Jean-François Manzoni

Implementing corporate strategy:: From Tableaux de Bord to balanced scorecards

Defining a clear strategy can be a difficult process for a large company. Translating this strategy into action can be even more difficult. This paper presents and compares two related tools that can help companies articulate and cascade their strategy: the Tableau de Bord, a concept popularized in France, and the Balanced Scorecard. We discuss why, although the notion of Tableau de Bord appeared long before the Balanced Scorecard, the Balanced Scorecard still represents a welcome addition to both theory and practice. The paper also illustrates how tools such as Tableau de Bord and Balanced Scorecard can be cascaded down the organization to support the development and implementation of strategy, identifies some implementation difficulties that companies may encounter, and discusses the role of top management and controllers in the definition and use of such tools.1

Building and Nurturing a High Performance - High Integrity Corporate Culture

This chapter reviews the challenges faced by top management teams as they strive to create corporate cultures marrying a healthy search for performance with a strong sense of integrity. I present and discuss two major types of ethical breakdowns. In some cases, individuals know what they should do – or not to do – but choose nonetheless to follow the unethical path, a decision that they then need to rationalize and which often places them on a slippery slope. More frequently, individuals will not even realize that they are making an inappropriate decision, as they fall prey to ethical fading or to any of a variety of cognitive biases. I review possible interventions to improve the situation, including some well-intentioned but counter-intuitively dysfunctional approaches. I conclude with a few implications for practice and for educators.

Leaders’ Self-Defeating Response to Perceived Underperformance

Managing weaker performers is a real challenge for many bosses. Indeed, our research reveals that bosses’ efforts to raise the performance level of weaker performers often end up backfiring. Instead of helping the subordinates, the approach discourages them and condemns them to failure. Our contribution exposes the causes and consequences of this paradox and makes some operational recommendations.