How many companies use the Balanced Scorecard?

About half of major companies in the US, Europe and Asia are using Balanced Scorecard Approaches. The exact figures vary slightly but the Gartner Group suggests that over 50% of large US firms had adopted the BSC by the end of 2000. A study by Bain & Co finds that about 44% of organisations in North America use the Balanced Scorecard and a study in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria finds that 26% of firms use Balanced Scorecards. The widest use of the Balanced Scorecard approach can be found in the US, the UK, Northern Europe and Japan.

How exact are these Balanced Scorecard Usage numbers?

There is a slight problem with all these balanced scorecard usage numbers. The problem is that the term ‘Balanced Scorecard’ has become a synonym for almost any system of performance measurement and management. The fact that the BSC concept has changed from a measurement framework to a strategic management approach with Strategy Maps makes it difficult to get realistic figures.

Taking the Balanced Scorecard as a synonym for any selection of performance indicators would therefore make it easy to ague that most if not all companies use a scorecard since there will be not many companies that don’t measure and report anything.

The most comprehensive study to date, which was conduced by Bernard Marr (see the resources section of this website for the full report) finds that about a third of large companies use the BSC but only about a fifth of all companies use the latest version including Strategy Maps.