Why Measurement Initiatives Fail

Noting the claim that 70 per cent of balanced scorecard implementations fail, sets out to explore the two main reasons for the failure of measurement systems – namely poor design and difficulty of implementation. Considers the measurement revolution over the past 20 years noting developments such as the early budgetary control measures in DuPont and General Motors during the early 1990s. Looks at the appropriate design of measurement systems and suggests that companies should start with a “success map” – a cause and affect diagram which shows how the company operates. Points to three causes of implementation failure – political, infrastructural and focus and details of each of these. Suggests that the challenge for the twenty‐first century is how to extract maximum value from our performance measurement data.