There is a management maxim, attributed to Peter Druker that "…. if you can't measure it, you can't manage it." No matter how much is written on the principles of resilience, or on the steps to be taken by policy makers, practitioners and academics to improve their understanding of risk, or the procedures to provide continuity, there is a need to measure current levels of resilience and to establish measurable objectives and targets for improved resilience.

The Institute is developing tools to measure resilience by adapting the balanced scorecard, based on a system originally developed in the 1990s by Robert Kaplan, an accounting professor at Harvard University and David Norton, a consultant from Boston. The purpose of the original scorecard was to translate the vision and strategy of an organisation into just four groups of objectives, measures and targets, known as perspectives. Most scorecards use only four or five measures for each perspective, requiring no more than 20 indicators in total. Balanced scorecards continue to evolve and adapt to reflect the particular needs of communities of interest, such as government departments, non-governmental organisations, hospitals, schools and associations.

The Institute’s scorecard is a strategic performance management tool which provides a simple graphical summary of 20 measures. It enables senior managers to identify areas within their organisations which need attention, and to provide a more balanced allocation of effort and resources. It encourages organisations to invest in future resilience capabilities as well as addressing short term problems.  The scorecard has four top level perspectives on the resilience of an organisation:

Perspective 1:    Program outputs and outcomes:  How will the stakeholders gauge the organisation’s success in implementing its plans for prevention, mitigation, response, continuity and recovery?

Perspective 2:    Program implementation:  How ready and able is the organisation to implement its plans for prevention, mitigation, response, continuity and recovery?

Perspective 3:    Planning and regulation:  How suitable and complete are the organisation’s plans for prevention, mitigation, response, continuity and recovery?

Perspective 4:    Context, risk and future threats:  How well does the organisation understand its strategic and operational environment, including the risks to its people, facilities, activities, functions, products, services and supply chain.

Further information on the scorecard and related management tools to measure resilience can be obtained by contacting the Institute at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .