By Clifford Agugoesi, Editor-in-Chief
Balanced Scorecard Institute(BSI), renown for helping organizations focus on strategy and improve performance, via the instrumentality of its Balanced Scorecard (BSC)is helping telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission(NCC), deliver on the mandate assigned it by the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.
Apparently buoyed by the midas touch on its planning processes, the Commission has kept faith with the Institute, which on its part, has not disappointed as it is not news anymore BSI was been behind the successful delivery of the 32-page NCC Strategic Management Plan(SMP 2020-2024).
“As was the case for the SMP (2014 – 2018), the Commission’s new strategic plan uses the Balanced
Scorecard framework, i.e. the Nine Steps to Success™ framework for building and implementing
balanced scorecard developed by the Balanced Scorecard Institute (“BSI”),” the Commission said on its website: www.ncc.gov.ng.
BSC is an integrated strategic planning and performance management system being used worldwide in both public and private sectors to improve organizational performance. The BSC enables organizations to translate vision and strategy into implementation – working typically from four Perspectives or Dimensions:
1. Financial/Stewardship perspective
2. Customer/Stakeholder perspective
3. Internal process perspective and
4. Organizational capacity (formerly Learning and Growth) perspective
The BSC defines organizational success from both financial and non-financial perspectives as against the traditional approach of equating success only to financial success but recognises that providing customer/stakeholder satisfaction and achieving financial success are driven by robust internal capacity and efficient processes. The notion of a “balanced” evaluation process is ensured because, for each of the perspectives, the exercise considers short and long-term indicators as well as leading and lagging equivalents.
As per the NCC: “The approach engaged in developing the new SMP is cross-functional starting with the setting up of an in-house team, the Strategy Working Group (“SWG”) to work with a firm of consultants, Balanced Scorecard West Africa Limited (BSWA, a global partner of the BSI), engaged by the Commission to facilitate the whole process. Membership of SWG was made up of senior executives drawn from all departments in the Commission to facilitate robust discussions and contributions of staff and give them a sense of ownership of the new plan. The work of the SWG and BSWA was coordinated by the Corporate Planning Strategy and Risk Management Department.
Cyber Era learns a Strategic Management Team (SMT) chaired by the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of the Commission(EVC/CEO) Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, validated all important strategic elements developed during the strategy formulation process.
