Performance improvement is high on the agenda of many companies around the world and with the growing number of improvement models now available care has to be taken to adopt an approach that will yield the most attractive return on investment. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and the Business European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Model (EFQM Excellence Model) have each been widely adopted in recent years, and are often assumed to address management issues.

In this paper the author shows that the two approaches come from very different backgrounds, and are designed and implemented using different processes. The paper observes that many active users of the Business Excellence Model have chosen to adopt in parallel Balanced Scorecard as a tool for strategic management activity and highlights the valuable synergy that can exist between these two different tools.