Balanced Reporting

Well, I’m here in Mauritius and I’ve been having an interesting time.

I spent a few days with the Board of PAPA (the Pan African Productivity Association) discussing the productivity status and opportunities in Africa.  Many of the productivity centres and champions are working under a range of funding, cultural and political constraints but there was consensus about some of the big challenges and around some of the necessary infrastructure elements that need to be put in place to underpin productivity development.  

This is something we should all watch with interest  - Africa’s productivity is important to us all in terms of helping the world solve the 3 great problems of food security, energy availability and universal access to fresh, clean water.

I was then fortunate enough to attend a session led by the great Robert Kaplan, one of the creators of the Balanced Scorecard concept and model.  Amongst other things, it was interesting to see the development of the model from measurement scorecard to strategic planning catalyst. Robert gave several examples of companies that have deployed Balanced Scorecard and used it to transform their understanding of the business and shape its future.  Importantly he cited the use of the Scorecard to support strategy execution and evaluation as key to longer-term success.  My biggest, single ‘takeaway’ message was that ”Strategy is important, but execution is what delivers.”

Tomorrow, I am flying home - to more mundane (but no less important) issues, concerns, projects and activities.