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THE COMPANY PUT ALMOST AS MUCH EFFORT INTO SELLING THE SCORECARD AS IT DOES WHEN IT MARKETS ITS PRODUCTS.
Their products are in our laundry rooms and bathrooms. Q-Tips. Dove. Snuggle. Wisk. Pond's. The list of well-known brand names goes on for world-class marketer Unilever Home and Personal Care-North America (HPC-NA). This company not only takes marketing its products very seriously, but it heavily promotes its balanced scorecard (BSC) to employees as well. No wonder Unilever HPC-NA successfully designed a unique strategy to communicate awareness of the BSC while encouraging its participation and use. Their experiences should prove valuable to other organizations implementing a balanced scorecard and to those just beginning to formulate a communications approach to internal stakeholders about its role, significance, and use.
COMMUNICATION IS KEY TO SUCCESS
Since its introduction in the early 1990s, the balanced scorecard has evolved from a performance measurement tool to a strategic management tool. Numerous organizations report success in using it to align strategy with operations and measure progress toward meeting strategic goals. As Unilever knows firsthand, the BSC provides a common language for all levels of an organization, aligns various disciplines and stakeholders around common strategic goals, and offers a uniform approach to managing the company's daily and longer-term operations.
While much has been written on the BSC as a strategic management tool, scant attention has focused on how organizations communicate the role, use, and benefits of the BSC internally. Successful use of the balanced scorecard requires not only careful design and implementation but also effective communication throughout the organization. In The Strategy-Focused Organization, authors Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton cite failure to communicate the strategy throughout the organization as an important barrier to successful implementation. They believe the BSC is most successful when awareness of the card pervades all levels of the organization.
EVOLUTION OF THE BSC AT UNILEVER HPC-NA
In 1999, a board of directors was appointed to lead the newly formed Unilever Home and Personal Care-North America business, a company composed of the former Chesebrough-Pond's, Helene Curtis, and Lever Brothers businesses. This leadership team's early goal was to craft a strategic plan for the next five years and identify the key strategic drivers that would achieve a growth agenda. The...