Winning Score: How to Design and Implement Organizational Scorecards (Quality Management)

This book goes a long way towards helping organizations actually implement balanced scorecards instead of giving them lip service. It also shows what to measure and why, and gives a list of measurement mistakes that render many company's balanced scorecard efforts meaningless.Unlike Kaplan's and Norton's seminal (and decade old) book, "The Balanced Scorecard", this book is short on theory and heavy on practical applications. This is not a criticism of "The Balanced Scorecard" - just recognition of the fact that in the ensuing decade since that book was first published there have been lesson's learned about what does and does not work. The author distills these lesson's learned into this slim, content-filled book.What I like most is the author clearly links metrics to vision, mission and strategy. This is what a balanced scorecard is supposed to be about, but this is not always so in practice. He also sorts out the difference between basic business indicators and critical success factors, which is augmented by an outstanding discussion (throughout the book) on top measurement mistakes, and a liberal sprinkling of tips throughout the book.Probably the most valuable parts of the book are Part 3, where step-by-step procedures are given to implement an *effective* scorecard, and the appendices which contain case studies drawn from real organizations and actual scorecards. The examples given are worth their weight in gold and elevate this book from the theoretical to realistic and practical. My highest recommendation and 5 solid stars.

Mark Graham Brown has produced another useful, direct, and informative business book. I found the checklists and interview questions especially helpful in my executive coaching and consulting practice.A couple of clients dampened my enthusiasm with concerns over terminology and level of sophistication for implementation, but the material actually helped me to pinpoint their concerns and address their questions. If you're doing Scorecards, get this book.