Measuring Performance

Organizations want—and need—to track the changes in their overall performance. And the divisions, units, teams, and individuals within these organizations engage in similar success measurement. Performance Measurement explains the importance of regularly monitoring your group's performance and introduces formal measurement practices. You'll learn to Apply a disciplined process to performance measurement Set targets and communicate data effectively Use performance management as a coaching and development tool Meet Your Mentor Robert S. Kaplan is Baker Foundation Professor at the Harvard Business School and Chairman of the Practice Leadership Committee of Palladium, Executing Strategy. He has authored or coauthored 14 books, 18 Harvard Business Review articles, and more than 120 other papers.

The Pocket Mentor series offers immediate solutions to the challenges managers face on the job every day. Each book in the series is packed with handy tools, self-tests, and real-life examples to help you identify strengths and weaknesses and hone critical skills. Whether you're at your desk, in a meeting, or on the road, these portable guides enable you to tackle the daily demands of your work with greater speed, savvy, and effectiveness.

Often managers need to assess both financial and non-financial performance. What process would you use to measure things that are not easily quantifiable?

This book helps you:
• Understand the importance of regularly measuring your group's performance
• Gain familiarity with formal performance measurement systems
• Apply a disciplined process to performance measurement
• Avoid common performance measurement pitfalls
• See how measuring your group's performance can help you better manage that performance

Robert S. Kaplan is Baker Foundation Professor at the Harvard Business School and Chairman of the Practice Leadership Committee of Palladium, Executing Strategy. Kaplan's research, teaching, and consulting focus on linking cost and performance management systems to strategy implementation and operational excellence. He has been a co-developer of both activity-based costing and the Balanced Scorecard. He has authored or co-authored 14 books, 18 Harvard Business Review articles, and more than 120 other papers.

His books on performance measurement, co-authored with David Norton, include The Execution Premium, Alignment, Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes (named as one of the top ten business books of 2004 by Strategy & Business); The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment (named by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young as the best international business book for year 2000), and The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action, which has been translated into 22 languages and won the 2001 Wildman Medal from the American Accounting Association for its impact on the practice of accounting.