City of Charlotte (A)

The city manager's office in Charlotte, North Carolina, is attempting to align and focus the city's programs and operating departments. City managers, working collaboratively with the elected mayor and city council, have identified five strategic themes to make Charlotte the number one city in which to live and work. The themes are community safety, transportation, strong neighborhoods, economic development, and cost-effective government. The city managers, however, find it difficult to get the individual city operating departments to orient their efforts to these five strategic themes. They use the four perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard to develop objectives for the five strategic themes. Once developed, each operating department then has been asked to develop departmental balanced scorecards to communicate and focus their local objectives toward accomplishing the city's strategic priorities. The case describes the development and use of the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system.