The balanced scorecard applies to business, government, and nonprofit organizations. In our Nine Steps to Success scorecard framework, the steps are the same regardless of type of organization. But definitions and how the steps are carried out varies significantly among the three different types of organizations. For example, in the private sector we talk about "customers" and the customer value proposition. In government, the "customer" is usually a group of citizens. And in nonprofit organizations, the "customer" is usually a member (paying or volunteer) of a foundation or association. So rule number one is to get agreement on terms, so as the scorecard system is being developed folks don't misue words that mean one thing to some folks and another thing to someone else.

Another difference in scorecard development is how the logic of strategy is displayed. In a business, the owners of the business are at the top of the strategy value chain (that is, the top perspective in the strategy map is the financial perspective). In government and nonprofit organizations, the top of the value chain is a satisfied citizen or member, so the customer/stakeholder perspective is the top perspective.

Another difference in the approach to building scorecards for different organizations is how performance measures are developed. In public sector organizations, for example, governments are interested in knowing how much is being accomplished for how many tax dollars, so the emphasis is on the cost-effective delivery of services. In business, measures of financial performance dominate, and in nonprofit organizations, the emphasis is on product and service delivery to sustain a satisfied membership base.

Simply put, each organization is unique, and part of the scorecard development effort needs to be directed toward customizing the approach to accomadate differneces and uniqueness. In out Nine Steps to Success framework, we use a slightly different framework for each organization type to get at the nuances as the scorecard is being developed.