A Balanced Scorecard of Blu

A Balanced Scorecard empowers an organization’s strategy with focus and purpose (Chow, 1997). When Kaplan and Norton developed the Balanced Scorecard method they were focused on finding a way to identify organization’s indicators for strong future performance (Chow, 1997). Things like past accounting or previously successful product development approaches are not going to help predict the future market trends or tell much about what actually helped grow an organization’s market share (Chow, 1997). The Balanced Scorecard approach leverages the idea that one may identify useful information when historically unambiguous, and objective goals are combined with some non-financial signals (Kaplan & Norton, 1996). Managers have created a Balanced Scorecard when “they have supplement traditional financial measures with non-financial measures (Kaplan & Norton, 1996). Integrating financial and non-financial measures creates the best picture on what to expect from an organization moving forward but those two indicators are often difficult to describe (Chow, 1997).
Financial measures are historical, composed by values of dollars and cents, and have limited scope for navigating the future (Kaplan & Norton, 1996). For example, Blu identified goals for financial metrics associated with station construction cost. Although those construction goals were met, evolving measures of technology combined with unexpected labor cost placed the financial success for every station in-jeopardy. Future station construction goals had to undergo extensive evaluation as a result and the initial success of meeting targets were mitigated.
The Balanced Scorecard approach addresses gaps in strategy by linking financial and non-financial factors back to the organizatio...

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...the next six months (Arave, 2014). As a financial target, stations must operate at a positive cash-flow. The metrics used for those standards are reviewed in monthly corporate meetings. A recommendation for Blu is the monthly reviews should be reviewed on a weekly basis for as long as the financial targets are missed. The initiatives moving forward should focus on establishing undeniable customer value which will result in an overall increase in LNG product sales at current locations. Blu has a low Balanced Scorecard rating for its financial goals, two out of five. The organization has missed financial targets at every strategic review and that is why the organization receives a low score on its financial perspective. Although Blu has missed many of its financial targets, the organization is still in business so it should receive a score better than a zero or a one.