Is Your Balanced Scorecard Still Relevant? Global Survey Insights?

First developed by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton in 1992, the Balanced Scorecard was designed to balance traditional financial measures with non-financial metrics like customer satisfaction, internal processes, and learning and growth.

A Balanced Scorecard is a strategic performance management framework that helps organizations align business activities with vision and strategy. By balancing financial and non-financial measures, it provides a comprehensive view of performance. Wondering what a balanced scorecard is in business? 

It’s a roadmap for executing strategy effectively, fostering accountability, clear communication, and continuous improvement across teams, ensuring everyone moves in the same direction toward long-term goals. Today, over 70% of Fortune 500 companies reportedly use some form of the BSC. (Harvard Business Review)

• The Palladium 2024 Global Strategy Execution Benchmark Report: According to Palladium’s annual survey, 87% of high-performing organizations still integrate BSC principles but now blend them with agile strategy maps and OKRs (Objectives & Key Results). (Palladium Group)
• Gartner’s 2025 Performance Management Trends: Gartner predicts that by 2026, 40% of large enterprises will combine BSC-style dashboards with real-time digital analytics, using AI to update KPIs dynamically. 
• The Balanced Scorecard Institute’s Community Pulse: In the Balanced Scorecard Institute’s latest community survey, over 60% of respondents said their scorecards now include sustainability metrics and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) targets, elements rarely tracked when the BSC was first conceived. (Balanced Scorecard Institute)

Why Some Organizations Are Recalibrating

• The BSC still works when updated: Case studies by McKinsey & Company show that organizations using a living scorecard that integrates continuous feedback loops outperform peers by up to 30% on strategic execution. 
• Flexible frameworks win: A 2024 MIT Sloan Management Review article highlights companies that blend BSC with OKRs, achieve higher agility without losing strategic alignment. (MIT Sloan)
• The human factor matters: Research by Harvard Business School shows that organizations using the BSC purely as a reporting tool fail to get results. Its real power lies in strategy, communication, and culture alignment. 

Real-World Examples

The following are balanced scorecard examples you must know:

• Siemens: In order to ensure alignment with its long-term sustainability plan, Siemens modified their Balanced Scorecard to incorporate innovation capability and ESG targets. (Report on Siemens Sustainability)
• Unilever: By incorporating the BSC into its Sustainable Living Plan, Unilever makes sure that financial outcomes are monitored in tandem with social and environmental KPIs.
• Local Governments: In addition to financials, municipalities employ contemporary BSC frameworks to monitor service delivery results and citizen involvement, according to the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). (ICMA Performance Management Resource Center)

• Adopt Real-Time Data: Integrate your BSC with dashboards that use IoT, ERP, and CRM data streams to automatically refresh.
• Include DEI and ESG Measures: Stakeholders nowadays are concerned about your social and environmental impact. To maintain credibility, include these KPIs in your scorecard.
• Including OKRs in Agility: To enable teams to make quick adjustments without losing sight of the broader picture, overlay your long-term strategic objectives with shorter-term OKRs.
• Automate Reporting: Connect KPIs to performance in real time by utilizing cloud-based tools such as Oracle EPM Cloud, SAP Strategy Management, or Balanced Scorecard Pro.
• Create an Ownership Culture: Don't just use the BSC as a dashboard; use it as a communication tool. The scorecard is actionable through open performance conversations, town halls, and frequent strategy check-ins.

The Balanced Scorecard is far from obsolete, but it must evolve. Organizations that treat it as a static relic lose relevance. Those that refresh it to embrace real-time data, ESG demands, agility, and human-centered leadership keep it at the heart of strategy execution.