"If there were a one free of risk method for reaching the business success, all people would be billionaires, now."

Balanced scorecards are thought to be a revolutionary invention which today's performance management couldnt live without. Although people rather do not doubt in scorecards usability, more and more often they ask questions about their generality. As the scorecards often are being compared to magic wand, comes the question whether the wand truly is magic. And whether the scorecard is enough to turn manager into a business sorcerer. Nonetheless, both these allegories lead to one common, totally serious doubt.
Is building a scorecard a guarantee for the business success?

No solution is a guarantee for the business success

Looking for the philosophers stone is quite a common obsession. Unfortunately, that is exactly how looking for 100% success guarantee in business should be called.
No system, including scorecards, dashboards, and maps, guarantees the success. It strictly is not possible in todays business. Surely, using a scorecard increases our chance for reaching what we've wanted, but even that is not the rule, after all.

Everyone should keep in mind that the balanced scorecard is solely a tool. And - in all aspects of life and business - tools do not matter as much as the ones who use tools do.
Thereupon, we usually have equal chances to reach the business success when we are using a scorecard and when were not. Nevertheless, its not to say that scorecards have no influence on company's management. They have, as they significantly facilitate controlling strategy executing process, but the final success is a secondary question. In a word, it usually is easier to manage with scorecards than without, but there are a few exceptions, as well.

How can BSC Scorecards fail?

Although the balanced scorecard is commonly-thought to be a free of error solutions, there are several factors that trouble its work. The consequences of misplaced scorecard are easy to imagine, but the possible causes are the things managers sometimes forget about. These are as follows:

• In companies where scorecards are newly-implemented, there is a need for executives to show they're considering them serious. Company's employees have to know that it's not just another fashionable fancy. In many cases, they do not know, though.
• It never is enough to implement and watch a balanced scorecard. Making conclusions and, thereupon, introducing changes in company's operations also is crucial. Unfortunately, the larger an enterprise is, the more difficult it is to change anything. This reflects the usability of scorecards too.
• Manager with no experience with balanced scorecards strictly couldn't know how to build them and implement in the best way for the company. It is suggested to employ a consultant therefore, but companies rarely are likely to do that.
• Metrics are a base for each scorecard, but the real difficulty it is to choose the right KPI's. Inexperienced managers could fail with twofold conditions: to choose the least metrics needed, and - simultaneously - find the vital ones.

Managers also need to remember that development and implementation requires quite a lot of time and efforts. Then, people could be not likely to turn to scorecards - changing ones habits never is easy.
Finally, in some cases scorecards just don't match. But its only possible to check in practice, though.

After all, the business success never is unattainable. Even though scorecards cannot guarantee the success, it is for sure worth considering them. All in all, scorecards certainly are worth-implementing, nonetheless they're not a philosophers stone. In today's business everybody has a chance, though.