Corporate governance and balanced scorecard : a strategic monitoring system for swiss boards of directors

In a fast changing business environment the difficulties of monitoring strategies and economic performance of enterprises by boards of directors are increasingly demonstrated by spectacular bankruptcies. Therefore, the question seems appropriate: Are there modern management information systems which fulfill the board of directors' requirements for an effective and efficient monitoring of the corporation's and the top management's performance? Based on the legal and regulatory definitions of Swiss boards of directors' tasks the Balanced Scorecard is regarded as an important value added to the management and monitoring of companies by the boards of directors. In order to validate this assertion the "requirement profile" of good strategic monitoring by the board of directors is compared to the "performance profile" of the Balanced Scorecard. The fundamental elements of a Strategic Monitoring System are derived from this analysis. The practicability and usefulness of the Strategic Monitoring System is sounded with the aid of an empirical feedback. Finally, the practical implications of its implementation and implications on theory are discussed