Young, Martinez, and Cheung (YMC) is a law firm in Chicago. The firm has had a very loose and relaxed management style that has served it well in the past. However, more aggressive law firms have been winning new clients faster than YMC has. Thus, the managing partner, Jerry Martinez, recently attended an ABA seminar on performance measurement in law firms, where he learned about the balanced scorecard. He thought it might be a good tool for YMC, one that would allow the firm to keep its culture yet still more aggressively seek new clients.

Martinez identified the following strategic objectives that fit with the firm’s core values and provide a framework for assessing progress toward the firm’s goals:

Financial

a. Steadily increase the firm’s revenues and profits.

Customer

a. Understand the firm’s customers and their needs.

b. Value customer service over self-interest.

Internal Business Process

a. Encourage knowledge sharing among the legal staff.

b. Communicate with each other openly, honestly, and often.

c. Empower staff to make decisions that benefit clients.

Organizational Learning

a. Maintain an open and collaborative environment that attracts and retains the best legal staff.

b. Seek staff diversity.

1. Develop at least one measure for each of the strategic objectives listed.

2. Explain how YMC can use this balanced scorecard to evaluate staff performance.

3. Should staff compensation be tied to the scorecard performance measures? Why or why not?