The Balanced Scorecard

for Strategic Partnerships

The balanced scorecard provides a framework in which you can record the
objectives and corresponding performance indicators of your partnership.

The Balanced Scorecard: An Overview

The goal of the BSC is not to give volumes of details; rather, it is used to:
Record information needed to solve only the most important issues
Direct attention to where it is needed
Ultimately, to guide you toward the right solution
In short, the BSC can help you define and clarify the set of objectives that you
wish to focus on so you can tailor a reporting system to the specific challenges
and activities of your partnership. Additionally the BSC helps to show balance
between the categories of measures, which will show you whether you are
putting too much focus in one category over another.

Formulating Your Objectives

The BSC is constructed to help you clearly visualize your goals in relation to one
another, and track your progress. In order to do that, each objective included in
your BSC must incorporate the following four elements:
An objective you aim to achieve through your partnership; descriptive
Exp: Our objective is to increase customer satisfaction with product
A measure tied to that objective; descriptive
Exp: We will measure customer satisfaction with Product X through
customer surveys
A target, which is the minimum level of desired performance on a
measure and the time frame in which that target should be reached (i.e.
per month, quarter or year); numerical
Exp: We expect to achieve a 90% satisfaction rating from our surveys
An initiative, which outlines how you will go about achieving that target;
descriptive
Exp: The initiatives we will follow to achieve customer satisfaction
include offering 24/7 customer support and 3 year warranties on our
products
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The Balanced Scorecard Categories

Each objective included in your BSC must fit into one of the four BSC categories.
Lets take a look at these categories and the question each is designed to
answer.

Financial
What do we need to achieve to succeed financially?
Some examples of objectives to list in the financial section:
Cash flows
Revenue generated
Serving your audience at the lowest possible cost
Have $X of cash flows attributable to the partnership activities
Grow combined IP value by $X

Customer
To achieve our vision, how should we appear to our customers?
Be specific, as these will be the numbers you will use to determine partnership
success or failure.
Examples:
Customer satisfaction
Brand recognition
Market share
Customer counts and objectives
Customer retention
Growth of customer bases

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Internal processes
To achieve our goals, at what business process(es) must we excel?
Examples:
On-time production of marketing materials
Increases in product quality
Uptime of machinery/equipment
On-time product/service delivery

Learning and Growth

How will we sustain our ability to change and to improve?
Examples:
Regular check-ins on progress
Do we have the right employees to accomplish our objective(s)
If so, how well are they doing at their job
Is additional knowledge and/or training required?
Note: All items in your balanced scorecard should include measurable activities
that you can hold your people/department/function accountable to. They should
not be immeasurable goals, aspirations or generic activities, but concrete actions
you can quantify, which will assist you in determining performance progress by.

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Balanced Scorecard Example

Enough talking about the BSC in theoretical terms. Heres a practical example of
a BSC for a partnership:
Company X specializes in creating signage for small businesses such as
posters and banners. Company Y is a catering company that specializes in
business/corporate parties.
In this simplistic example, Company X partners with Company Y to provide
festive banners for every event catered by Company Y. Heres what their BSC
looks like:

2015 Powerlinx