The integration of these four perspectives into a one graphical appealing picture has made the Balanced Scorecard method very successful as a management methodology.

Implementation Issues & Difficulties:

There are 3 issues that contribute to the success of any measurement managed organization.

• First, in order to be successful, a mission statement, objectives and related strategy needs to be in place. These provide a preliminary focus.

• Second, there needs to be a great deal of communication and training prior to the introduction of a corporate scorecard. It is advisable to implement a pilot project before introducing the scorecard since this allows one to learn some valuable lessons. Also, a scorecard should not be introduced unless its is clear what is to be achieved. No organization should allow itself to drift or be pressurized by the literature into implementing a scorecard unless it has a very good idea of what it expects to get out of it.

• Third, at the outset, top management must be committed to the project and must send that message out to the rest of the organization. The importance of top management commitment and motivation cannot be sufficiently emphasized. They must be totally committed to the entire process and ensure that the task is given adequate priority. It is also essential to involve as many opinion leaders as possible in the initial process, particularly for the purpose of recruiting a number of highly motivated missionaries for the work later on.

Actual usage of the balanced scorecard

Kaplan and Norton found that companies are using the scorecard to:

• Clarify and update budgets
• Identify and align strategic initiatives
• Conduct periodic performance reviews to learn about and improve strategy.

Balanced scorecards have been implemented by government agencies, military units, corporate units and corporations as a whole, nonprofits, and schools; many sample scorecards can be found via Web searches, though adapting one organization's scorecard to another is generally not advised by theorists, who believe that much of the benefit of the scorecard comes from the implementation method.