As middle market strategy execution experts, we get asked many questions about KPI scorecards for firms to manage the metrics that matter. We get hundreds of thousands of yearly views on our KPI blog posts alone! Our comprehensive KPI Guide is one of the most valuable free resources we offer to the middle market community to help with your performance management free of charge. It helps middle-market companies determine the correct set of KPIs for their balanced scorecard KPI dashboard (BSC) to monitor performance. If you are a CEO or executive, you might also want to check our blog on CEO KPIs that management should prioritize. Creating a KPI Scorecard is part of long-term success and essential to any managing strategy to drive organizational performance.
As you'll see below, we have various KPI examples across multiple industries to help you explore some of the more common KPIs middle-market CEOs and their executive teams use to manage their business dashboard. You'll want to ensure you provide a good mix of leading indicators (how to create a leading indicator KPI), which hint at future performance, and result indicators, which report results already achieved. As they say, what gets measured gets managed, so make sure that you choose your KPI examples wisely and build an accountable team to exceed your annual targets. Your KPI report's key metrics and time frame will help you achieve your goals faster through focus, clarity, and improved organizational alignment.
The balanced scorecard was created in 1992 by Kaplan and Norton to ensure that all the different attributes of a company's success were accurately measured with key performance indicators to achieve your strategic objectives. We often use this as a lens when looking through company KPI dashboards, as we often find that financial metrics dominate them and aren't that balanced. A complete KPI scorecard should have performance measurements that include financial targets, customers and stakeholders, internal processes, and employee learning and growth to develop a comprehensive dashboard to drive business objectives and goals.
As the balanced scorecard institute defines the Balanced Scorecard KPI categories for your metrics:
- Financial: often renamed Stewardship or other more appropriate names in the public sector, this perspective views organizational financial performance and the use of financial resources
- Customer/Stakeholder: this perspective views organizational performance from the point of view of the customer or other key stakeholders that the organization is designed to serve
- Internal Process: views organizational performance through the lenses of the quality and efficiency related to our product or services or other critical business processes
- Organizational Capacity (originally called Learning and Growth): views organizational performance through the lenses of human capital, infrastructure, technology, culture, and other capacities that are key to breakthrough performance
Balanced scorecards are versatile tools that can be adapted to any industry. They provide a comprehensive view of an organization's performance by looking at various aspects, including financial performance, customer satisfaction, internal processes, and learning and growth. Let's explore some balanced scorecard examples across different industries:
Manufacturing Industry
In the manufacturing sector, a balanced scorecard might focus on the following KPIs:
This balanced scorecard helps manufacturing companies monitor their financial health, operational efficiency, and employee development efforts, all while keeping customer satisfaction at the core.
For healthcare providers, a balanced scorecard could include these KPIs:
This balanced scorecard allows healthcare providers to track financial performance, patient outcomes, operational efficiency, and staff development.
In the retail sector, a balanced scorecard might look at these KPIs:
This balanced scorecard helps retailers monitor their financial results, customer relationships, operational processes, and employee development.
Use these balanced KPI scorecards as templates to start your KPI scorecard. Each of these KPIs measures the performance of a critical part of your business to help you meet the team's objectives. Remember that the list is just a starting point; you'll need to work with your team to find the most valuable for your department to create a balanced scorecard execution rhythm to measure your progress on your company's strategic initiatives for growth. Our extensive list of BSC KPI examples is listed below and available for download. It includes customer KPIs and scorecard measures for any industry and should be part of any strategy map. If you use objectives and key results, OKRs vs. KPIs is explained in this related blog post that will help you mold these into the best metrics to help you achieve your strategic objectives through performance management.
These KPI examples should be enough to create your own KPI dashboard to drive your desired business results and performance management. The real secret to making your KPIs is to pick actionable metrics. Use Rhythm Systems SMART AI Goal Coach to help you. If you see the number is off, there are concrete steps and actions your team can take to get them back on track. Suppose you measure things you can't influence, such as the weather. In that case, they can't drive your team to perform the right actions to execute your quarterly plan and hit the goals and objectives set up in your annual planning meeting that aligns with your overall strategy.
Whenever you set up a new business process or update an existing one, ensure you track the KPIs to achieve your business goals and objectives. This way, you can continually make adjustments at each team meeting to ensure that your processes drive the critical financial metrics that run your business and exceed your strategic objectives. Why are KPIs important?
Ensure you include both KPI types (leading and results KPIs) when creating your dashboard. Check out Rhythm Systems' KPI Resource Center for all you need to know about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and how to use them in your organization for real-time feedback on your business. See how Rhythm Systems software can help you execute your balanced scorecard KPI strategy and strategic initiatives. You can download the complete list of KPI examples for any industry by clicking the link.
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