The effectiveness of a corporate strategy and its realization using the Balanced Scorecard concept depends on the corporate scorecard's recognition and acceptance throughout the company. For this reason it is vital that corporate strategies and the corporate scorecard are promoted at all hierarchy levels of the company through a comprehensive communication campaign.

In a top-down approach, targets are derived from the superior corporate strategy (corporate scorecard) for the subordinate hierarchy levels of the company, and superior strategic objectives are adapted to match specific departmental goals. KPIs measuring the degree of goal accomplishment are generated for these objectives, too. Various initiatives are required in the different corporate divisions in order to achieve the objectives, and these initiatives are recorded in the scorecards of the underlying hierarchy levels. All targets must be based on long-term strategic considerations reaching beyond short-term results that may be inconsistent with the overall strategy. An example of a short-term result is a reduction in costs based on a short-term increase in the level of production.