Books

If you really want to dig in and learn about balanced scorecards, you’re not going to be able to do much better than the old fashioned way. There are over 100 books on the subject, and more pop up all of the time.

You can pick up these books just about anywhere, but if you buy via the Amazon.com links below we’ll make a little money.

Featured Books

Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results
Paul R. Niven
They’re not joking about step-by-step.  This book is like an instruction manual, guiding you through the process of setting up your balanced scorecard.  The tone is conversational and not nearly as dry as the Kaplan and Norton books.

Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes
Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
If you’re serious about balanced scorecarding, you really should read at least one of the Kaplan and Norton books.  This one, published in 2004, probably represents the most recent ideas on the subject without assuming prior knowledge.

The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment
Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
Another Kaplan and Norton book, The Strategy-Focused Organization has been extremely popular since it was published in 2000.

The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action
Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
This is the book that ushered the balanced scorecard into the modern strategy map era.  Most of the things it covers have been significantly refined since it was published in 1996, but the book still contains great information.

Balanced Scorecards and Operational Dashboards with Microsoft Excel
Ron Person
This is a great book that shows you how to do balanced scorecards with just Microsoft Excel. It has solid advice on how to structure you data, and contains example files to get you started. There are some things that Excel just isn’t very good at, though, and the last few chapters get a little over-complicated trying to get Excel to do things like publish data.  Stick with the first half of the book and you can’t go wrong.

Other Books

Balanced Scorecard: Step-by-Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies – Paul R. Niven

Beyond the Balanced Scorecard: Improving Business Intelligence with Analytics – Mark Graham Brown

The Integrated Enterprise Excellence System: An Enhanced, Unified Approach to Balanced Scorecards, Strategic Planning, and Business Improvement – Forrest W. Breyfogle III