Interview with Balanced Scorecard Co-Creator Dr. Robert Kaplan

Bruno Aziza published today a great interview with Dr. Robert Kaplan in the BizIntelligence.TV, with the title: Risk Reduction Advice from a Legend. Robert Kaplan is Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School, and co-creator, together with David P. Norton, of the Balanced Scorecard.

In formulating strategic plans, senior executives tend to overlook two key elements: effectively communicating those plans to the employees who must execute them, and factoring in what might go wrong with the plans, according BizIntelligence.TV's post. Dr.Kaplan says: "You have to communicate the plans to employees seven times in seven ways" for them to understand those plans, he says. "At the end, they need to understand the organization's strategy and understand what they can do to contribute to the success of the strategy."



I was glad because Dr.Kaplan mentioned Volkswagen Brazil (I'm Brazilian) as a successful example of effective employee engagement, motivation, and communication when implementing a turnaround strategy.

Robert Kaplan wrote several books on management and strategy. He and David Norton are the creators of the Balanced Scorecard, and their books about the subject are worth reading (I wrote a book review about the first book: The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action). Their latest book, The Execution Premium, focuses on linking strategy to execution.