Refreshing the Balanced Scorecard

The flip answer would be as often as it needs to. I would not set a definite period for change, but would rather periodically evaluate whether it should be changed based on changes in objectives, strategies, measures, etc. The periodicity of this review would depend on how dynamic your business context is. If it's constantly changing, you may want to look every quarter, whereas if it's relatively stable, you may go a year or more before evaluating. Just remember you want to look often enough to make sure the scorecard doesn't get stale, and stop being of use in guiding decisions.

I agree with Gavin, and he has some great points about ways to keep it fresh. We also see organizations taking a structured approach to the way they review their strategy.

1. Monthly Reviews - In a monthly review, the leadership team takes a deep dive into part of their strategy, maybe a theme or a particular perspective. They can have a rich discussion on the performance of objectives, measures, and initiatives related to part of their scorecard.

   1. Quarterly Reviews - Here you want to look at your entire scorecard, and spend time focusing on challenges or issues. You can address questions related to resource deployment, and look at re-balancing your initiatives so that you are spending money in the right areas. You also have the opportunity to look at any short-term changes to the business environment that might affect your strategy.

   2. Annual Review - Here you want to spend time with the leadership team asking questions about whether your strategic objectives still apply and whether you should be changing your measures or targets. If you align this with your budgeting process as Gavin suggested, you can use this time to look at new initiatives and what programs you will use to execute your strategy.

It was heading into one of these annual meetings that a company I was working with realized that they had "completed" several of their objectives and that their scorecard represented what they had accomplished rather than what they wanted to accomplish. That is a good sign that you need to refresh your strategy map and underlying measures.

Of course, all of the above are right. Basically there is no answer at the back of the book, but here is what we have learned, in addition to the previous answers; 1) all scorecards need a periodic review in order to catch the small day-to-day shifts that go unnoticed (like watching paint dry). The time period for these periodic reviews depends on the drum-beat of your company. one of our clients manufacture Scotch - with a manufacturing cycle time of about 25 years, they do not feel the need for frequent updates. on the other hand Fedex-Kinkos needs to update theirs' monthly... their 'drum-beat' is much faster. 2) an macro event (internal or external) should trigger a review... but wait until the after-shocks have passed. 3) when ever you are about to make a major strategic play (e.g acquire a significant sector player)

Typically reviews fit into one of four categories: Change the priorities (weightings), linkages (arrows), the Strategic Objectives (bubbles) or the metrics. each of these is used to deal with a different issue. I have a couple of webinars on this on YouTube.