How to individualise your balanced scorecard

Purpose - The paper aims to explain how the balanced scorecard concept can be improved through customising the normal four perspectives. Design/methodology/approach - An analysis of existing methods for developing a balanced scorecard reveals that the goals identified by using the approaches may not correspond to the company's mission and values. Against this background, fundamental multi-criteria decision-making principles are applied to design a method which helps to overcome this weakness. Findings - Since the core idea is to derive the perspectives directly from the mission statements of a company, the method described here helps to develop an individualized balanced scorecard. A case study illustrates how the method works in practice. Practical implications - The paper has practical relevance for the effectiveness and credibility of the balanced scorecard inside a company, particularly as it is gaining additional importance due to the fact that the concept is increasingly being used for external reporting. Originality/value - Pointing out how an important methodical shortcoming of the balanced scorecard concept can be eliminated, the paper is especially of interest for practitioners.