SAN DIEGO - The Balanced Scorecard approach is all about measuring organizational performance. Government Fleet Conference & Expo (GFX) attendees heard from Nels Olson of Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, Ill., Tuesday morning, June 7 who presented an in-depth discussion on what the Balanced Scorecard approach is, how to use it, and how to analyze the data and action items presented.

In the mid '90s, Dr. Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business School) and Dr. David Norton formulated the Balanced Scorecard as a performance measurement framework that added strategic non-financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give managers and executives a more "balanced" view of organizational performance. Since its inception, more than 50 percent of Fortune 1000 companies use the Balanced Scorecard in some form, according to Olson.

Olson discussed the steps used in the process, how to create a balanced scorecard for a public sector fleet organization, and defined the "perspectives" involved in the approach. The balanced scorecard suggests that we view an organization from four perspectives, and to develop metrics, collect data and analyze it relative to each of these perspectives: Learning & Growth, Business Processes, Customer, and Financial.

A copy of Olson's presentation will be available online at www.governmentfleetexpo.com.