BALANCED SCORECARD INTERVIEW QUESTIONS


Most Important Frequently Asked Balanced Scorecard Interview Questions



    1. Question 1. What Is The Balanced Scorecard?

      Answer :

      Balanced Scorecard is a framework that focuses on shareholder/financial, customer, internal processes and learning requirements of a business in order to create a system of linked objectives, measures, targets and initiatives which collectively describe the strategy of an organization and how that strategy can be achieved.

    2. Question 2. What Are The Benefits Of The Balanced Scorecard?

      Answer :

      Organisations benefit from using the Balanced Scorecard in the following ways:

      • Clearly communicates the vision and strategy across the organization.
      • Enables tracking of strategy implementation, with monthly/periodic reporting.
      • Streamlines initiatives and aligns them with major objectives.
      • Provides focus for the executive teams, clarifies roles and breaks down functional silos.
      • Streamlines and simplifies the strategic planning process.
      • Drives resources allocation and budgeting process.
      • Improves rewards system by linking measures to compensation.

    3. Question 3. How Does The Balanced Scorecard Help In Improving Performance?

      Answer :

      Balanced Scorecard works on the premise that measurement drives performance. Historically, organizations measure performance based purely on financial parameters. The Balanced Scorecard approach lays strong emphasis on measuring key strategic parameters not only financial, but also non-financial parameters. By identifying the top 4-5 strategic objectives within each of the 4 perspectives, the Balanced Scorecard presents a comprehensive picture of a company's strategy.

    4. Question 4. What Are The Applications Of Balanced Scorecard?

      Answer :

      There are several applications to use the Balanced Scorecard to improve performance:

      • Strategy implementation at the Corporate Level
      • Alignment of units / departments strategy with the Corporate Strategy
      • Post Merger integration
      • Joint venture and alliances
      • IT’S Strategy
      • HR Strategy, and rewards alignment
      • Budgeting and resources allocation
      • Initiatives management

    5. Question 5. What Is A Strategy Map And How Is It Different From A Balanced Scorecard?

      Answer :

      Strategy map is a visual representation of the organization’s strategy. It identifies the strategic objectives that the management team needs to focus on, and the linkages (cause- effect relationship) that exist between them. Strategy Map is the starting point for developing the Balanced Scorecard. The Balanced Scorecard translates the organization’s strategy, as identified in the strategy map, into a comprehensive set of performance measures, targets, and set of initiatives, providing a framework for performance management.

    6. Question 6. What Is The Methodology Of Creating The Balanced Scorecard?

      Answer :

      It is a globally and regionally well-tested methodology to develop the Balanced Scorecard.

      The key steps include:

      1. Detailed internal assessment of the organization.
      2. Analysis of the business context for the enterprise, to highlight the existing and potential challenges facing the business.
      3. One-on-one interviews with key management executives/ personnel across the organization. The purpose is to allow the management team to articulate their interpretation of the vision, the financial, customer, internal process, and organizational issues/objectives of the enterprise, their concerns vis-à-vis the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, etc.
      4. Conduct strategy workshop for the management team to gain consensus and finalize the strategic objectives of the organization.
      5. Finalize objectives ownership amongst the management team, and recommend measures, which are discussed and finalized with the objectives owners during meetings after the strategy workshop.
      6. The set of initiatives to ensure delivery of the objectives, and initiatives mapping are then finalized during the second workshop.
      7. The management team then fills in the actual and sets targets for each measure. These targets are broken down monthly or for the respective period for which the measure has to be reported.

    7. Question 7. How Long Does It Take To Develop The Balanced Scorecard?

      Answer :

      A Corporate scorecard takes around 8 weeks to be developed. The first workshop to finalize the strategy map is conducted at the end of the 6 weeks point, and the second workshop around 2 weeks after that to finalize the Balanced Scorecard.

      If 6-8 departmental cascades are also included, then all scorecards can be completed in around 10-12 weeks. A series of first and second workshops, each separate for Corporate and individual departments are conducted during this time.

    8. Question 8. What Is The Role Of A Scorecard Coordinator?

      Answer :

      A coordinator is extremely important in ensuring the successful implementation of the scorecard.

      The responsibilities include:

      • Receiving all relevant actual for the measures each month from individuals with reporting responsibilities.
      • Receiving update on status of all initiatives from the individual project managers.
      • Integrating all information into the Balanced Scorecard, initiatives Master Plan and Master Schedule each month.
      • Analyzing data to create agenda / key messages for each BSC meetings.
      • Identify strategic issues for each month.
      • Managing calendar of BSC meeting.
      • Circulate advance copies of Balanced Scorecard meeting agenda, strategic issues and data package to management team.
      • Create post meeting documents with agreements, new actions, changes and open issues to be followed up in future meetings.

    9. Question 9. What Type Of Organizations Can Implement The Balanced Scorecard?

      Answer :

      The Balanced Scorecard is a flexible tool, and can be implemented by any kind of organization:

      • Large, medium and small businesses to ensure achievement of revenue / profit objective for its shareholders.
      • Non-profit organizations, to enable delivery of its social objectives, based on the availability of limited resources.
      • Government organizations / departments to enable delivery to the public / community.

    10. Question 10. Can You Develop Balanced Scorecards For Individuals In An Organization?

      Answer :

      It is difficult to deliver on 20-25 performance measures even by a Group of people in an organization. Hence, it is not only difficult but nearly impossible for an individual to deliver on that many measures. It is hence recommended that a set of 4-5 key measures are identified for individuals. These could be cascaded directly from the corporate scorecard, based on the responsibility of the individual.

