'Measure it to understand it': the Balanced Scorecard model

Increasingly rapidly changing environmental conditions and ever-growing competitive pressure make running a business a complex and often overwhelming task. The pressure to successfully manage day-to-day operations and ensure liquidity often pushes strategic focus and investment in long-term growth potential into the background. However, to ensure the company's future survival, a multidimensional perspective involving forward-looking, strategic planning and taking into account a multitude of internal and external factors is indispensable. With the Balanced Scorecard (BSC for short), Kaplan and Norton introduced a concept as early as 1992 that is intended to serve as a tool to master precisely this task. Most large companies already utilise this tool to support their management processes, in contrast to only around 14% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This observation serves as a starting point to examine whether, and under what conditions, the implementation of a BSC also makes sense in smaller companies and may potentially offer competitive advantages.