BOOK REVIEW

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BOOK REVIEW

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This all started in 1992 when their first article, "The Balanced Scorecard: Measures that Drive Performance," appeared in the Jan/Feb 1992 issue of the Harvard Business Review (HBR) by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton introduced the Balanced Scorecard, a revolutionary performance measurement system that allowed organizations to quantify:

intangible assets such as people, information, and customer relationships.

Later, in The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton showed how organizations achieved breakthrough performance with a management system that put the Balanced Scorecard into action.

Based on in vogue research with hundreds of Balanced Scorecard adopters across the globe, the authors have created a powerful new tool--the "strategy map“.

This enables companies to describe the links between intangible assets and value creation with a clarity and precision.

This book believed that most critical aspect of strategy is:

“Implementing it in a way that ensures

sustained value creation” BUT

DEPENDS on managing four key internal processes:

I. Operations,II. Customer relationships,III.Innovation, andIV.Regulatory and social processes.

This book make an emphasis that:how companies can use strategy maps to

link those processes to:1. Desired outcomes;2. Evaluate,3. Measure, and4. Improve the processes most critical to

success;

WITH PRIME FOCUS ON:

1. Target investments in human (HRD & HDI)2. Informational (Key Resource) and3. Organizational capital (Financial aspect)

Later on authors proposed that "while executives appreciated a more comprehensive new performance measurement system, they wanted to use their new system in a more powerful application than we had originally envisioned.

The executives wanted to apply the system to solve the more important problem they faced -- how to implement new strategies.”

This book take the lead from earlier articles / books of Kaplan & Norton, they observed five common principles of a Strategy-Focused Organization:

1. Translate the strategy to operational terms

2. Align the organization to the strategy

3. Make strategy everyone's job

4. Make strategy a continual process

5. Mobilize change through executive leadership

In “Strategy Maps” we have two separate but related components:

1. Further development and refinement of core concepts introduced in the earlier two books, and

2. In depth examination of new ideas and new applications by which to convert intangible assets into tangible outcomes.

For compilation of book….Data from 300 plus organizations provided extensive database of strategies, strategy maps, and balanced scorecards.

This abundance of material has revealed a number of strategies and tactics by which literally any organization regardless of size or nature. (demerit)

The strategies and tactics are embraced within three targeted approaches for aligning intangible assets to strategy:1. Strategic job families that align human capital to the strategic themes (SJ = HCM + STh)

2. The strategic IT portfolio that aligns information capital to the strategic themes (ICT = IR + STh)

3. An organization change agenda that integrates and aligns organizational capital for continued learning and improvement in the strategic themes. (FM = KM + STh)

Scheme of study revolves around three basic components and move from:

Value-Creating Processes to Intangible Assets and Building Strategies & Strategy Maps.

This conclusion can be based on philosophy "You can't manage (third component) what you

can't measure (second component) [and] you can't measure what you can't describe (first component)."

The only missing element in the book from my perspective is how to make strategy maps more compelling for the viewers.

In nutshell it’s a comprehensive book that guides

well toward strategy that works on to use

intangible assets (INFORMATION as prime

asset) to garnish & achieve tangible assets

(whether in form of Human resource

development or gaining financial efficiency).

Along with this, other observation is the problem

other than miscommunication is setting a

direction that cannot be implemented in the

appropriate time frame.

Thank you

for being a good listener.

You can ask any relevant

question.