The application of the balanced scorecard as a means of measurement of business activities

Abstract

The Balanced Scorecard is a contemporary performance management and strategic alignment tool, developed by Kaplan and Norton in the early 1900s and culminated by the 1996 publication 'The Balanced Scorecard'. The Balanced Scorecard differs from other performance management programmes in that it is a multi-perspective approach to achieving long term sustained growth and should be viewed more as a strategy formation system than a pure measurement system. The Balanced Scorecard has gained acceptance world wide and it is estimated that half of the Fortune 1000 companies have Balanced Scorecards in one form or another in place. This approach has also gained favour in South Africa, and several notable South African companies have implemented or are implementing Balanced Scorecards, examples of these are De Beers and Telkom. This dissertation focused on the effects of the Balanced Scorecard on a strategic business unit within the Anglo American Corporation. This has been done in order to observe the Balanced Scorecard in a South Afrjcan context and to record the influence the Balanced Scorecard had on the strategic business unit's success. It is hoped that this dissertation may provide the basis for a more complete study of the Balanced Scorecard's effects on South African companies, with the possibility existing of someday adapting the Balanced Scorecard to South Africa's unique business environment.