<B>New Sense Of Balance</B>
The Internet is changing our access to information and is reducing some costs, but it is not the real threat to the relationships that shape the corporate travel agency business. The real threat is much more basic.
Without an effective strategy, an organization is in trouble. Without a way to measure strategic performance, an organization is lost. Without a way to deliver expected results, it is doomed.
Turning strategy into results is not an easy task. It's even more difficult when companies are buffeted by outside forces, new pricing structures and the ever-changing requirements of customers.
A number of management models exist for building the relationships among the three groups vital to every successful business: employees, shareholders and customers. Only one strategic management model, though, links those relationships, facilitates communications and measures performance against agreed-upon goals. That strategic model, the balanced scorecard, is a holistic approach to business management that helps companies turn executive strategy into action. Clearly, any company that fails to effectively execute its strategy is destined for trouble. In our industry, where margins are razor thin, it is life threatening.
For this reason, after a year of pilot testing and preparation, McCord has joined the growing list of best-of-class companies, such as Lucent Technologies, Cigna Property & Casualty, Principal Financial Group, Southwest Airlines and Hilton Hotels, in implementing the balanced scorecard.
Consulting firm Bain & Co. estimates that more than half of the Fortune 1000 companies will implement the balanced scorecard by year-end.
Just as any avid baseball fan can read a scorecard and tell when and how each game was won or lost, corporations can read their balanced scorecard to determine if their strategy is succeeding. It tells a company if its financial goals are being met, whether employees are prepared and engaged to execute the strategy, how process change is improving performance and, most importantly, if its customers are truly satisfied. A key feature is its ability to bridge the gap between strategic goals set by executive management and the frontline staff, to quickly make adjustments if the strategy doesn't yield the right results.
For travelers, travel managers, CFOs and CEOs, it facilitates a much higher level of dialogue, enabling the development of a performance plan that goes well beyond criteria, such as calls answered and accuracy of records. Our balanced scorecard encourages broader targets and measures for account management, customer satisfaction, preferred supplier support, integrating business process tools and revenue management. What's more, it provides an ongoing way for our partners to monitor our performance against any of these agreed-upon objectives. And thanks to the Internet, it will be easier than ever to share these results on a continuous basis with any customer in the world.
With greater balance, your business will not just survive, but thrive.
<I>Bruce Black is CEO of McCord Travel Management in Chicago.