designed to demonstrate how strategy maps are used to discuss strategy, create ownership and how they evolve during that process. A testament to their ownership and adoption, this client was still using the same structure of strategy map five years later. International Technology Company Balanced Scorecard Case Study

Southend Credit Union Balanced Scorecard

Keywords: techniques: Strategy map, Tangible future, management team facilitation
Keyword Application: Credit Union, New management team, Company formation and launch,

Helping the newly formed Southend Credit Union to plan its launch and first few year's development. We used our future thinking and planning approach, with strategy mapping, to help the management team of a Credit Union develop and refine its plans for a successful launch.

Public Sector Case studies

pdf  "The Strategy Focused Council"  This describes using a modern Balanced Scorecard approach to improve the strategy, and performance of a Council.

pdf  Joined up working: The balanced scorecard for strategy in a City Council

pdf Strategy mapping in the NHS:  Improving strategy, focus and performance in an NHS Workforce Development Confederation

General Case studies

pdf  Developing the strategy: Identifying and unlocking synergy between sister companies

pdf  Management team dynamics: Tackling performance and team dynamics.

pdf   Aligning purpose, risk and reward. The balanced scorecard in a partnership/consortium

pdf  IT strategy and the balanced scorecard:  Positioning IT for the future

pdf  Get the Chief Exec on board: Strategy only sticks with support from the top. Example from retail organisation but applies everywhere.

How the balanced scorecard can cure Strategic diseases: Examples of the sorts of diseases organisations can get and how to cure them. A side-ways look at some balanced scorecard case studies with serious underlying messages. Includes:

"The unbalanced organisation": Balanced Scorecard in Retail: How examining the strategy map exposed a potential loss of revenue and income for the future.
"The un-coordinated organisation": Cross organisational synergy:  How our approach exposed opportunities for improved synergy across a group of companies and resulted in the organisation moving up in its national rankings.
"Learning dis-ability": Strategic learning in Management teams: Using strategy maps and strategic learning to improve the effectiveness of management team meetings.
"The lethargic organisation": Changing customer focus and profitability:  Using a "Strategy focused Balanced Scorecard" approach in Financial services to re-orientate the organisation towards more profitable customers.
"Measure mania": Simplifying executive reporting: Example of how we dramatically simplified, and at the same time made clearer, management reporting in a large retailer
"Project bloat": Uncovering £40m worth of savings:  An example of strategic alignment using the Strategy map to assess strategic initiatives and investments.  Resulted in identifying £40m worth of savings from a £100m portfolio of projects.
"The schizoid organisation": Shareholder return and the strategy:  An example of where poorly chosen "Strategic goal" lead to unhelpful management behaviour and, long term, was unachievable.  However the topic had become un-discussable until we revealed it.
"They don't get the strategy":  They do now.  An example where the strategy was not being successfully communicated, until we used our techniques to get the message across in the richest way to all the people.
"Systemic communication failure": Getting the strategy into peoples' heads.  Despite there being a lot of communication, "As is" was continuing.  Two short examples where the strategy was communicated so people understood it.

Some discussion papers: For more, see our balanced scorecard articles.

pdf   Strategic learning: Management meetings drive the learning process

pdf  How to measure performance more effectively: Creating motivation & strategic learning

pdf  Communicating strategy: How to communicate strategy more effectively

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