Brisbane City

Brisbane's Balanced Scorecard has smoothed its transition from big country town to young city on the move.

City of Brisbane is the largest local government in Australia with an annual budget of A$1.5 billion, assets of A$14.4 billion, and a staff of 7,200. A Balanced Scorecard user since 1997, Brisbane is the fastest growing region in Australia. Rapid population increase driven by domestic and international emigration is causing stress on public infrastructure, as well as changing the natural and built environment of the city. Even with this enormous growth and the subsequent strain on resources, 88% of Brisbane's citizens say they are happy with their city's overall performance. Eighty percent view the city's service responsiveness as satisfactory, and 92% report satisfaction with the way the city interacts with them. At the end of 2002, Brisbane reported an accumulated surplus of A$68 million.

"Since 1997 the Balanced Scorecard has evolved from a simple KPI reporting process to a strategy and performance tool to deliver citywide outcomes. We're focused on delivering a comprehensive vision, "Living in Brisbane 2010", supported by sophisticated strategies and a focus on performance. The scorecard is a way to drive profound cultural change and accelerate development of partnerships within the organization and with external partners. The process brings strategy and performance to the forefront of the planning and budget cycle. This is critical to long term sustainability and competitive service delivery in any contemporary organization."

Jude Munro, chief executive officer