In order to ensure that we focus on achieving results, that Council and staff are aligned with our sustainability vision and that we are accountable to residents and stakeholders for our performance, Stratford developed a performance management system. This is the second key component of our plan to build the best community possible. We call our performance management system Sustainable Stratford- Results Matter and it is a blend of our sustainability values and the Balanced Scorecard. The Balanced Scorecard is a strategic planning and performance management tool that was designed by Kaplan and Norton, initially for use by knowledge workers in the private sector. The Balance Scorecard is widely used (over 65% of Fortune 1000 companies use it) and it has successfully been adapted to the public sector by a number of organizations including municipalities in other countries. We developed a corporate sustainable scorecard with 16 high level strategic objectives across the five sustainability pillars to move the Town towards the desired future state. Our mission is:
To continually strive to find out what current and future residents and stakeholders need and want, and then deliver it.
The corporate sustainable scorecard is cascaded down to the departmental and individual level so that everyone knows the role that they play in building the best community possible.
Balanced Scorecard
The Balanced Scorecard is a strategic planning and performance management tool that was designed by Kaplan and Norton, initially for use by knowledge workers in the private sector. The Balance Scorecard is widely used (over 65% of Fortune 1000 companies use it) and it has successfully been adapted to the public sector by a number of organizations including municipalities in other countries. They defined four perspectives that organizations have and then proposed that strategy be developed for each perspective and mapped to show the causal links. The original four perspectives were learning and growth, internal business processes, customer and financial. The learning and growth and internal business processes are about the capacity and efficiency of the organization (the drivers of performance) and the customer and financial perspectives are the results perspectives.