Our Balanced Scorecard Journey: The Road to Our Strategic Success

What do we mean by “Strategy”? Strategy is the way we seek to achieve our vision and goals. Strategy tells us where we want to go and how we’re going to get there.

Finance and Administrative Services Division Strategy “With input from our constituents, we will identify and prioritize the Division’s core activities, and with cost-reduction mechanisms, innovation and acquisition of new resources, deliver customer-focused financial and administrative services that meet CSUSM’s strategic program and growth priorities.”

What is the Balanced Scorecard? The Balanced Scorecard assists us, the FAS Division, to achieve our strategy and goals. The Balanced Scorecard identifies and prioritizes critical activities in our daily work. We’ll measure our progress along the way.

How does the Balanced Scorecard work? The Balanced Scorecard has two parts. The Strategy Map or “road map” identifies the path we’ll follow. The Scorecard tells us how we’re doing.

Why the Balanced Scorecard? Many challenges are ahead of us: Annual FTES growth On-campus student housing New buildings PeopleSoft implementation Limited budget growth Economic downturn September 11th aftermath

Why the Balanced Scorecard? To help us meet these challenges, the Balanced Scorecard provides the road map we follow to prioritize daily activities and make choices while continuing to deliver services to the campus community. The Balanced Scorecard is used by innovative companies such as Disney and Southwest Airlines as well as many CSU and UC campuses.

Who’s working on the Balanced Scorecard? Two teams have been formed: The Leadership Team The Core Team

The Leadership Team members: Tom Blair Russ Decker Barbara Dovenbarger Stephen Garcia Suzanne Green Kathy Hodder Melody Kessler Linda Leiter Rich Parzonko Tom Schultheis Abbi Stone

The Core Team members: Tanis Brown Bella Newberg Nancy Quinn Cathy Rank Brenda Woeckener Katy Rees, Facilitation, Training, Support Abbi Stone, Project Manager

What are the teams doing? The Leadership Team writes the division’s strategy and approves the Strategy Map and Scorecard. The Core Team drafts the Strategy Map and Scorecard. Both teams plan for implementation and communication of the Balanced Scorecard, including measuring our progress.

The Core Team Hits the Road

Our journey begins… The Leadership Team created our division’s strategy, vision and goals. Equipped with this document, the Core Team held a Kick-Off Meeting to begin our journey…

The Core Team formed and stormed… Our first few meetings consisted of trying to understand the basic Balanced Scorecard concepts. How do they relate to our Division’s strategy? How is the Balanced Scorecard different from things that have been done before, such as benchmarking and Quality Service?

We stopped and asked for directions… We interviewed each Leadership Team member to better understand how each interpreted the division’s strategy. We asked them for clarification about our Division’s vision, strategy, and goals.

We headed for a rest stop! The Core Team spent time reading about the Balanced Scorecard and researching how it’s used by companies and other universities, including those in the CSU. This helped us refuel our knowledge and excitement. We were ready to forge ahead in our adventure!

Gaining speed… The Core Team drafted our first “Strategy Map”, the document that tells our division’s story: what we need to achieve in order to reach our strategy and goals. We then gave this map a “tune-up”, refining our ideas and language to make the Strategy Map a document that is clear and easily understood.

Ride-sharing… On November 12th, the Core Team and the Leadership Team met and reviewed the draft Strategy Map. We had an excellent discussion about our division’s strategy and goals. With feedback from this meeting, the Core Team will further refine the Strategy Map for final approval from the Leadership Team.

What’s down the road? We’ll develop the Scorecard and the implementation plans. We’ll spend time with each department to share the Strategy Map and Scorecard, and answer everyone’s questions on the Balanced Scorecard. Your ideas, energy, and participation on teams will make our Balanced Scorecard journey a success!

Core Team – “the view from here…” We’re excited and enthusiastic about the Balanced Scorecard! We’re excited about our team’s work to date, and the knowledge we’ve gained in the process. The Balanced Scorecard makes sense, and we think it can really help us make some improvements in the division.

Questions Please email your questions to: bsc@csusm.edu We’ll answer your questions directly as well as answering them in the next issue of “Balanced Scorecard Connect”.