Utilização de Indicadores de Desempenho para a Tomada de Decisões Estratégicas: um Sistema de Controle

Abstract

Globalization and technology, especially developed for communications and information technology areas, impose to entrepreneurs and executives the necessity to prepare themselves with managerial tools, techniques and methods for decision making in a timely manner and with minimal chance for error. It's noteworthy that the performance indicators emerge as one of the tools to help define the strategic planning and the consequent determination of business strategies. Accordingly, they allow the verification of the appropriateness of the decision taken. This paper presents the main concepts of indicators, highlighting the Balanced Scorecard, presenting then an application to use a system of performance indicators for financial and nonfinancial variables that were previously developed by a well-known Balanced Scorecard. This system was built and used in energy companies in the state of Sao Paulo, but can be used, in general, for any company in order to evaluate its performance as a whole and/or parts of its activity, according to its characteristics and the economic sector of operation. As competition increase, once globalization and multinational companies are increasingly present, it is essential to master monitoring techniques to guide decision making and show the quality of results. Initially, we carried out bibliographic research on performance indicators and strategic decisions in a competitive environment with challenges of value creation in the face of growing pressures of globalization and integration of the corporations. Based on the information obtained and due to the experience of the authors' developing work in the area of indicators, a proposal is presented for a system of performance indicators used by energy companies in the state of Sao Paulo in the period 1987/1996.