Palladium Group Honors Bord Gáis, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Financial Group Life, the French Ministry of Defence, the University of Leeds, and Uralsib Financial Corporation with Prestigious BSC Hall of Fame Award

Palladium Group, Inc., the leading professional services firm helping clients execute their strategies, today named Bord Gáis, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Financial Group Life, the French Ministry of Defence, the University of Leeds, and Uralsib Financial Corporation to the Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame for Executing Strategy? for achieving an execution premium using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). The awards were presented to officers of these organizations today in London at the 2008 Palladium European Summit. "Applications for the award were at an all–time high this year," said Robert L. Howie Jr., Managing Director of Palladium and Director of the Hall of Fame program. "These six organizations were chosen as the most successful at achieving and sustaining breakthrough performance results."

The Balanced Scorecard"”created by Drs. Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton"”is the world´s predominant strategy execution framework. Based on the simple premise that "what gets measured is what gets done," the BSC is also a performance management philosophy and system that links strategy to operations. Launched in 2000, the BSC Hall of Fame Program publicly honours organisations that successfully use the BSC to achieve and sustain performance results. The 106 organizations inducted to date represent a broad cross–section of private– and public–sector industries from more than 19 countries across the globe. A Steuben crystal Rising Star, designed by Robert Cassetti, is presented to senior officers of each winning organization.

Bord Gáis Éireann is a publicly owned utility providing natural gas and electricity services in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Bord Gáis adopted the Balanced Scorecard to help realize efficiency, growth, and synergy in a liberalizing energy market and to align the organisation to drive performance results. Between 2000 and 2007, revenues grew 245% to ?1.2B, profits 218% to ?166M, and household customers by 163% to 577,000. More effective organizational alignment and the ability to better anticipate and manage strategic risk were among other benefits achieved. "The BSC provided the ideal management tool to ensure progress on staff, process, customer, and financial objectives in a linked and focused manner," according to CEO John Mullins. "It would not have been possible to address all of these areas without a comprehensive strategy execution tool. No learning initiative has delivered more value to this business." Bord Gáis is the first Irish company to be admitted to the BSC Hall of Fame.

The Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA) provides electricity and water to nearly 800,000 customer accounts in the emirate. One of the largest government agencies in Dubai, with an annual operating budget of $3B and a 2008 capital budget of nearly $10B, DEWA operates one of the largest desalination plants in the world. One of the best–run agencies in Dubai, DEWA is ranked number–one in customer e–service by the government. "At DEWA, we are faced with unrelenting pressure to keep pace with Dubai´s double–digit economic growth, which shows no sign of abating," according to Saeed Mohamed Ahmad Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO. "We have used the Balanced Scorecard to create a focus on our strategy...with unprecedented results." DEWA is both the first organisation from the United Arab Emirates and the first from the Middle East to be inducted into the BSC Hall of Fame.

Financial Group Life, a Moscow–based financial services company, is an innovator in retail banking products. In four years, assets grew 329%, to $2.1B, and operating income more than sixfold, to $184M. With strategy formulated at the top and executed from the bottom by all employees, FGL has made strategy everyone´s job, enjoying growth rates exceeding the overall market. "The BSC is much more than just a goal–setting and measurement device"”it´s a common language and even an element of our corporate culture," says Sergey Leontiev, FGL President and CEO. "This has led to better decision making, putting the emphasis on long–term strategy objectives"”the key to a more robust, sustainable, and differentiated business model." FGL represents another first for its country, as the first Russian company to be named to the BSC Hall of Fame.

The French Ministry of Defence exists to protect the French people, territories, and alliance partners. With an annual budget of ?36.7M and 426,000 personnel, the Ministry"”like all French public administrations"”is required to show greater transparency of strategy, objectives, and performance results. The Ministry has, in fact, improved its value–for–money ratio through enhanced readiness and improved decision making, resource allocation, cost control, and alignment between resources and outcomes. "The Balanced Scorecard methodology allows a better understanding of the link between outcomes and resources," notes General Gérard Blondé, Chief of the Performance Management Mission. "It contributes directly to improving decision making at the Ministry´s highest levels." The Ministry is the first civilian and public organisation from France to be inducted into the BSC Hall of Fame.

The University of Leeds is the second–largest university in the UK, with more than 30,000 students, 8,000 staff members, and 250,000 graduates. Leeds aspires to be among the best research universities in the world. While the challenges of aligning disparate schools and programs is daunting, Leeds has articulated and communicated a clear strategy, is executing that strategy successfully, and is an exemplar of good governance. "The strategy map and BSC has been a key factor in our unprecedented achievements and success over the past four years," observes Vice Chancellor Professor Michael Arthur. "The language of the strategy map permeates the University. Our world league table position (according to the Times Higher Education Supplement) has improved by more than fifty places, and key indicators"”from research income to market share to student applications"”are all up." Leeds is only the second university, and the first European one, to be inducted into the BSC Hall of Fame.

Uralsib Financial Corporation, a leader and innovator in key segments of the Russian financial market, employs more than 18,000 people in banking, asset management, brokerage, insurance, and leasing. Uralsib Bank is among the five largest private banks in Russia. "With the help of strategy maps, I can see how strategy is executed and how it works on all levels" observes Nickolat Tsvetkov, chairman of the board and founder. "Uralsib´s board sees strategy maps and the Balanced Scorecard as a perfect tool to develop, cascade, and manage our corporate strategy" adds Andrey Donskikh, CEO and head of the executive committee. Uralsib practices the most comprehensive program of strategy management based on the BSC in Russia.

About Palladium Group, Inc.

Palladium Group helps its clients achieve an execution premium by linking strategy and operations, enabling better decision making based on facts and data. Palladium has offices throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and the Asia–Pacific region. With more than 700 clients, organizations turn to Palladium´s expertise in strategy, finance, and IT"”delivered through consulting, education, training, and technology implementation services"”to improve the execution of their strategies and management of their performance. Palladium´s Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame for Executing Strategy? recognizes organizations that have achieved an outstanding execution premium.

For more information please visit www.thepalladiumgroup.com.