The concept of balanced scorecard (BSC) was developed and popularized by management experts Drs Robert Kaplan and David Norton of Harvard University in the 1990s. Firmly founded on the principle that "what cannot be measured cannot be managed,” BSC is now used globally to measure the performance of business organizations against targets. Using four perspectives — the customer, finances, internal processes and learning and growth — a strategy map is drawn up to show their interdependence to facilitate their successful execution.
The BSC process is also applicable to other types of organizations, including NGOs (nongovernmental organizations). Viewed as an organization, the Parsi/Irani community in India could benefit from the holistic adoption of a BSC-based approach and process, The inter-dependent perspectives that a Zoroastrian BSC could include are ethnic identity, spiritual development, increase in population, housing, fair distribution of community wealth, health, professional education, religious education of priests and lay persons, and work/employment.
If objectives and their goals are defined under each perspective with numerical targets and actual performance figures are regularly updated, measured and compared with targets, it would result in balanced development and steady overall improvement in the community.
The project champion for the BSC process should be a person of standing and the committee could include trustees, senior priests and senior management consultants conversant with the process. Committee members should be carefully selected to ensure that all perspectives are equitably represented and petty politics excluded.
Performance reviews could be carried out every month or quarter. If so warranted, objectives and even perspectives would be altered, added or removed. The task would require courage, vision and open-mindedness. For example, some people object to the admission of children of intermarried Zoroastrian women to the faith lest it dilute our unique identity or Parsipanu. This conflicts with the rapidly falling population of Indian Zoroastrians. Some hard choices therefore need to be made, despite potential conflicts.
Since all the perspectives in a Zoroastrian BSC must be of equal importance, the strategies, objectives, goals and targets must be wisely defined to achieve a proper balance. These perspectives must be focused on and pursued in parallel, despite obstacles that may surface from time to time. Community leaders would do well to seriously consider such an approach. HOSHANG DASTOOR
hgdastoor@gmail.com