The book s key message is that performance measurement should exist for managers, not for a measurement staff. Developing an organization s strategy and measures, the authors argue, should go hand in hand. Discussion about Results Act measures at the Veterans Benefits Administration, for example, led people to realize that the organization traditionally measured only internal operating efficiency, not customer satisfaction. Noting that an important part of the agency s mission was to serve veterans, agency managers established customer satisfaction measures. For the city of Charlotte, N.C., once leaders developed five strategic goals for the city, individual departments could develop performance measures advancing those goals.
Measures also can link an organization s activities and real-world results.
McDonald s, for example, measures the cleanliness of its stores on the theory that cleanliness produces sales, and the Transportation Department measures the condition of interstate highways on the theory that doing so reduces traffic deaths. Although measurement improves performance in a number of ways, Kaplan and Norton concentrate on its potential to align employees behavior with the organization s overall strategy. Performance measures can send a signal about what senior executives believe should be an employee s priorities. Success increasingly depends on getting people on the front lines to come up with ideas that advance the organization s strategy. The aim is making strategy everyone s everyday job, Kaplan and Norton say.