      Example: a sales related measure is directly cascaded into the Sales head and his team's individual performance measures. Thus, with the individuals achieving their targets will ensure the organization meets its overall goals. However, the individual performance achievement needs to be linked to the bonus and rewards system.

    11. Question 11. What Are The Challenges In Implementing The Scorecard?

      Answer :

      There are a number of challenges in ensuring the successful implementation of the scorecard. However, the key one is lack of senior management commitment. What is important to the boss is important for me. If the CEO or GM is not committed in ensuring that the scorecard is reported monthly, chances are that it will not get reported!

    12. Question 12. Is It Necessary To Implement It Software To Report The Scorecard?

      Answer :

      Though not completely necessary, it is beneficial to implement an IT solution to automate reporting of the scorecard. It simplifies the process of physically compiling the data. However, only data available on the legacy/ERP system can be captured from the system. Certain measures (eg. Customer Satisfaction Index) may have to be compiled and reported into the scorecard manually. A large number of software’s are available for this purpose, based on the size and requirements of the organization.

    13. Question 13. Is It “balanced Scorecard” Or “balanced Score Card?”

      Answer :

      Correct spelling is “Balanced Scorecard” or “BSC.” Wrong spelling: balanced scorecard (lower case), Balanced Score Card, BSc, bsc.

    14. Question 14. Who Are The Authors Of The Balanced Scorecard?

      Answer :

      The idea was first suggested in the early 1990s by Drs. Robert Kaplan and David Norton. The website of Balanced Scorecard Institute is a must-visit reference point for historical information, as well as for practical advice on BSC.

    15. Question 15. Who Use It?

      Answer :

      Any organization has a strategy, even small businesses and individuals, so with some modifications the Balanced Scorecard can be used by any organization, including non-profits. According to a study by Gartner Group, over 50% of large organizations have adopted the Balanced Scorecard.

    16. Question 16. Why Businesses Use It?

      Answer :

      The root of the problem is that the strategic picture in the minds of top managers is not the same as a picture in the minds of line-level employees. Studies by the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative report show that more than 95% of employees don’t understand an organization’s strategy. This leads organizations to a less effective and efficient execution.

      Balanced Scorecard supposed to help fix this problem by aligning top level goals with line level actions, and thus make the strategy execution process more trackable.

      Here we have more facts about the Balance Scorecard that shed light on how widely it is used and what problems it solves.

    17. Question 17. Is It About Key Performance Indicators?

      Answer :

      In its earlier versions it looked more like performance measurement framework where measures (not necessary the key performance indicators) played a significant role. Now the measures are responsible for tracking strategy execution, but I’d say that the main part is a strategy map with business goals connected by cause-and-effect links. Metrics are still there, but they are not the main goal of the game.

    18. Question 18. What Are The Key Principles Of The Balanced Scorecard?

      Answer :

      I’m simplifying, but for my opinion these are 3 most important principles:

      • Cause-and-effect relationship between objectives.
      • Showing how customer value is created and how it is linked to the organization’s goals.
      • Aligning measures and initiatives with objectives.

    19. Question 19. What Is The Balanced Scorecard Process?

      Answer :

      It varies from business to business and from consultant to consultant. Here is the one that we recommend for strategy execution in general, and for the Balanced Scorecard in particular.

    20. Question 20. What If A Company Has A Balanced Scorecard With Many Kpis, But Without Strategy Map?

      Answer :

      Balanced Scorecard is a buzz word. As with any buzz word some confusion are inevitable. A set of 100+ KPIs is not a Balanced Scorecard, it is KPI scorecard. It would be more correct to call those business tools a dashboard or simply a scorecard. Here the difference between a dashboard and a scorecard is explained.

    21. Question 21. Are The Any Approaches Similar To The Balanced Scorecard?

      Answer :

      Business executives always use a combination of several tools. There are frameworks that address the problem of strategic planning and execution: Hoshin Kanri, 7-S, OKRs, Business Model Generation. And for sure there are many more supporting tools like SWOT, gap analysis, risk assessment, etc. In practice there is always a mix of different business tools.

    22. Question 22. Do I Need Software To Work With The Balanced Scorecard?

      Answer :

      For my opinion the answer is “yes.” Otherwise you are at risk to spend more time on the design and might face motivation problems. Check out our shopper’s guide for the strategy execution software.

      A common sense note: before getting to the automation tools you need to be sure about your strategy and business goals.

    23. Question 23. What’s The Biggest Challenge About The Balanced Scorecard? How To Solve It?

      Answer :

      According to our informal surveys the biggest challenge is motivation to start using and keep using the Balanced Scorecard. In this article we discussed how to solve the problem. Another big challenge is to find proper performance measures.

    24. Question 24. How To Find The Right Kpis For The Scorecard?

      Answer :

      First, it is a good idea to understand the difference between metrics, measures, KPIs. The biggest mistake would be to take performance indicators from some list on the Internet. Instead, focus first on the business goals, and indicators will appear naturally. Here is the process for the KPIs that we recommend.

    25. Question 25. What Does Balanced Scorecard Cascading Mean?

      Answer :

      The idea of cascading (in the case of the Balanced Scorecard is also called “alignment”) is about translating top level objectives down to the lower levels (and vice versa). The key idea is that cascading is done by business goals, not by KPIs. Here you will find examples of some typical approaches to the cascading.

    26. Question 26. How To Use Balanced Scorecard For …?

      Answer :

      There are no specific rules for specific business niches. The guiding ideas that strategists use for a retail company are similar to the ideas that one will use for a hotel business. Still, having some examples is always a good idea.



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