Identifying key drivers of business performance helps to establish the right performance measures, but the measurement system is more likely to be successful if it can be embedded in everyday work processes. The greatest benefit comes from a system which enables you to learn strategically.

Noting the claim that 70 per cent of balanced scorecard implementations fail, sets out to explore the two main reasons for the failure of measurement systems – namely poor design and difficulty of implementation. Considers the measurement revolution over the past 20 years noting developments...

In an age of an ever‐increasing number of mergers and acquisitions, why do so many fail? Throughout the 1990s, and on into the 2000s the newspapers are full of reports of frenetic M&A activity. Yet horror stories highlighting failed mergers and acquisitions – AT&T, Quaker Oats, Disney, Sony,...

This article describes and illustrates the practical application of a new measurement framework – The Performance Prism – which addresses the shortcomings of many of the traditional measurement frameworks being used by organisations today. The Performance Prism, with its comprehensive...

There is massive interest within the financial community in ways of improving and shortcutting the arduous process of planning and budgeting. Sponsored by Accenture, researchers at Cranfield School of Management’s Centre for Business Performance reviewed the literature and interviewed 15...

The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a management tool that helps to align behavior of all employees to the organization’s strategy. Research suggests that about half of large US firms have already adopted the BSC and many more are considering implementation. Organization‐wide implementation of a...

The design and use of performance measurement systems has received considerable attention in recent years. Many organizations have redesigned their measurement systems to ensure that they reflect their current environment and strategies. But how to maintain them over time? Increasingly, the...

Much research has been done into capital planning approaches on both sides of the Atlantic over several decades, but it has tended to be one‐dimensional – focusing almost exclusively on the application of financial appraisal techniques. Meanwhile little has been done to examine either the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of performance plumbing, arguing that too often performance management systems in organisations are not correctly installed. Without the appropriate plumbing, performance management systems do not drive organisational change and...

Purpose – This paper seeks to measure in a quantitative way the degree of alignment among a set of performance measures between two organizations. Design/methodology/approach – This paper extends Venkatraman's test of coalignment to assess the alignment of a set of performance measures...