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Introduction

Strategy is the scope and direction and scope organization over the long term to

achieve its objectives. In formulating its strategy, an organization must methodically

understand the industry in which it operates. Organization success depends on its need to

take into account the firm, its competitors, suppliers, customers, and its employees. If all

these are not monitored properly and the linkages not understood correctly, then it can

impede the performance of an organization (Porter, 1985). It is now more important for

top management to understand the performance standards the organization has to achieve,

also to ensure that information is properly communicated to all employees.

Balanced Scorecard

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a strategic performance management

framework that allows organizations to measure and manage the delivery of their strategy

(Kaplan and Norton, 1992). Presently, a company’s financial statements cannot properly

capture the kind of measurements needed because the traditional methods of measuring

focused on financial indicators. The intangible assets which are important but their

presence or absence does not show on the balance sheet and does not alert the employees,

customers shareholders and the community to the worth real of a company. The need to

integrate financial and non-financial measures of performance within the strategic

process led to the devised of BSC (Kaplan and Norton, 1996).

Scorecards vs. Dashboards

Both scorecards and dashboards support performance management. Although

both elements are used for quite similar purposes, they are totally different. Although

they cannot be used at the same time, their functionalities vary.

Scorecards

A scorecard is a tool intended for controlling the progress toward strategy proceeding,

but not entirely. As a universal tool, scorecards are being often used for all purposes

connected with strategy from inventing it, to measuring the progress. Hence, this tool is

rather for managers focused on tight range of company's operations. Scorecards measure

the progress towards the strategy. Scorecards are being used by all employees connected

with realizing the strategy, irrespective of management-level they're placed on.

Dashboards

In comparison to scorecards, dashboards enable another perspective. Being thought to

consider the entire company's performance, dashboards allow managers to focus on what

is actually important for them and they can immediately dive into more detailed data, if

needed.

Differences between scorecards and dashboards

Dashboards are being used for measuring general performance and its core

aspects. They do not constrain managers to focus exclusively on strategy.

Dashboards are generally being often used by executives. Regularly, specialists have also

an access to them, while they are not being provided for employees from lower levels of

company management. Regarding data timeliness, in case of dashboards, is complex.

Data is not updated in real-time, but in right-time, which means it addresses user's needs.

Dashboards present data concerning each event. Finally, with dashboards data may be

visualized or, if a user wants, presented raw.

Scorecards
 Scorecards, similar to dashboards, provide their users with multiple

functionalities, and it is not possible to establish which ones are generally better. It

depends on their users, users' requirements, company's type, and other factors.
 References

Porter, M. E. (1985). The structure within industries and companies’ performance.

Review of Economics and Statistics, 61(2), 214-227.

Kaplan, S. R., & Norton, P.D. (1996). Using the Balanced Score Card as a Strategic

Management System.