In our competitive world today, we are all looking for the necessary tools to cope with rapid change, improve customer services and increase efficiencies.

Clear and concise information is crucial to the success of the Balanced Scorecard System.

One of the most revolutionary and effective methodologies to emerge within the past decade has been the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) System, created by David Norton and Robert Kaplan in 1992. The system provides a framework which helps companies to translate their vision and strategies into a set of operational objectives. It also combines disparate management methodologies, such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and Economic Value-added Analysis (EVA) into a single point of focus. An additional strength is that instead of just looking at the bottom line, it seeks to link business strategy with financial performance. As such, the system has been particularly useful for companies involved in managing organisational change - restructures, mergers and acquisitions, business process re-engineering etc.

The Ins and Outs of Change Management
Our own programme of change had come a long way as we restructured and evolved into a customer-oriented Trading Fund mode of operation. We had to move with the times, not only to survive but also to ensure that our customers would enjoy quality and cost-effective services. Working through an eight-stage change programme, we took stock of our situation, created a "guiding coalition" for change, established our first "Mission", gained staff buy-in through a concerted communication programme, took broad-based action, recognised achievements, consolidated gains, and anchored the new approach in the culture. In doing so, there was a need to sustain this new behaviour and openness to change with an effective performance measurement system.

In 1996, we started building our own performance measurement system, which was well accepted for its simplicity and effectiveness. The system grew in complexity however, as we progressed further along our journey to change. We built a Management Information on Performance Measurement System (MIPMS) , enabling each cost centre to formulate their own performance indicators to gauge service performance.

Faced with the BSC concept, we immediately began researching commercial BSC packages to suit our needs. Unfortunately, there were no off-the-shelf packages that seemed to meet our unique trading fund requirements and operational needs. Rather than giving in, we took the strategic decision to build our own BSC on our Intranet in 1998, giving our seven strategic business units their own BSC tools to gauge their performance.

Looking to the Future
Change, even at the best of times, is not easy. However it has enabled us to learn from experience and given us the knowledge and competency to lead complex change management programmes. Our accomplishments and the technical know-how accumulated from building our own BSC within our departmental framework ­ have all come together, enabling us to commercialise and adjust our BSC solutions for customers who have a need for similar services on their Internet or Intranet. We are happy to share our knowledge and experience with our customers.

If you have a complex programme of change before you or would simply like to improve your operational efficiencies, why not have a word with our Quality and Methods Manager, Mr. Frank Tse, who has been so instrumental in driving our programme forward. His experience and insights could save you considerable time and effort. He can be contacted on 2808 3703.

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