The ability to assess strengths and weaknesses of operations from the balanced scorecard perspective enables the campus to understand the performance as well as the business parts of operations. Lastly, the performance measures are essential for setting strategic directions. A set of comprehensive measures for all major functions greatly improves the campus' ability to address priority performance issues. Business Affairs found that measurements demand a context to be meaningful. The context needs to be campus vision and goals for administrative processes.
Performance is neither good nor poor until operational goals are defined.
For instance, a financial loss may be a planned rebate of excessive income to customers or a matter of poor financial performance. An increase in catering food costs may mean that the service has attracted more high-end catering events or that serving portions and inventory are not being properly managed. It has been noted that sometimes there are complex tradeoffs to achieve a balance among a set of performance measures. Productivity can be at the expense of responsiveness to customer needs. Customer satisfaction can overlook financial viability.